Finland's defence industry is led by Patria, a state-owned defence and aerospace group. Alongside Patria, a cluster of defence tech companies are concentrated in the Helsinki metropolitan area, with Helsinki and neighbouring Espoo accounting for over 90% of tracked openings. Finland's NATO membership since April 2023 and proximity to Russia have sharpened interest in the sector.
Companies hiring include ICEYE (SAR satellite constellation, Espoo), Verda, formerly DataCrunch (GPU cloud infrastructure, Helsinki), Varjo (mixed reality headsets, Helsinki) and Senop (optronics and night vision, Kangasala). Software roles make up about half of all positions, followed by operations and hardware engineering.
English is the working language at most internationally-focused Finnish defence tech companies. Finnish language skills can help in roles involving domestic procurement or government coordination. EU and EEA citizens can work freely. Non-EU nationals typically need an employer-sponsored residence permit, processed through the Finnish Immigration Service (Migri).