Camera Engineer - Physical Products – Helsing

Camera Engineer - Physical Products

• Full-time

• Munich

Who we are

Helsing is a defence AI company. Our mission is to protect our democracies. We aim to achieve technological leadership, so that open societies can continue to make sovereign decisions and control their ethical standards. 

As democracies, we believe we have a special responsibility to be thoughtful about the development and deployment of powerful technologies like AI. We take this responsibility seriously. 

We are an ambitious and committed team of engineers, AI specialists and customer-facing programme managers. We are looking for mission-driven people to join our European teams – and apply their skills to solve the most complex and impactful problems. We embrace an open and transparent culture that welcomes healthy debates on the use of technology in defence, its benefits, and its ethical implications. 

The role

As a Camera Engineer, you will give sight to our next generation of autonomous drones. In this role, you will take ownership of the full imaging stack, designing custom opto-electronic architectures that allow our AI to perceive the world with superhuman precision, even in challenging, contested environments. You will move beyond off-the-shelf integration, guiding the design of custom sensor boards, architecting high-bandwidth FPGA logic, and ensuring microsecond-level synchronization between optical sensors and the platform's compute core.

Working at the intersection of hardware and Perception AI, you will translate abstract mission requirements into concrete, ruggedized hardware—from the lens selection to the bitstream. Your expertise will be vital in realizing robust, scalable solutions that enhance the situational awareness of Helsing's AI systems, directly supporting our mission to provide advanced defense capabilities. For a better idea of the impact you will have, check out our work on AI-enabled land and air capabilities at https://helsing.ai/altra and https://helsing.ai/hx-2. You will be building the eyes for systems that define the future of information superiority and platform protection.

The day-to-day

• Define the imaging architecture: You will select the optimal combination of lenses and sensors aligning requirements with our AI team to optimize algorithm performance, balancing technical trade-offs.

• You will guide & perform the implementation of low-level logic like FPGA programming, handling high-speed sensor interfaces and implementing hardware-based synchronization.

• Drive the Manufacturing Lifecycle: You will collaborate closely with external partners to transition your designs from prototype to production, defining validation tests and resolving challenges for complex opto-electronic assemblies.

• Hardware Bring-up & Debug: You will spend hands-on time in the lab bringing up prototypes, testing their performance under varying conditions and support their integration into our software stack.

• Image Quality Tuning: You will analyze application specific camera performance and tune your designs & low-level algorithms to maximize the value the sensor provides to our AI applications.

You should apply if you

• Ph.D. or M.Sc. in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Applied Physics, Optical Engineering, related field or equivalent work experience.

• You have a professional track record of bringing complex opto-electronic systems from prototype to mass production.

• You have mastered Opto-Mechanical Design Challenges, e.g. thermal management for high-power sensors or precise mechanical mounting for optical alignment

• You possess a deep understanding of the "physics of imaging," ranging from lens selection and MTF characteristics to CMOS sensor architecture, quantum efficiency, and noise sources.

• You understand system-level synchronization, knowing how to utilize PTP, PPS, or hardware triggers (Hsync, Vsync) to perfectly align image capture with other sensors and compute modules.

• You are proficient in languanges like C/C++ or Rust for low-level firmware development or hardware-software interface debugging.

Nice to Have

• You have brought hardware to life using Verilog, SystemVerilog, VHDL or similar, dealing with high-bandwidth data streams, video processing pipelines, and sensor interfaces on the lowest level.

• You have hands-on experience designing and debugging PCBs for high-bandwidth image sensors, including managing signal integrity for MIPI CSI-2, LVDS, SLVS-EC links, or similar.

• Experience with Optical Design Software (e.g., Zemax, Code V, or equivalent) and a familiarity with ray tracing, lens curvature, or custom glass specification.

• Experience writing Linux Kernel Drivers or working with V4L2 or similar frameworks to interface with our sensors

• **Exposure