FP&A Team Lead

Who we are

The role

The day-to-day

Financial Planning & Forecasting

• Own the annual budget and multi-year long-range plan across all business units, domains and geographie

• Build and maintain a rolling 12-month forecast updated monthly, with full P&L, balance sheet, cash flow and capital plan integration

• Design scenario models (bull / base / bear) that stress-test revenue against contract win rates, programme timelines and geopolitical variables

• Lead the monthly financial review cycle — packaging actuals vs forecast vs budget with clear variance analysis and management commentary

• Own overhead cost tracking and cross-functional cost allocation models, ensuring programme margins are correctly stated

IPO Readiness & Investor Reporting

• Build the financial model underpinning Helsing's IPO equity story — revenue quality, gross margin trajectory, EBITDA bridge, cash burn and path to profitability

• Develop and maintain the investor KPI dashboard: ARR, NRR, contract backlog, revenue per employee and gross margin by product line and domain

• Prepare investor reporting, board packs and capital markets materials to the standard expected by institutional investors

Capital & Strategic Finance

• Build and own the capital allocation framework — how Helsing decides which programmes, markets and M&A targets to invest in

• Model CAPEX vs OPEX trade-offs for major investment decisions including facility expansion, owned hardware platforms and data centre infrastructure

• Analyse and propose capital optimisation levers including lease vs own, build vs buy, and government grant or subsidised financing opportunities (EIB, export credit agencies, national defence industrial funds)

• Support the CFO on term sheet analysis, financing structures and debt covenant modelling

• Own working capital management — programme billing milestones, payment terms with governments and primes, and cash flow optimisation

Business Partnering & Decision Support

• Translate operational plans into financial outcomes as a direct partner to the VP Business Finance and CEO

• Build financial models for major business decisions: new market entry, domain expansion, pricing strategy and headcount investment cases

• Analyse defence contract economics across contract types — cost-plus, T&M, fixed-price, IDIQ — and ensure bidding and revenue recognition reflect the correct financial treatment under IFRS 15

• Partner with the M&A team on financial due diligence for acquisition targets and post-close integration financial modelling

Systems, Data & AI-First Finance

• Lead the selection and implementation of Helsing's FP&A tooling — from planning platform (Anaplan, Pigment, Cube, or equivalent) to management reporting stack

• Build AI-powered forecasting models that draw on contract backlog data, programme burn rates and external defence budget signals

• Design the finance data architecture — ensuring planning data is clean, auditable and connected to the ERP

• Develop and deploy AI agents for automated variance analysis, forecast generation and board reporting — reducing manual effort and increasing analytical depth

• Define and own the single source of truth for all financial KPIs across the organisation

You should apply if you

• Have built an FP&A function from scratch — no inherited team, no legacy tools, no established process — and can demonstrate the planning infrastructure, reporting architecture and team you created

• Have operated successfully in a high-growth, venture-backed or recently listed technology environment and understand the financial complexity of scaling across multiple geographies and contract types

• Can build three-statement integrated financial models from first principles and model complex defence contract structures (cost-plus, T&M, fixed-price, milestone billing) under IFRS 15

• Have selected and implemented modern FP&A tooling and take an AI-first approach to forecasting, variance analysis and reporting — you do not accept manual processes where automation can deliver greater analytical depth

• Communicate the financial narrative clearly and concisely to non-financial audiences, including a Board with deep capital markets and valuation expertise

• Are business-fluent in English and able to operate across Helsing's multi-jurisdiction footprint

Note: We operate in an industry where women, as well as other minority groups, are systematically under-represented. We encourage you to apply even if you don’t meet all the listed qualifications; ability and impact cannot be summarised in a few bullet points.

Nice to Have

• Experience in defence, aerospace, deep tech or dual-use technology — including programme accounting, government procurement cycles and the financial complexity of classified programmes

• IPO experience — either as a member of an IPO team, a CFO's direct report through a listing, or in an investment banking or private equity context advising on IPO transactions

• Deep knowledge of IFRS 16 (leases) and the treatment of government grants and R&D expenditure

• Professional qualification (ACA, ACCA, CIMA) or MBA; CFA is an advantage for the investor relations component

• Proficiency in SQL, Python or R for financial data analysis

• Working proficiency in German or French

Join Helsing and work with world-leading experts in their fields

• Helsing’s work is important. You’ll be directly contributing to the protection of democratic countries while balancing both ethical and geopolitical concerns

• The work is unique. We operate in a domain that has highly unusual technical requirements and constraints, and where robustness, safety, and ethical considerations are vital. You will face unique Engineering and AI challenges that make a meaningful impact in the world

• Our work frequently takes us right up to the state of the art in technical innovation, be it reinforcement learning, distributed systems, generative AI, or deployment infrastructure. The defence industry is entering the most exciting phase of the technological development curve. Advances in our field of world are not incremental: Helsing is part of, and often leading, historic leaps forward

• In our domain, success is a matter of order-of-magnitude improvements and novel capabilities. This means we take bets, aim high, and focus on big opportunities. Despite being a relatively young company, Helsing has already been selected for multiple significant government contracts

• We actively encourage healthy, proactive, and diverse debate internally about what we do and how we choose to do it. Teams and individual engineers are trusted (and encouraged) to practise responsible autonomy and critical thinking, and to focus on outcomes, not conformity. At Helsing you will have a say in how we (and you!) work, the opportunity to engage on what does and doesn’t work, and to take ownership of aspects of our culture that you care deeply about

What we offer

• A focus on outcomes, not time-tracking

• Competitive compensation and stock options

• Relocation support

• Social and education allowances

• Regular company events and all-hands to bring together employees as one team across Europe

Helsing is an equal opportunities employer. We are committed to equal employment opportunity regardless of race, religion, sexual orientation, age, marital status, disability or gender identity. Please do not submit personal data revealing racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religious or philosophical beliefs, trade union membership, data concerning your health, or data concerning your sexual orientation.