Pros: Helsing is one of the few tech companies in Europe where I think your work can make a real difference to people's safety and livelihood. It is also one of the only places I've ever seen real collaboration between top-tier software engineers and AI researchers. Everyone feels a deep attachment to the company's mission to keep liberal democracies from harm, which usually makes it easy to keep discussions and projects outcome-focused rather than getting distracted by theoretical or technical trivialities. You have freedom to decide your own solution design and implementation as long as you can demonstrate that it meets the requirements. Top-down support on helping you decompose problems and review your plans when you need it with engineering reviews. Continual culture of collaborative learning with tech talks, a generous learning stipend, and weekly demos to get insight into what everyone across the company is working on. Real interest in driving forward the world's understanding of the ethical use of emerging AI technologies. Compensation is good. Market-leading salary and equity packages, reasonable benefits.

Cons: Atmosphere of the company needing to figure everything out for the first time rather than having established processes, like technical infrastructure, performance reviews, and OKRs. On the other hand, it is super interesting to see these processes developed in a principled and balanced way. Some roles (probably more over time) require a national security clearance due to the sensitivity of the project, which can mean you often can't work on some really interesting projects unless you are cleared. Always needing to seriously prioritise technical projects because of too much work and too few people.

Pros: The mission of the company is a critical one for Europe. You have the ability to have significant real-world impact and an excellent business outlook. The company has the highest talent density of any tech company I've worked at, featuring world-class AI and engineering leadership to learn from and work closely with. There is a high-performance, no BS culture, and employees are extremely passionate about the mission. If you care about the mission and enjoy working at a high level with passionate people, then Helsing will be a good fit for you.

Cons: The company could be better at the process for providing feedback on performance for development. But it is a young company, and there is no reason why this can't improve.

Pros: Smart and inspiring people to work with.

Cons: Benefits can be better, and not good enough benefits.