HPC Systems Administrator

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

Helsing operates on-premises high-performance computing (HPC) infrastructure that supports electromagnetics, computational fluid dynamics, and multi-physics simulation. As an HPC Systems Administrator based in Munich, you will take ownership of this critical environment, ensuring that our team of simulation engineers remains unblocked, productive, and equipped to solve complex problems. You will play a vital role in maintaining rigorous technical standards, optimising compute resources, and scaling our infrastructure to support continuous, large-scale modelling. The role is based on-site in Munich with regular travel to our Tussenhausen site. 

The day-to-day

• Own the day-to-day administration of compute nodes, workload schedulers, parallel storage, high-speed interconnects, and licence servers

• Ensure the environment remains highly available and consistently performant through proactive monitoring, patching, firmware updates, and incident response

• Administer the workload scheduler (Slurm, PBS Pro, or similar), managing queues, fair-share policies, accounting, and quotas to optimise resource utilisation

• Manage the simulation software stack and user environments using tools such as Lmod, Spack, or EasyBuild

• Collaborate with hardware and software vendors to resolve support cases, process RMAs, and ensure upgrade quality

• Automate operational workflows using Bash, Python, and Ansible to improve system efficiency and reduce manual intervention

• Maintain the strict security posture required for cleared work and support ongoing compliance reviews

• Onboard users and maintain comprehensive documentation to empower engineers to self-serve

You should apply if you

• have administered Linux systems within a production HPC or large shared compute environment

• have hands-on experience managing workload schedulers such as Slurm, PBS Pro, LSF, or similar

• possess production experience with parallel filesystems (Lustre, BeeGFS, or GPFS) and high-speed interconnects (InfiniBand or RoCE)

• are capable of scripting and automating complex workflows with Bash, Python, and Ansible

• can effectively manage commercial simulation software (CAE, CFD, or EM) and licence servers, including FlexLM

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 administering Altair or Siemens simulation suites

• A background working within classified or strictly regulated environments

• Expertise in GPU computing, including CUDA and NVIDIA toolchains, alongside MPI stack management

• Familiarity with HPC containers using Apptainer, Enroot, or Pyxis

• Experience with identity management systems such as Keycloak, FreeIPA, Active Directory, or Kerberos

• Competence in infrastructure-as-code practices using tools such as Terraform

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

• Competitive salary and VSOP options

• Relocation support: up to €2,500 and 4 weeks temporary accommodation

• Learning: €500/£450 yearly allowance

• Health & wellness: gym membership and mental health support (Nilo.health)

• Social: regularly company events and monthly social allowances

• Enhanced parental leave: 22 weeks fully paid for primary caregivers & 6 weeks for secondary caregivers.

• Family support: 5 days of paid family emergency leave, 100% remote work option during pregnancy and phased return to work

These are the core benefits across all locations, there may be additional benefits in certain locations.

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.