Senior Commercial Finance Business Partner

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 At Helsing, we are not just scaling software; we are building state-of-the-art advanced manufacturing facilities and managing complex physical supply chains to deliver software-defined hardware capabilities.  As our Senior Commercial Finance Business Partner, you will sit within our Commercial Finance function. You will act as the strategic co-pilot to our R&D Directors, Heads of Manufacturing, and Procurement leaders. This is not a backward-looking reporting role, you will be the commercial engine driving investment decisions. You will build, review, and challenge multi-million-euro business cases, track program-level IRR and NPV, and ensure that our aggressive investments in R&D and manufacturing capacity yield robust long-term profitability. This role requires a rare blend of deep commercial acumen, world-class financial modeling skills, and a strong understanding of industrial unit economics (from R&D labs to factory floors and tier-1 supplier networks). THE DAY-TO-DAY - Lead the financial appraisal of new initiatives, building and stress-testing complex business cases for major R&D programmes, software features, and physical hardware platforms - Model and continuously track key investment metrics, including IRR, NPV, Payback Period, and ROIC, to guide capital allocation across competing engineering projects - Evaluate capital expenditure proposals for manufacturing scale-up, including investments in automated production lines, testing facilities, and specialized tooling - Lead cross-functional financial evaluations to determine whether to build capabilities in-house or source them externally, presenting clear, data-driven recommendations to the leadership team Product Unit Economics, R&D & Supply Chain Finance: - Partner with engineering teams to embed financial discipline from day one of the product lifecycle and track Bill of Materials (BOM) cost evolution from early-stage R&D prototyping through to full-rate series production - Collaborate with Procurement and Supply Chain teams to map global supplier networks, analyze material and logistical cost drivers, support supplier negotiations with cost-insight data, and run lean cost-improvement workshops - Work closely with the supply chain and treasury teams to manage inventory levels, mitigate obsolescence risk, and optimize working capital profiles for long-lead-time components. Defense Program Performance & Pricing Strategy: - Support Commercial and Business Development teams on major defense bids and build pricing and margin models that reflect the nuances of various defense contract structures (e.g., fixed-price incentive, cost-plus, milestone billing) - Own the financial tracking of major programs, monitor actual performance against business-case baselines, quickly identifying margin leakage, supply chain cost overruns, or R&D slippages, and co-develop corrective action plans - Develop, track, and present commercial KPI dashboards (such as Gross Margin, Contribution Margin, Cost-to-Serve, and Cost-Variance-at-Completion) to programme leadership and senior finance executives. YOU SHOULD APPLY IF YOU - Bring strong post-qualification experience holding a recognized professional finance qualification (CIMA, ACCA, ACA, or equivalent) - Have highly advanced Excel and financial modeling capabilities, you must be comfortable building DCF, IRR, NPV, and complex scenario-analysis models from scratch - Have a proven track record in a commercial finance or business partnering role within high-tech manufacturing, aerospace, defense, deep tech, automotive, or capital-intensive engineering - Bring extensive experience building, presenting, and defending robust business cases to senior executives, with a healthy appetite for challenging operational assumptions - Are familiari with European defense procurement processes (e.g., German Bundeswehr, UK MoD) and the commercial auditing requirements of government cost-plus contracts - Can translate complex financial concepts into actionable insights for non-finance professionals (engineers, software developers, and procurement managers) and inspire them to prioritize cost and margin - Have exceptional written and verbal communication skills in German & English 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. 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.