First job, real stakes.
Five programmes we are building for the people at the start of an engineering career — graduates, interns, apprentices, conscripts, and PhDs. The first cohort starts September 2026. None of them are shadowing exercises.
- Programmes05
Graduate, Internship, Apprenticeship, Værnepligt Bridge, and PhD Residency.
- First intakeSep 2026
Inaugural cohort. We are publishing the door before we publish the numbers.
- Reply window≤ 2 wk
We commit to a real human reply inside two weeks of your letter landing.
- Agency CVs0
Engineers and operators read every application. It will stay that way.
Five doors in.
The right door depends on where you are in your career, not where we want you to be. Pick the one that fits the version of you that exists today.
Graduate Engineering Programme
Two years inside the build. Three eight-month rotations across Air Systems, Heimdall, and Manufacturing — chosen with the team lead, not a programme manager.
- Duration
- 24 months
- Cohort
- 18 places · Sep 2026 intake
- Pay
- DKK 612,000 base · equity grant from day one
- MSc or BEng awarded inside the last 18 months
- EU / EEA / CH passport, or right to work in DK
- Willing to relocate to Copenhagen for the duration
- A thing you built outside of coursework you can defend
- 01 · Air Systems — flight software, propulsion, or composites
- 02 · Heimdall — mission console, geospatial, or platform
- 03 · Manufacturing — production engineering, quality, or supply
- 01Full offer on the team you finish your third rotation on
- 02Authorship on at least one shipped product line
- 03A 1:1 with the founder, monthly, in writing
How we hire, in full.
One process, the same shape for all five programmes. The difference is who reads the letter and what the take-home asks you to build.
- 01Reply ≤ 2 weeks
A letter, not a CV.
300 to 600 words. The thing you built. What broke. What you would do differently. Which programme. We read every one ourselves.
- 02Inside 2 weeks of step 01
A take-home, or a portfolio walk.
We send you a small, real engineering problem from the team you are applying to — or we walk through one of your projects on a video call. Two hours, capped.
- 03Inside 2 weeks of step 02
A day in Copenhagen.
Onsite at the building. Three deep conversations, lunch with the team, a tour of the floor. Travel and a hotel night are on us, regardless of outcome.
- 04≤ 7 days from onsite
Offer, or a real no.
Inside seven days of the day. Yes comes with terms. No comes with the honest reason and a reference to two companies we think would be a better fit.
What gets a letter read twice.
Varn is at the beginning. The hiring bar is being set now — here, in writing, before the first letters arrive. These are the signals we will read closely, and the ones we will discount.
- 01
A thing you have built outside of coursework that you can defend in detail.
- 02
A bias toward shipping over polishing. Working over admired.
- 03
The willingness to be wrong, in writing, in front of the room.
- 04
Engineering depth before titles. The discipline to own the unsexy 80%.
- 05
Care for the people you sit next to. Quiet, not performative.
- 01
Optimised-for-internship CVs. Awards we have never heard of.
- 02
Big-tech polish where the underlying work was middle-management theatre.
- 03
Top GPAs with nothing on the bench, the board, or the github.
- 04
Cover letters that read like cover letters.
None of these are deal-breakers on their own. They are the signals we discount when they show up without the work behind them.
What the offer actually looks like.
We will publish the full pay band for your programme before the on-site. No negotiation theatre, no exploding offers.
- C-01Base payAbove sector median
Benchmarked against Saab, Kongsberg, Terma, and the European primes — recalibrated every six months.
- C-02EquityGranted day one
Graduate and PhD Residency programmes carry an equity grant from the start date. 4-year vest, 1-year cliff.
- C-03RelocationDKK 35,000 + housing
One-time relocation grant plus first month of Copenhagen housing covered. Family-friendly assistance available.
- C-04Vacation30 paid days
Five weeks plus public holidays, on top of the Danish standard. We take this seriously and so should you.
- C-05ToolingDKK 18,000 / year
Books, conferences, a tool from the wall — whatever sharpens the thing you are paid to do.
- C-06HealthcarePrivate + parental
Full private coverage on top of the Danish public system. Generous parental leave aligned with EU directive.
What people ask before they write.
The six questions that come up in almost every first conversation. If the answer you need is not here, write to us and ask.
No. The working language across engineering, Heimdall, and the floor will be English. We will pay for Danish lessons if you want them — useful, but not required for any role on the floor.
Tell us what you built.
The shortest path in is a single page of writing about the last thing you built. Send it to earlycareers@varnindustries.com. Name the programme in the subject line. We will write back inside two weeks.
If you are not sure which programme is right, write anyway. Tell us where you are. We will route you to the team that fits.