He held the office of Vice-Chancellor of Switzerland between 2008 and 2016, in charge of the Federal Council sector.
After spending his early career as a lawyer in Bern and London, he entered public service in 1998, when he became advisor to Federal Councillor Adolf Ogi and his successor, Samuel Schmid.
[6][7] After retiring from the organization committee in early 2003, Helbling joined private insurance company Swiss Life as head of public relations, and was appointed board member of the Swiss Football League, where he was in charge of games security and pushed for restrictive legislation against hooliganism in anticipation of the Euro.
Although there had been several rows tied language representation in the Federal Chancellery during the appointment of his predecessors - Swiss French politicians having complained that the chancellery was in purely Swiss-German hands after the nomination of both Corina Casanova and Oswald Sigg.
[5] In his role, Thomas Helbling oversaw the Federal Council sector of the Swiss Chancellery, which looks after planning and managing the Federal Council's meetings, the Legal Section, the Official Publications Center and the Central Language Services.