Commander Hildenbrand is a military professor in the College of International and Security Studies at the George C. Marshall European Center for Security Studies. He has been the deputy director of the Program in Applied Security Studies, the Center’s largest and most comprehensive resident program, for several years. Since 2018, he is the program director of the Center’s newest resident program, the European Security Seminar North.

The primary focus of his professional experience is Arctic security policy, security implications of climate and environmental changes, the European Security and Defense Policy, as well as modern leadership and gender related topics. Between 2009 and 2017 he was a member of the Partnership for Peace Consortium Educators Working Group,as well as the combined Educators and Security Sector Reform Working Group that wrote a handbook on Teaching Gender in the Military.

From 2002 to 2004 Commander Hildenbrand was a senior officer in the Joint Staff of the Armed Forces, German Ministry of Defense, in Bonn. In this capacity, he was responsible for preparing Franco-German summits and he participated in meetings of the WEU and other international organizations, to include serving as the secretary of a multinational working group, for the restructuring of the European defense industries. This involved various activities in Spain, Sweden, Italy, France and Great Britain.

Between 2000 and 2002 he was a Battalion Commander at the University of the Armed Forces in Munich, where, as part of his job, he lectured on modern leadership.

Between 1997 and 2000 Commander Hildenbrand was the Executive Officer to the Deputy Chief of Staff at NATO Headquarters Allied Forces Northwestern Europe in High Wycombe, Great Britain. His responsibilities included the analyses of activities in the Arctic and Europe’s Northern Flank and the presentation of the Headquarters in related working groups.

Between 1979 and 1997, Commander Hildenbrand pursued a career as a naval aviator. He studied aeronautical engineering at the University of the Armed Forces in Munich and earned a diploma (Master's degree) as a Diplom-Ingenieur. Furthermore, he underwent training as an aviator in the Navy of the United States of America. In addition to his five years of flying duty with approximately 1000 flying hours, he was the representative of the German Navy in designing the NATO Helicopter of the Nineties (NH90), which involved various assignments in France and Italy.