Mr. Salm serves as the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Defence of Estonia. In this role, he oversees capability development, defence policy, acquisitions, human resource management, and other relevant areas of Estonian defence. Before assuming his current position, he was the Director General of the Estonian Centre of Defence Investment, where he was responsible for defence acquisitions and infrastructure development of the Estonian Defence Forces. In his international roles, in 2017 Mr. Salm was the chief negotiator for the European Defence Fund. In 2024, he received the European of the Year award for his contributions to advancing the defence agenda in the EU.