Estonian President Kersti Kaljulaid appointed Hilpus on 6 June as the country's new ambassador to Latvia and recalled Tõnis Nirk from the post.

Mr. Hilpus had until recently served as Estonia's ambassador to the Russian Federation, a position in which he started service in November 2015.

He has been working at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs since 1996, including as head of the personnel department and director of the EU foreign and security policy division, secretary for political affairs at the Estonian embassy in Berlin from 2001-2004 and subsequently head of the security policy division in the Ministry's first political department.

From 2009 to 2012, Mr. Hilpus was Estonia's ambassador to Norway and Iceland as well as going on to work as ambassador to Macedonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro and Serbia; reportedly these latter roles were Tallinn-based.