Senior Quantum Field Engineer

Job Description

Job Title: Senior Quantum Field Engineer. Location: United States or United Kingdom

Responsibilities:

Shared Responsibilities

• Lead technical activities during on-site deployments, including defining project scope, conducting experiments or calibrations, validating performance against specifications, and documenting results.
• Troubleshoot failures and identify root causes across hardware, software, and infrastructure.
• Coordinate with cross-functional teams to resolve technical issues.
• Serve as the primary technical contact for customers during on-site engagements;
• Communicate technical results and operational guidance clearly to specialist and non-specialist audiences.
• Monitor deployed systems and proactively identify and address performance regressions, drift, and outages.
• Train internal team members and customer personnel on relevant procedures, workflows, and best practices.
• Improve internal tools, documentation, and automation to increase repeatability and reduce manual work.
• Collaborate with internal research and development teams to improve quantum device performance and scalability.
• Provide remote technical support to deployment teams when required.
• Travel internationally to support customer deployments.

Systems and Integration Track

• Develop detailed experimental plans for each cooldown, defining measurement scope, measurement sequence, and success criteria in advance.
• Characterize qubits and readout systems using internal tools.
• Validate coherence, line yield, and qubit yield against project requirements.
• Troubleshoot failures and identify root causes across hardware, fabrication, and device design.
• Diagnose issues throughout the measurement chain, including wiring, electronics, and quantum devices.
• Provide remote support to on-site teams between deployments when needed.

Gate Calibration and Deployment Track

• Validate single-qubit and two-qubit gate performance against specifications using established benchmarking techniques.
• Bring up and optimize gate calibrations on production quantum devices.
• Identify and resolve systematic errors affecting single-qubit and two-qubit gate fidelity.
• Maintain, monitor, and improve automated recalibration systems for cloud-deployed quantum processors;
• Manage deployment workflows for new gate calibrations, including testing, validation, staging, and production release.
• Release calibration updates while minimizing disruption to system uptime.
• Write high-quality, maintainable code and participate in formal code reviews.

Qualifications:

All Candidates

• PhD in Physics, Applied Physics, Electrical Engineering, or a related field, or an equivalent degree with relevant industry or postdoctoral experience.
• Alternatively, a bachelor's or master's degree with at least three years of relevant experience, as specified in the job requirements.
• Hands-on experience with superconducting qubit devices.
• Proficiency in Python for scientific or engineering applications.
• Strong systematic debugging skills, including the ability to isolate failures across wiring, electronics, quantum devices, and software.
• Ability to work effectively in customer-facing and field environments with limited on-site infrastructure support.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills;
• Ability to prepare clear experimental reports and explain technical findings to non-specialists.
• Willingness and ability to travel internationally approximately 10% to 25% of the time.

Additional Requirements: Systems and Integration Track

• Experience troubleshooting cryogenic microwave hardware.

Additional Requirements: Gate Calibration and Deployment Track

• Experience calibrating and characterizing single-qubit and two-qubit gates on superconducting quantum devices.
• Strong quantitative understanding of gate error sources, including decoherence, leakage, and control distortion;
• Experience writing high-quality code and working with Git-based version control and formal code review.

Preferred Qualifications:

Systems and Integration Track

• Experience operating and troubleshooting dilution refrigerators.
• Knowledge of common qubit failure modes and their signatures, including two-level systems (TLS), flux noise, and packaging issues.
• Software development experience in collaborative industrial environments, including Git, code review, and continuous integration (CI).
• Previous experience in customer-facing or field engineering roles.

Gate Calibration and Deployment Track

• Experience with automated or scheduled recalibration systems in production environments requiring high uptime.
• Familiarity with cloud deployment infrastructure, including AWS, Azure, Kubernetes, and Docker.
• Experience with pulse-level gate optimization techniques, including DRAG, flux pulse shaping, and dynamical decoupling.
• Experience supporting rotational on-call schedules or production support.
• Previous experience in customer-facing or field engineering roles.

Benefits and Compensation:

• Salary and benefits details are not specified in the provided job description.
• Opportunity to work on the deployment and operation of advanced quantum computing systems.
• Collaboration with multidisciplinary engineering and research teams;
• Opportunities to contribute to improvements in quantum processor performance, calibration, scalability, and cloud operations.

Additional Information:

• This is a hybrid, full-time position with regular international travel to customer sites.
• Rigetti Computing is an equal opportunity employer committed to diversity and inclusion. Applications from women, minorities, and other underrepresented groups are encouraged;
• Rigetti may use artificial intelligence tools to assist with parts of the recruitment process. These tools support the recruitment team but do not replace human judgment. Final hiring decisions are made by humans.