Staff Software Engineer

PsiQuantum's mission is to build the first useful quantum computers — machines capable of delivering the breakthroughs the field has long promised. Since our founding in 2016, our singular focus has been to build and deploy million‑qubit, fault‑tolerant quantum systems.

Quantum computers harness the laws of quantum mechanics to solve problems that even the most advanced supercomputers or AI systems will never reach. Their impact will span energy, pharmaceuticals, finance, agriculture, transportation, materials, and other foundational industries.

Our architecture and approach is based on silicon photonics. By leveraging the advanced semiconductor manufacturing industry — including partners like GlobalFoundries — we use the same high‑volume processes that already produce billions of chips for telecom and consumer electronics. Photonics offers natural advantages for scale: photons don’t feel heat, are immune to electromagnetic interference, and integrate with existing cryogenic cooling and standard fiber‑optic infrastructure.

In 2024, PsiQuantum announced government‑funded projects to support the build‑out of our first utility‑scale quantum computers in Brisbane, Australia, and Chicago, Illinois. These initiatives reflect a growing recognition that quantum computing will be strategically and economically defining — and that now is the time to scale.

PsiQuantum also develops the algorithms and software needed to make these systems commercially valuable. Our application, software, and industry teams work directly with leading Fortune 500 companies — including Lockheed Martin, Mercedes‑Benz, Boehringer Ingelheim, and Mitsubishi Chemical — to prepare quantum solutions for real‑world impact.

Quantum computing is not an extension of classical computing. It represents a fundamental shift and a path to mastering challenges that cannot be solved any other way. The potential is enormous, and we have a clear path to make it real.

Come join us.

Job Summary

The Quantum Architecture Software Team at PsiQuantum builds the core software and data systems that underpin the study and simulation of quantum computer architectures. Quantum architects research and develop architectures for fault‑tolerant photonic quantum computers, in particular methods for entanglement generation and error correction. The Quantum Architecture Software Team builds and supports the internal software platforms that enable these efforts — developing and maintaining simulation frameworks, data systems, and computational tools used to evaluate and explore architectural concepts.

We are seeking a Full‑Stack Platform Lead to own the design, implementation, and evolution of the backend and web systems that underpin the Quantum Architecture (QA) platform. This role blends deep software engineering expertise in Python, distributed systems, and web architecture, with the ability to design clean interfaces and build robust, composable infrastructure for scientific and computational workflows.

You’ll work directly with physicists, software engineers, and researchers to turn computational ideas into sustainable, high‑value software systems that drive the simulation and exploration of quantum architectures.

Responsibilities

• Architect and implement the QA platform’s backend services and APIs using modern Python web frameworks (e.g., FastAPI, Flask, Django, or equivalent), ensuring clean interface boundaries and maintainable abstractions.
• Design and evolve Python‑based pipelines that manage data, computation, and integration with research and simulation systems — focusing on reliability, composability, and debuggability.
• Develop modular service interfaces for data access, configuration, and workflow orchestration, ensuring alignment between backend systems and frontend or computational clients.
• Establish infrastructure‑as‑code foundations using Terraform, managing multi‑environment deployments and scaling across AWS services (EC2, S3, EKS, IAM, CloudWatch, etc.).
• Own schema design, indexing strategies, and performance optimization for database backends (e.g., Postgres, MySQL, and MongoDB).
• Implement distributed caching, task orchestration, and stateful compute components using Redis or Valkey to support low‑latency data and job pipelines.
• Integrate and manage authentication and authorization layers (OAuth2, OIDC, SSO, IAM roles), ensuring secure, policy‑driven service interactions.
• Define and enforce rigorous SDLC and engineering hygiene — type‑checked Python (e.g., mypy, pydantic), comprehensive testing, CI/CD pipelines, and reproducible environments.
• Develop internal developer tooling and interfaces (CLI utilities, REST/gRPC endpoints, Python client libraries) to enable high‑velocity platform development.
• Lead API versioning, schema evolution, and documentation standards across backend systems.
• Design, implement, and maintain both backend and frontend components of the QA platform — owning the full stack from UI to Python APIs and data layers, ensuring clean, well‑specified, and performant interfaces across the system.
• Implement observability frameworks — structured logging, metrics, and distributed tracing — to ensure operational insight and performance analysis across services.
• Mentor engineers in platform design, Python performance optimization, and large‑scale system composition.

Experience/Qualifications

• 8+ years of professional software engineering experience, with extensive backend and platform design expertise.
• Expert proficiency in Python, including asynchronous programming, typing, dependency management, packaging, and performance profiling.
• Hands‑on experience with modern web frameworks (FastAPI, Flask, Django) and Python‑based interface patterns (pydantic models, dependency injection, API schemas).
• Deep familiarity with pipeline design patterns — task orchestration, async workflows, and dataflow systems — built in Python or hybrid stacks.
• Strong command of AWS services (EC2, EKS, S3, IAM, CloudWatch, Lambda) and infrastructure automation via Terraform.
• Proficiency with databases (Postgres, MySQL, MongoDB), schema design, migrations, and query optimization.
• Experience designing and maintaining caching and state systems (Redis, Valkey) for scalable backend workloads.
• Deep understanding of authentication (OAuth, Secrets management) and service‑to‑service identity mechanisms.
• Strong SDLC discipline — CI/CD (GitLab, GitHub Actions), static analysis, code review automation, and test‑driven development.
• Experience designing internal APIs, Python client SDKs, and developer‑facing tools with strong focus on usability and maintainability.
• Working knowledge of frontend integration (React, TypeScript) and REST/gRPC contract management.
• Operational familiarity with observability and profiling tools (Prometheus, Grafana, OpenTelemetry, cProfile, py‑spy, Perf).
• Ability to design for long‑term maintainability — balancing low‑level optimization with clean architectural separation and stable interfaces.
• Familiarity with HPC environments and Slurm‑based job orchestration is preferred.
• Experience in scientific computing, simulation, or high‑performance data environments is preferred.

PsiQuantum provides equal employment opportunity for all applicants and employees. PsiQuantum does not unlawfully discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions), gender identity, gender expression, national origin, ancestry, citizenship, age, physical or mental disability, military or veteran status, marital status, domestic partner status, sexual orientation, genetic information, or any other basis protected by applicable laws.

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