Senior Quantum Field Engineer

Responsibilities

Shared Responsibilities

Own the technical work for your track during on-site deployments: define scope, execute experiments or calibrations, validate against specification, and document outcomes.

Debug failures and isolate root causes across hardware, software, and infrastructure; escalate findings and drive resolution cross-functionally.

Act as the primary technical point of contact for customers during on-site engagements; communicate results clearly to both technical and non-technical stakeholders.

Monitor deployed systems and proactively identify and respond to regressions, drift, or outages.

Train team members and customer-side personnel on procedures, workflows, and best practices relevant to your track.

Contribute to internal tooling, documentation, and automation to improve repeatability and reduce manual effort.

Work with internal R&D teams to drive improvements to device performance at scale.

Be available for international travel up to 10–25% of the time in support of customer deployments.

Systems & Integration Track

Develop detailed experimental plans for each cooldown: define measurement scope, sequence, and success criteria prior to cool-down.

Characterise qubits and readout using internal tooling; validate coherence, line yield, and qubit yield against project requirements.

Debug failures and isolate root causes across hardware, fabrication, and design.

Provide remote support to on-site teams as required between deployments.

Gate Calibration & Deployment Track

Validate single- and two-qubit gate performance against specification using standard benchmarking techniques.

Bring up and fine-tune gate calibrations on production devices; identify and resolve systematic error sources affecting 1Q and 2Q fidelity.

Maintain, monitor, and improve Rigetti's automated recalibration system for cloud-deployed processors.

Own deployment workflows for new gate calibrations: test, validate, stage, and release to production with minimal disruption to uptime.

Required Qualifications

All candidates

PhD in Physics, Applied Physics, Electrical Engineering, or a related field; or equivalent degree with relevant industry or postdoctoral experience (see track requirements below).

Hands-on experience with superconducting qubit devices.

Proficiency in Python in a scientific or engineering context.

Strong systematic debugging skills: able to isolate failures across the full measurement chain (wiring, electronics, device, software).

Comfort operating in customer-facing and field environments with limited on-site infrastructure support.

Excellent written and verbal communication; able to write clear experimental reports and debrief non-specialists.

Willingness and ability to travel internationally 10–25% of the time.

MS/BS with 3+ years of relevant experience (or PhD).

Systems & Integration Track additionally requires

Experience troubleshooting cryogenic microwave hardware.

Gate Calibration & Deployment Track additionally requires

Experience calibrating and characterising 1Q and 2Q gates on superconducting qubit devices.

Strong quantitative understanding of gate error sources: decoherence, leakage, control distortion, etc.

Experience writing high-quality code and working through formal code review (Git).

Nice to Have

Systems & Integration Track

Experience operating and troubleshooting dilution refrigerators.

Knowledge of common qubit failure modes and their signatures (e.g., TLS, flux noise, packaging issues).

Software development experience in a collaborative industrial setting (Git, code review, CI).

Prior experience in a customer-facing or field engineering role.

Gate Calibration & Deployment Track

Experience with automated or scheduled recalibration systems in a production or high-uptime environment.

Familiarity with cloud deployment infrastructure (AWS, Azure, Kubernetes, Docker).

Experience with pulse-level gate optimisation (DRAG, flux pulse shaping, dynamical decoupling).

Experience supporting a rotational on-call or production-support schedule.

Prior experience in a customer-facing or field engineering role.