Staff Software Engineer, Non-Realtime Controllers

Location: Oxford, UK
Office commitment: Hybrid

The Role:

Quantum is now, and it's built here. Oxford Ionics, now part of IonQ, is pioneering the next generation of quantum computing. Using our world-leading trapped-ion technology, we're building the most powerful, accurate and reliable quantum systems to tackle problems that today's supercomputers cannot solve.

We're looking for an enthusiastic and highly technical Staff Software Engineer for our non-realtime controllers team who will thrive in our dynamic cross-disciplinary environment. You'd be working closely with our skilled software engineers, our systems teams who operate the physical quantum computers, and our world-leading quantum scientists to build and operate the software that controls the hardware surrounding our quantum computers. Previous exposure to quantum systems is not required.

You will take on our most demanding hardware integrations and the framework work that makes every other controller better. This is a hands-on engineering role: you would be the most experienced engineer writing controllers, not the one directing others to write them.

A working quantum computer is far more than the ion trap and its real-time control electronics. It depends on a fleet of supporting hardware, including cryogenic compressors, vacuum pumps, power supplies, lasers, temperature controllers, wavemeters and cameras, that has to be kept observable, controllable and reliable. The timing-critical operations such as gate waveforms and ion transport run on dedicated real-time FPGA systems, while this team owns everything that does not need hard timing guarantees. These services run on general-purpose Linux hardware and must be rock-solid, because a failed compressor or an un-noticed pressure drift takes a whole machine offline.

Responsibilities:

This is a hands-on engineering role. Your influence comes from the code you ship and review, and from the problems you take off everyone else's plate.

Key responsibilities include:

• Take on our most demanding device integrations, and do the deep diagnosis of problems that only appear against real hardware in a live lab.
• Remove whole classes of failure across the fleet, rather than instances of them.
• Improve the shared framework yourself, and bring the existing controllers along with each change.
• Build the tooling, simulators and test infrastructure that let the whole team move faster.
• Evolve how our services are deployed and operated as the fleet grows, and make the fleet observable enough that problems are found early.
• Raise the bar of everyone around you through the code you write and the reviews you give.

Requirements:

To be successful, you will need deep systems engineering experience, a track record of shipping and operating reliable services, and the judgement to tell a problem worth solving structurally from one worth patching. We're looking for someone who wants to stay hands-on in the code at this level rather than move away from it.

You’d be a great fit with:

• Expert systems engineering skills. Our controllers are written in Rust, so either solid Rust experience or deep proficiency in another systems language and the appetite to work in a Rust codebase, including async programming.
• Experience building and operating networked services in production such as gRPC or REST, with a real grasp of error handling, observability and failure modes.
• Experience of hardware and instrument protocols and interfaces such as SCPI, Modbus, serial and Ethernet.
• A reputation as the person people bring the undiagnosable bug to, and the ability to prioritise work with a clear understanding of critical versus urgent items.
• Excellent communication skills both within software and across disciplines.

Benefits

Be part of a team that’s shaping the future of quantum. We offer more than just a role, you’ll join a world class community of scientists, engineers and innovators working to unlock the full potential of quantum computing.

We offer a range of benefits, including opportunities to further your career alongside industry leaders, a competitive salary with IonQ stock options, an annual performance bonus, generous annual leave, flexible hybrid working, private medical and dental insurance for you and your family, and much more.

Join us and be part of the future of quantum computing.

We’re proud to be an equal opportunity employer and welcome applicants from all backgrounds.