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.
