Scientific Software Engineer – Machine Programming

QuEra Computing•Boston, MA

About The Position

This role helps the scientists who build and operate QuEra's neutral-atom quantum computers program those machines effectively. The engineer will maintain the domain-specific language and compiler stack, built on the open-source Kirin toolchain, that experimental physicists use to run experiments. The role works closely with physicists and control stack engineers to turn experiments into working programs, keep the toolchain reliable as hardware evolves, and integrate it with the control system. It is suited to an engineer who enjoys building tools and helping users succeed with them.

Requirements

Bachelor's or Master's degree in Computer Science, Physics, Electrical Engineering, or a related field, or equivalent professional experience.
Strong Python skills, including type hints, packaging, and testing with pytest.
Enjoy building tools for and working closely with scientists who are not professional software developers.
Clear written and verbal communication.
Experience working across team boundaries, agreeing on interfaces, coordinating changes between components, and debugging problems spanning several systems.
Experience debugging unfamiliar code and reducing complex failures to minimal reproductions.
Familiarity with the full software lifecycle, including version control, code review, testing, CI/CD, logging, profiling, debugging, and documentation.

Nice To Haves

Experience with compilers, domain-specific languages, or SSA-based intermediate representations; experience with Kirin, MLIR, or LLVM is a plus.
Background in experimental physics, especially AMO or atomic physics lab control, including AWGs, AOMs/AODs, DDS, timing systems, or cameras.
Experience with real-time or embedded control systems, FPGAs, or experiment-control frameworks such as ARTIQ or Labscript.
Experience with real-time scheduling or execution systems, such as runtime schedulers, streaming, or instruction-dispatch systems.
Experience with C++ or Rust.
Contributions to open-source libraries.
Experience using AI coding agents in a development workflow.

Responsibilities

Maintain the domain-specific language and compilation stack by triaging issues, fixing bugs, reviewing pull requests, managing releases, and keeping CI, tests, and dependencies healthy.
Serve as the point of contact for machine and testbed teams programming their experiments; help build new experiments, port legacy programs, and diagnose compilation or runtime problems.
Work with control stack engineers to integrate compiled programs with the control system, define and evolve the program representation passed between the compiler and control system, keep components in sync across releases, and debug cross-system problems.
Turn user problems into minimal reproducible reports, regression tests, and focused fixes, and work with the compiler team on larger language or IR changes.
Find and fix performance problems in program compilation and execution, including compile time, program size, and timing correctness.
Write and maintain user-facing documentation, tutorials, example programs, and agent skills that help physicists write correct programs.
Work with the hardware control team to support new channel types, control hardware, and machine configurations.
Collect feedback from machine users and turn it into a prioritized roadmap for usability improvements.