Staff System Architect, Benchmarking and Calibration

PsiQuantum•Palo Alto, CA

About The Position

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 System Architecture team is responsible for the design of the photonics systems in PsiQuantum’s roadmap that implement architectural features required for fault-tolerant quantum computation. This includes features that enable large-scale system testing and benchmarking, as well as the development of protocols to enable bespoke subsystem tests as well as the automation of routine system health assessments. The ideal candidate for this role will be able to develop appropriate benchmarking tests for our systems, as well as work closely with the system architecture design team, the quantum system validation team and all hardware teams to ensure the correct implementation of such tests.

Requirements

PhD in quantum physics discipline, preferably quantum optics or quantum information.
10+ years of experience in benchmarking quantum systems with a background in non-Markovian quantum processes.
Ability to collaborate effectively across departments, sites, and time zones.
Capability to communicate and negotiate with multiple teams of varying technical backgrounds.
A hands-on mentality to own challenges and develop solutions independently.

Responsibilities

Analyze the impact of non-Markovian quantum processes on our systems.
Consult with hardware and design teams to identify potential sources of non-Markovian errors.
Develop and analyze benchmarking and validation protocols for our systems, covering domains from the optical subsystems to FT logic tests.
Optimize theoretical protocols to maximize sensitivity to drifting and fluctuating noise sources.
Work with the validation team in the development of specific protocols to be built in the control system and provision for the necessary data acquisition subsystems, test goals and test strategies.
Develop control strategies to optimize system performance based on dynamic system performance metrics.

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