Senior Design Automation Engineer, Software, Center for Quantum Computing

The Center for Quantum Computing (CQC) is a multi-disciplinary team of scientists, engineers, and technicians, on a mission to develop a fault-tolerant quantum computer.

We are looking to hire a Senior Design Automation Engineer to join our growing software team. You will work closely with our superconducting chip design teams to enable their working designing, simulating, and improving the performance of our quantum devices. The ideal candidate should be able to translate high-level science requirements into software implementations (e.g. Python APIs/frameworks, automation routines, database schemas, infrastructure-as-code setups) that are performant, scalable, and intuitive. This requires someone who (1) has a strong desire to work within a team of scientists and engineers, and (2) demonstrates ownership in initiating and driving projects to completion. This role has a particular emphasis on working directly with chip designers to develop scientific software for automating, scaling, and optimizing the quantum device design process.

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Key job responsibilities
- Work with designers to build a quantum processor design automation flow. This will involve a combination of writing new software and influencing the working model of our scientist collaborators on the design team.
- Develop a shared Python library for analysis and optimization routines that can be re-used across designs.
- Profile and improve the performance of design, simulation, & analysis tools to enable scaling to larger devices.
- Leverage infrastructure-as-code to define and orchestrate high-performance computing (HPC) workloads.
- Make changes to the database and UI as necessary to capture and visualize design progress and performance.
- Look for opportunities to accelerate design workflows by taking advantage of the latest advancements in scientific computing, machine learning, and open-source chip layout and design software.
- Empower scientists to actively contribute to the codebase through mentorship and documentation.

We are looking for candidates with strong engineering principles, a bias for action, superior problem-solving, and excellent communication skills. Working effectively within a team environment is essential. As a research software engineer embedded in a broader research science organization, you will have the opportunity to work on new ideas and stay abreast of the field of experimental quantum computation.

A day in the life
The majority of your time will be spent on projects that extend the functional capabilities or performance of our internal research software stack. This requires working backwards from the needs of our science staff in the context of our larger experimental roadmap. You will translate science and software requirements into design proposals balancing implementation complexity against time-to-delivery. Once a design proposal has been reviewed and accepted, you’ll drive implementation and coordinate with internal stakeholders to ensure a smooth roll out. Because many high-level experimental goals have cross-cutting requirements, you’ll often work closely with other engineers or scientists or on the team.

About the team
You will be joining the software group within the Center of Quantum Computing. Our team is comprised of scientists and software engineers who are building scalable software that enables quantum computing technologies.

BASIC QUALIFICATIONS

- PhD, or Master's degree and 6+ years of applied research experience
- Experience programming in Java, C++, Python or related language
- Experience working with scientists in a research environment
- Experience with the full software development lifecycle (planning, design, implementation, testing, deployment, and maintenance)
- Experience setting up and running high-performance computing (HPC) workflows
- Experience running physics simulations using Python

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS

- Experience with chip design and layout software
- Experience with superconducting quantum computing
- Experience with common open-source scientific software
- Experience with AWS tools and services (or more generally, cloud computing)
- Experience with releasing open source software and/or publishing research papers

Amazon is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate on the basis of protected veteran status, disability, or other legally protected status.

Los Angeles County applicants: Job duties for this position include: work safely and cooperatively with other employees, supervisors, and staff; adhere to standards of excellence despite stressful conditions; communicate effectively and respectfully with employees, supervisors, and staff to ensure exceptional customer service; and follow all federal, state, and local laws and Company policies. Criminal history may have a direct, adverse, and negative relationship with some of the material job duties of this position. These include the duties and responsibilities listed above, as well as the abilities to adhere to company policies, exercise sound judgment, effectively manage stress and work safely and respectfully with others, exhibit trustworthiness and professionalism, and safeguard business operations and the Company’s reputation. Pursuant to the Los Angeles County Fair Chance Ordinance, we will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records.

Pursuant to the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, we will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records.

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