Scientific Software Engineer

About the Mission

Every chip Alice & Bob builds starts as Python code. As we scale from tens of qubits to thousands, our chip-design software becomes the backbone of the entire design pipeline, and it has to support chips that could never be drawn by hand.

About the Role

As a Scientific Software Engineer in the Design and Implementation team, you’ll own the internal framework our engineers use to turn a quantum circuit into a layout and send it to electromagnetic and circuit simulators. You’ll keep it robust and fast, grow its component library, and build the automation our layout and scale-up engineers need to design large chips.

Responsibilities

• Own and maintain the internal design backend API and qubit design framework: code quality, testing, CI, releases, documentation
• Develop new parametric components and layout primitives with the chip designers who use them
• Extend and harden the export pipeline to electromagnetic and circuit simulation tools
• Build the automation layer for large-scale, hierarchical chip layouts in close partnership with our physical-design and scale-up engineers
• Support internal users: onboarding, debugging, API design, and turning recurring pain points into features

Requirements

• 5+ years of professional Python development, with strong software engineering fundamentals: testing, packaging, versioning, CI/CD, code review
• Solid experience building and maintaining a library or framework used by other engineers, and a taste for clean, well-documented APIs
• Comfort with computational geometry or CAD/layout data (GDSII, polygons, transformations) - or eagerness to learn it fast
• Ability to work closely with hardware engineers and translate their needs into software
• Fluent English and excellent written and verbal communication skills

Nice to have:

• Experience with gdstk, gdsfactory, KLayout, or other layout tooling
• Familiarity with electromagnetic simulation tools (HFSS/AEDT, Palace) or circuit simulators
• Background in superconducting circuits, RF/microwave engineering, or semiconductor design automation (EDA)

Recruitment Process

• Screening Call with Grace, Talent Acquisition Specialist (30 min)
• Hiring Manager Interview with Felix (45 min)
• Technical Interview/Presentation with the Team (120 min)
• Leadership Team Interview (30 min)
• Fit Interview (45 min)
• Reference check