Quantum Hardware Engineer
Confirmed on the employer's own hiring board on Nov 11, 2026. First seen by Alion on Nov 11, 2026.
Quantum Hardware Engineer
Superlinear · Chicago, IL (on-site, Hyde Park Labs) · Contract-to-hire
Superlinear Computing is a stealth-stage, AI-powered quantum computing lab that applies machine learning to advance and apply existing quantum technologies. Our labs are in the Illinois Quantum and Microelectronics Park in Chicago and Palo Alto. We are a small, focused, hands-on team focused on ideas and iteration - fail fast, fail often, move forward. This is one of our first on-site engineering hires, and the system and measurement program could be yours to build.
Role
You run our superconducting qubit lab at IQMP: a Bluefors XLD1000sl dilution refrigerator and a 9-qubit transmon processor. You are our on-site engineer, working with the team in Palo Alto.
Your first task is to independently characterize the processor after warm-up and cooldown: coherence, readout, and gate fidelities on every qubit, measured by us against the vendor's specification. After that, you own the system: calibration, drift baselines, hardware changes, and the measurements our experiments need. New devices will go into the same fridge. This is a contract-to-hire role.
Requirements
Hands-on operation of a dilution refrigerator: cooldowns, warmups, fault recovery.
Transmon characterization and gate calibration without supervision.
Microwave measurement and signal-chain debugging.
Comfortable scripting your own measurements and analysis. The language matters less than the habit of logging everything.
Within reach of Chicago.
Graduate students with hands-on fridge and qubit time are welcome, and the schedule can work around a thesis.
Preferred
Bluefors XL-series experience.
TWPA operation.
A commercial control stack: Rigetti, Qblox, Quantum Machines, or Zurich Instruments.
Compensation
$100/hour during the contract; salary and equity on conversion.
To apply: [email] with a résumé and a short note on a measurement that disagreed with a vendor's specification, and what you did about it.