{"id":1681506,"url":"https://alion.io/job/xanadu-ai-photonics-engineer-system-integration","title":"Photonics Engineer System Integration","company":{"id":698,"name":"Xanadu","domain":"xanadu.ai","url":"https://alion.io/company/xanadu-ai","size_band":null,"is_staffing_agency":false,"employer_type":"direct","is_intermediary":false,"listed_via":null,"ats_vendor":"HiBob","truth_index":null},"role":"Semiconductors","role_family":"Semiconductors","seniority":null,"employment_type":"full_time","work_mode":"hybrid","remote_scope":null,"remote_scope_basis":null,"remote_working_hours":null,"hiring_geo_confidence":"structured","locations":["Toronto, Canada"],"countries":["CA"],"hiring_countries":[],"hiring_countries_total":0,"salary":null,"salary_estimate":{"min_usd":59000,"max_usd":163000,"period":"year","method":null,"sample_n":315},"experience_years_min":null,"visa_sponsorship":false,"relocation_package":false,"has_equity":false,"technologies":[{"name":"Python","optional":false}],"status":"live","first_seen_at":"2026-09-01T15:18:54Z","employer_posted_date":"2026-10-02","last_verified_at":"2026-10-30T08:29:31Z","board_verified":true,"closed_at":null,"days_open":58,"trust":{"level":"ok","repost_count":null,"flags":[],"days_open":58},"description":"About Xanadu: Xanadu’s mission is to build quantum computers that are useful and available to people everywhere.\nAt Xanadu, we are learners, innovators, researchers, collaborators and problem solvers. We are creating something that has never been built before. What we are doing is extremely hard, the classic moon shot. Few people in their life will be able to be a part of something like this, where if we are successful, the technologies we develop will solve some of the world’s most challenging problems and literally change the world. And that is something to be excited about!\nYour role and responsibilities:\n We are looking for a hands-on, analytical, and driven Photonics Engineer to join our hardware team and accelerate the development of our Fault-Tolerant Quantum Computing (FTQC) systems. If you thrive in a lab environment, love bridging the gap between physical hardware and mathematical modeling, and want to solve critical loss and performance challenges, we want to hear from you!\nThis role is critical to the optimization and evolution of our core phase and polarization locking technologies. You will rapidly onboard onto our proprietary testing frameworks, transition into independently running advanced characterization experiments, and ultimately leverage your insights to plan, order, and validate next-generation of devices. You will be the bridge between empirical lab data and the predictive models that drive our hardware roadmap.\nOptical Experimentation & Automation: Plan, build, and execute sophisticated phase and polarization actuation experiments. Program custom Python scripts to automate lab testing, streamline data gathering, and process complex datasets independently.\nAdvanced characterization: Utilize internal tools and python based frameworks to independently test, characterize, and benchmark incoming hardware.\nIterative Design & Ordering: Translate baseline characterization data into actionable insights to help plan, specify, and order brand-new, optimized designs.\nPhysical & Mathematical Modeling: Build upon and refine our existing analytical and numerical models to unlock a deeper, company-wide understanding of the physical processes driving optical loss and system performance.\nValidation & Optimization: Propose innovative solutions to minimize loss, test them rigorously in the lab, and validate performance improvements on your own custom-planned designs.\nEnvironmental Mitigation: Factor critical real-world variables-specifically thermal management and vibration isolation-into experimental setups to protect sensitive optical performance.\nBasic qualifications and experience:\n\nProduct Development Experience: Proven track record of bringing your designs to production ready state.\nOptics Expertise: Strong, demonstrable background in optics with the ability to independently build, service, align, and troubleshoot complex optical experiments in a laboratory setting.\nModeling & Analytical Skills: Proven ability to build mathematical models of physical systems utilizing both analytical and numerical tools.\nEnvironmental Physics: Clear understanding of thermal management and vibration dynamics, including how these environmental factors impact optical system stability.\nProgramming Aptitude: Basic proficiency in Python programming, with a strong willingness and aptitude to quickly learn lab automation and instrument control.\nTechnical Adaptability: Ability to rapidly absorb complex, proprietary architectures and master new experimental frameworks.\nEducation: A Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Physics, Photonics, Optical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, or a related technical discipline.\nAutonomy & Drive: A self-starter mindset with a proven track record of gathering, processing, and drawing conclusions from data independently to push a project forward.\nPreferred qualifications and experience:\n\nAdvanced Education: A Ph.D. focused on experimental optics, photonics, or laser characterization.\nThis is for a new position. Your base salary will be determined based on your location, experience, and internal benchmarks. The base salary range is 110,000 - 140,000 CAD. You will also be eligible for equity and benefits.\nOur values are important. They are fundamental and lay the foundation for culture at Xanadu. Learn more about our values here.\nWe are an equal opportunity employer and encourage candidates of all backgrounds to apply. We are committed to building an inclusive, safe, and equitable culture and fostering an environment where our employees feel included, valued, and heard. We are committed to meeting the needs of all individuals and support a barrier-free workplace. Should you require accommodations at any point during the recruitment process please contact Recruiting at .\nPlease be advised that we may use artificial intelligence (AI) tools to assist in the screening and assessment of applicants for this position. These tools assist our recruitment team but do not replace human judgment. Final hiring decisions are ultimately made by humans. If you would like more information about how your data is processed, please contact us.","description_format":"text","description_chars":5153,"description_truncated":false,"requirements":{"experience_years_min":null,"management_years_min":null,"team_size_min":null,"manages_managers":false,"education":{"level":"bachelor","optional":false},"security_clearance":false,"languages":[]},"benefits":["Equity"],"hiring_locations":[{"name":"Canada","iso":"CA","kind":"country"}],"hiring_excludes":[],"relocation_offered":false,"industries":["Optical Communications","Quantum Computing Hardware"],"lifecycle":[{"event":"open","at":"2026-10-02T09:45:59Z"}],"visa":[],"liveness":{"score":27,"band":"fade","label":"Fading","p_open":1,"p_active":0.594,"p_room":0.45,"age_days":58,"expected_fill_days":39,"reasons":["conf:1","velocity","win:tail"],"computed_at":"2026-10-30T05:48:23Z"},"pay":null,"html_url":"https://alion.io/job/xanadu-ai-photonics-engineer-system-integration","json_url":"https://alion.io/job/xanadu-ai-photonics-engineer-system-integration.json","meta":{"generated_at":"2026-10-30T10:38:32Z","cache_seconds":300,"methodology":"https://alion.io/methodology","terms":"https://alion.io/terms","contact":"https://alion.io/contact","api":"https://alion.io/developers","about":"Alion is a live layer of people, companies and AI agents: who they are, whether they are real and active right now, what they do and how to work with them, readable by people and by agents and paid per call.","catalog":"https://alion.io/catalog.json","usage":{"tier":"crawler_verified","counted_by":"address","units_charged":1,"used_today":15328,"day_limit":null,"remaining_today":null,"minute_limit":300,"resets_at":"2026-10-31T00:00:00Z"}},"offers":[{"id":"company.slices","title":"One company in depth, by slice","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.02,"usd":0.002,"plus_per_slice":{"credits":0.05,"usd":0.005}},"unit":"per company, plus each slice with data","note":"the employer in depth","call":{"mcp_tool":"get_company","arguments":{"id":698},"rest":"https://alion.io/mcp/rest/get_company?id=698"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.slices&for=job%2Fxanadu-ai-photonics-engineer-system-integration"},{"id":"market.stats","title":"A market slice: pay, demand and time to fill","status":"live","price":{"credits":1,"usd":0.1},"unit":"per slice","note":"pay, demand and time to fill for this role and place","call":{"mcp_tool":"market_stats"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=market.stats&for=job%2Fxanadu-ai-photonics-engineer-system-integration"},{"id":"job.search","title":"Open jobs by role, technology, place, pay and visa","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.02,"usd":0.002},"unit":"per posting in a list","note":"similar open postings","call":{"mcp_tool":"search_jobs"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=job.search&for=job%2Fxanadu-ai-photonics-engineer-system-integration"},{"id":"company.verify","title":"Is this company real and active right now","status":"pilot","price":null,"unit":"per company","request":{"url":"https://alion.io/catalog/request","method":"POST","body":"{\"offer\": \"company.verify\", \"for\": \"job/xanadu-ai-photonics-engineer-system-integration\", \"note\": \"what you need it for\"}"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.verify&for=job%2Fxanadu-ai-photonics-engineer-system-integration"}],"agent":{"mcp":"https://alion.io/mcp/jobs","mcp_open":"https://alion.io/mcp/open","next":[{"tool":"get_job","arguments":{"id":1681506}},{"tool":"search_jobs","arguments":{"company":"xanadu.ai","detail":"compact"}},{"tool":"match_people","arguments":{"job_id":1681506},"note":"people open to offers who fit this vacancy"}],"note":"The same data through MCP tools: https://alion.io/mcp/open needs no sign-in (compact searches, postings, people); https://alion.io/mcp with an Alion account has everything. Docs: https://alion.io/developers"}}