Staff Control Systems Architect - Photonic Quantum Computing

Xanadu’s mission is to build quantum computers that are useful and available to people

everywhere.

At 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!

Your role and responsibilities

Xanadu is building fault-tolerant photonic quantum computers. Our machines work only when

hundreds of optical, electronic and digital subsystems behave as one coherent, controllable

system. This includes lasers and phase locks, squeezed-light sources, photon-counting and

homodyne detectors, programmable photonic circuits, and the electronics, ASIC, FPGA, and

software layers that drive them. We are looking for a Staff Control Systems Architect to own that

coherence.

Our ideal candidate is a senior individual contributor who thinks at the level of the whole

machine and can still get an error-signal scheme, feedback controller, or calibration algorithm

right. As a team player with excellent communication skills, you will work together with

engineers and scientists across our FPGA, electrical and analog-IC, embedded software, laser

system, state preparation, quantum architecture and systems integration teams. You will act as

a bridge between these teams and leverage this synergy to turn a collection of subsystems into

a working system and carry it through its lifecycle.

This will be possible because you

• Own the architecture of the central control system for the next generations of our fault

tolerant quantum computers: real-time feedback and locking, feedforward and switching,

initialization and calibration, timing and data flow.

• Define and document the interfaces and requirements between digital control, FPGA

firmware, analog/mixed-signal electronics and ASICs, embedded software and the

optical hardware, and keep them consistent as the design evolves.

• Make system-wide tradeoffs and get them adopted: decide what is easy, what is hard,

and what will hurt later, backed by quantified budgets on noise, latency, bandwidth and

engineering effort.

• Leverage our collaboration with external partners and our participation in major

programs to accelerate control system progress.

• Identify hidden dependencies and technical risks where different systems interact, before

such issues become expensive.

• Review and guide the work of the FPGA, electronics and embedded teams against the

architecture, and mentor engineers across those teams.

Required qualifications and experience

• Deep hands-on experience in control of complex physical systems: feedback and

locking, error-signal generation, loop shaping, real-time digital control, noise

measurement and budgeting, and the electronics behind them.

• A track record of architecting a system that several teams built against, including writing

interfaces and requirements documents, and multiple rounds of improvements through

system-wide tradeoffs.

• Excellent written and verbal communication and being comfortable coordinating across

teams and partners with competing constraints.

• PhD or equivalent experience in physics, electrical engineering or a related field,

typically with 8+ years of subsequent experience in quantum or photonic hardware,

precision instrumentation, gravitational-wave or accelerator controls, semiconductor

equipment, aerospace/defense controls, or comparable large-scale systems.

Preferred qualifications and experience

• Continuous-variable optics: fibre and free-space interferometry, homodyne detection,

laser phase and frequency locking, piezo and electro-optic actuators.

• FPGA development for real-time control or DSP, including high-speed ADC/DAC data

paths.

• Familiarity with analog or digital ASIC design flows.
• Instrument-control and lab-automation software (Python; frameworks such as ARTIQ,

EPICS or QCoDeS).

• Experience taking a research control system to a production-quality, multi-unit

deployment.

• Experience in leveraging artificial intelligence for system architecture and software or

hardware design tasks.

• Empathy for how scientists, engineers, system operators, and users interact with

Xanadu’s photonic quantum computers.

This is for a new position. Your base salary will be determined based on your location,

experience, and internal benchmarks.

In addition to these tangible benefits, you obtain something far more valuable for your career

and personal development in the long term:

• Ownership of the control architecture of a fault-tolerant quantum computer, alongside the

teams who build the software and hardware.

• Access to a state-of-the-art photonics laboratory, custom integrated photonic devices

and custom electronics.

• A collaborative environment in which a well-argued technical case changes the plan.

Our values are important. They are fundamental and lay the foundation for culture at Xanadu.

Learn more about our values here.

We 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

[email protected].

Please 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.