{"id":1988158,"url":"https://alion.io/job/xanadu-ai-staff-control-systems-architect-photonic-quantum-computing","title":"Staff Control Systems Architect - Photonic Quantum Computing","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":"Hardware","role_family":"Hardware","seniority":"staff","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":98000,"max_usd":165000,"period":"year","method":"role_seniority_country_remote_cell","sample_n":17},"experience_years_min":8,"visa_sponsorship":false,"relocation_package":false,"has_equity":false,"technologies":[{"name":"Python","optional":true}],"status":"live","first_seen_at":"2026-10-07T02:30:31Z","employer_posted_date":"2026-10-07","last_verified_at":"2026-11-02T22:28:57Z","board_verified":true,"closed_at":null,"days_open":26,"trust":{"level":"ok","repost_count":null,"flags":[],"days_open":26},"description":"About Xanadu:Xanadu’s mission is to build quantum computers that are useful and available to people\neverywhere.\nAt Xanadu, we are learners, innovators, researchers, collaborators and problem solvers. We are\ncreating something that has never been built before. What we are doing is extremely hard, the\nclassic moon shot. Few people in their life will be able to be a part of something like this, where\nif we are successful, the technologies we develop will solve some of the world’s most\nchallenging problems and literally change the world. And that is something to be excited about!\nYour role and responsibilities\nXanadu is building fault-tolerant photonic quantum computers. Our machines work only when\nhundreds of optical, electronic and digital subsystems behave as one coherent, controllable\nsystem. This includes lasers and phase locks, squeezed-light sources, photon-counting and\nhomodyne detectors, programmable photonic circuits, and the electronics, ASIC, FPGA, and\nsoftware layers that drive them. We are looking for a Staff Control Systems Architect to own that\ncoherence.\nOur ideal candidate is a senior individual contributor who thinks at the level of the whole\nmachine and can still get an error-signal scheme, feedback controller, or calibration algorithm\nright. As a team player with excellent communication skills, you will work together with\nengineers and scientists across our FPGA, electrical and analog-IC, embedded software, laser\nsystem, state preparation, quantum architecture and systems integration teams. You will act as\na bridge between these teams and leverage this synergy to turn a collection of subsystems into\na working system and carry it through its lifecycle.\nThis will be possible because you\nOwn the architecture of the central control system for the next generations of our fault\ntolerant quantum computers: real-time feedback and locking, feedforward and switching,\ninitialization and calibration, timing and data flow.\nDefine and document the interfaces and requirements between digital control, FPGA\nfirmware, analog/mixed-signal electronics and ASICs, embedded software and the\noptical hardware, and keep them consistent as the design evolves.\nMake system-wide tradeoffs and get them adopted: decide what is easy, what is hard,\nand what will hurt later, backed by quantified budgets on noise, latency, bandwidth and\nengineering effort.\nLeverage our collaboration with external partners and our participation in major\nprograms to accelerate control system progress.\nIdentify hidden dependencies and technical risks where different systems interact, before\nsuch issues become expensive.\nReview and guide the work of the FPGA, electronics and embedded teams against the\narchitecture, and mentor engineers across those teams.\nRequired qualifications and experience\nDeep hands-on experience in control of complex physical systems: feedback and\nlocking, error-signal generation, loop shaping, real-time digital control, noise\nmeasurement and budgeting, and the electronics behind them.\nA track record of architecting a system that several teams built against, including writing\ninterfaces and requirements documents, and multiple rounds of improvements through\nsystem-wide tradeoffs.\nExcellent written and verbal communication and being comfortable coordinating across\nteams and partners with competing constraints.\nPhD or equivalent experience in physics, electrical engineering or a related field,\ntypically with 8+ years of subsequent experience in quantum or photonic hardware,\nprecision instrumentation, gravitational-wave or accelerator controls, semiconductor\nequipment, aerospace/defense controls, or comparable large-scale systems.\nPreferred qualifications and experience\nContinuous-variable optics: fibre and free-space interferometry, homodyne detection,\nlaser phase and frequency locking, piezo and electro-optic actuators.\nFPGA development for real-time control or DSP, including high-speed ADC/DAC data\npaths.\nFamiliarity with analog or digital ASIC design flows.\nInstrument-control and lab-automation software (Python; frameworks such as ARTIQ,\nEPICS or QCoDeS).\nExperience taking a research control system to a production-quality, multi-unit\ndeployment.\nExperience in leveraging artificial intelligence for system architecture and software or\nhardware design tasks.\nEmpathy for how scientists, engineers, system operators, and users interact with\nXanadu’s photonic quantum computers.\nThis is for a new position. Your base salary will be determined based on your location,\nexperience, and internal benchmarks.\nIn addition to these tangible benefits, you obtain something far more valuable for your career\nand personal development in the long term:\nOwnership of the control architecture of a fault-tolerant quantum computer, alongside the\nteams who build the software and hardware.\nAccess to a state-of-the-art photonics laboratory, custom integrated photonic devices\nand custom electronics.\nA collaborative environment in which a well-argued technical case changes the plan.\nOur values are important. They are fundamental and lay the foundation for culture at Xanadu.\nLearn more about our values here.\nWe are an equal opportunity employer and encourage candidates of all backgrounds to apply.\nWe are committed to building an inclusive, safe, and equitable culture and fostering an\nenvironment where our employees feel included, valued, and heard. We are committed to\nmeeting the needs of all individuals and support a barrier-free workplace. Should you require\naccommodations at any point during the recruitment process please contact Recruiting at\n.\nPlease be advised that we may use artificial intelligence (AI) tools to assist in the screening and\nassessment of applicants for this position. These tools assist our recruitment team but do not\nreplace human judgment. Final hiring decisions are ultimately made by humans. If you would\nlike more information about how your data is processed, please contact us.","description_format":"text","description_chars":5984,"description_truncated":false,"requirements":{"experience_years_min":8,"management_years_min":null,"team_size_min":null,"manages_managers":false,"education":{"level":"phd","optional":true},"security_clearance":false,"languages":[]},"benefits":[],"hiring_locations":[{"name":"Canada","iso":"CA","kind":"country"}],"hiring_excludes":[],"relocation_offered":false,"industries":["Quantum Science & Computing","Electrical & Electronic Engineering","Quantum Computing Hardware"],"lifecycle":[{"event":"open","at":"2026-10-07T03:57:44Z"}],"visa":[],"liveness":{"score":77,"band":"hot","label":"Hiring now","p_open":1,"p_active":0.854,"p_room":0.9,"age_days":26,"expected_fill_days":41,"reasons":["conf:1","velocity","win:mid"],"computed_at":"2026-11-02T06:13:15Z"},"pay":null,"html_url":"https://alion.io/job/xanadu-ai-staff-control-systems-architect-photonic-quantum-computing","json_url":"https://alion.io/job/xanadu-ai-staff-control-systems-architect-photonic-quantum-computing.json","meta":{"generated_at":"2026-11-03T01:39:43Z","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":2249,"day_limit":null,"remaining_today":null,"minute_limit":300,"resets_at":"2026-11-04T00:00:00Z"}},"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-staff-control-systems-architect-photonic-quantum-computing"},{"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-staff-control-systems-architect-photonic-quantum-computing"},{"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-staff-control-systems-architect-photonic-quantum-computing"},{"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-staff-control-systems-architect-photonic-quantum-computing\", \"note\": \"what you need it for\"}"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.verify&for=job%2Fxanadu-ai-staff-control-systems-architect-photonic-quantum-computing"}],"agent":{"mcp":"https://alion.io/mcp/jobs","mcp_open":"https://alion.io/mcp/open","next":[{"tool":"get_job","arguments":{"id":1988158}},{"tool":"search_jobs","arguments":{"company":"xanadu.ai","detail":"compact"}},{"tool":"match_people","arguments":{"job_id":1988158},"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. 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