Software Engineer

The future is quantum. Oxford Ionics is at the forefront of pioneering quantum computing, delivering world-leading innovation to create the most powerful, accurate, and reliable quantum systems. Quantum computing offers a radically new way of building computers that harnesses the power of quantum physics to outperform conventional supercomputers exponentially. Using our unique trapped-ion technology, we are leading the race to unleash quantum computing's unparalleled potential.

What To Expect:

We are looking for a skilled, motivated Software Engineer to join the Software team. This is the team responsible for creating and maintaining the code base and the software infrastructure needed to operate our quantum computer and test systems and to facilitate their research and development. This entails writing and maintaining code that runs on the embedded platforms that power the laboratory hardware, as well as code for regular server and workstation systems. The team works together with our science teams to enable them to do fast development and experimentation. The team also produces the production-grade software stack that will allow our future users to run quantum algorithms on our systems.

This is an exciting opportunity to work alongside scientists, engineers, and technicians. See vacuum chambers, cryostats, lasers, and more in action at our on-site laboratories and play your part in making quantum computing happen.

What You'll Be Responsible For:

With support from the rest of the team, you will be expected to productively contribute to the development of our code base. This includes a wide variety of exciting work, from developing our quantum compiler to writing embedded firmware, from designing high-level APIs as part of our quantum computing stack to advancing our internal development infrastructure and process. We don’t expect you to be an expert in these fields, but you should feel excited about becoming one.

Our Technology Stack:

• Python and Rust
• Much of our software is used by our scientists when executing routines on our quantum hardware. The APIs used by the scientists are all Python-based.
• We are developing a custom-optimising compiler for quantum circuits written in Rust and Python.
• The firmware components of the instrumentation and control system we use, ARTIQ, are written in Rust. We will be customising and extending this firmware to improve performance and add new features.
• FPGAs and SoCs
• We’ll develop custom hardware and gateware to extend our hard real-time (<1 ns) distributed control system.
• Qubits
• The quantum core of our hardware is built from trapped-ion qubits, controlled by chips designed and assembled in-house by our microfabrication team.
• You will have some flexibility over your tools, like which editor you want to use or which operating system. We use Git for our version control.

You will need strong coding skills. You must be able to express your ideas in idiomatic code and have expert knowledge of one or more mainstream programming languages. We use Python and Rust, and if you have not worked with them, you should be excited about learning them. You should have an intuitive understanding of how to structure code well and a good knowledge of code performance characteristics, such as the computational complexity of the algorithms you are using. You should enjoy quickly picking up new technologies to tackle complex challenges within an evolving industry.

Strong communication skills are important, especially in a cross-functional team, as we value the ability to translate complex technical needs into useful software. You do not need any prior experience in quantum computing.

Oxford Ionics is leading the way in quantum technology, and we need skilled, innovative individuals like you. We offer a range of benefits, including opportunities to further your career with a world-class team, business stock options, 30 days paid annual leave (plus bank holidays), flexible working, private medical and dental insurance for you and your family and much more. Join us and be part of the future of quantum computing. 

Oxford Ionics is committed to equal opportunity for all.