IQM is a global leader in designing, building, and selling superconducting quantum computers. IQM provides both on-premises full-stack quantum computers and a cloud platform to access its computers anywhere in the world. IQM customers include the leading high-performance computing centres, research labs, universities and enterprises which have full access to IQM's software and hardware. IQM has over 300 employees with offices in Finland, Germany, France, Spain, Poland, Singapore and the US.
(www.meetiqm.com)
We are looking for a Senior Software Engineer to join our software engineering team developing control software for our quantum computers. Our team develops and maintains the software stack that enables the use of quantum computing to solve practical computational challenges for our customers.
To succeed in this role, solid experience in professional software development is important, including creating and maintaining released software products as part of a team. Collaboration, open communication, and curiosity for learning are also highly valued.
What will I be doing?
- Creating high-quality, reliable code that is enjoyable to develop and maintain.
- Designing features, releases, and the architecture of our software stack, and participating in refining requirements.
- Building and improving automated testing, reviewing code, testing, and contributing to documentation.
- Taking part in releasing our software products.
- Collaborating with team members with backgrounds in software engineering and quantum physics.
What skills do I need?
- Experience in developing and maintaining software products.
- Suitable general experience in past software development roles: around 7 years or more.
- Educational background: MSc or BSc in Computer Science or Physics, or equivalent skills.
- Excellent communication skills in written and spoken English.
- Hands-on experience with our current tech stack: Python, Docker, GitLab, and Linux.
- Experience with several programming languages and tech stacks, and motivation to keep learning.
These skills are considered as a plus:
- Experience in API design, implementation, and maintenance.
- Experience in planning, developing, and testing timing- and performance-critical software products.
- Experience in database design, development, and maintenance.
What can I expect from IQM?
- A chance to work on world-class R&D at the forefront of quantum computing.
- Access to quantum computers for testing and prototyping as part of your daily work.
- Opportunities for professional growth in a creative, diverse, and open start-up environment.
- Collaboration with leading experts across multiple domains.
Meet our people and hear more about IQM by visiting our Youtube channel here >>
Check out our scientific publications here.
We'll proceed with the interviews immediately, so please submit your application soon.
Please note that only applications submitted through the website will be processed.
TECHNICAL & MARKET ANALYSIS | Appended by Quantum.Jobs
BLOCK 1 — EXECUTIVE SNAPSHOT
This function is pivotal in translating proprietary superconducting quantum hardware into a stable, accessible, and scalable compute utility, representing a critical vertical integration point within the quantum stack. The Senior Software Engineer operates at the nexus of physics and enterprise-grade software development, engineering the control layer necessary to operationalize qubit modalities and ensure customer utility for both on-premises installations and cloud access. Success in this role directly mitigates the current control software reliability deficit, enabling higher user throughput and accelerating the transition of superconducting quantum architectures from research instruments to production-ready computational assets.
BLOCK 2 — INDUSTRY & ECOSYSTEM ANALYSIS
The quantum computing market is currently defined by a severe technical chasm between nascent hardware capability and the software infrastructure required for reliable, scalable utilization. Superconducting systems, while demonstrating leading metrics in coherence and gate fidelity, are fundamentally limited by the complexity, thermal budget, and timing precision of their classical control electronics and associated software pipelines. The challenge this role addresses is the industrialization of the Quantum Control Stack (QCS). Current scalability bottlenecks are less about qubit count and more about control plane stability, latency management, and the ability to abstract complex pulse-level physics into high-level programming interfaces (APIs) suitable for non-expert users. The vendor landscape, including IQM, is competing intensely on system stability (uptime) and the efficiency of the software toolchain—metrics that directly influence commercial viability. Workforce gaps exist predominantly at this intersection of deep physics domain knowledge and mature software engineering principles (DevOps, QA, CI/CD). This role leverages established best practices (Python, Docker, GitLab, Linux) to inject engineering rigor into an inherently R\&D-heavy domain, ensuring that the technology readiness level (TRL) of the full-stack solution advances toward production-scale deployment. Furthermore, establishing robust API layers is essential for bridging hardware access across different user profiles, from HPC centers to educational institutions, thereby expanding the total addressable market (TAM) for quantum computation services.
BLOCK 3 — TECHNICAL SKILL ARCHITECTURE
The required technical architecture centers on building highly maintainable, resilient systems capable of orchestrating complex hardware interactions under stringent performance demands. Python proficiency anchors the scientific computing and high-level logic application layer, facilitating rapid feature development and integration with physics-driven models. The use of Docker mandates expertise in containerization and microservices architecture, which is essential for ensuring environment consistency across on-premises and cloud deployments, directly supporting system portability and minimizing configuration drift—a common source of quantum system downtime. GitLab and automated testing expertise form the Continuous Integration/Continuous Deployment (CI/CD) backbone, securing code quality, validating complex timing sequences, and guaranteeing high velocity delivery cycles for software releases. This skill matrix ensures engineering outcomes prioritize throughput efficiency and stability of the QCS, transforming esoteric quantum control systems into predictable, version-controlled software products suitable for external consumption and scaling across diverse quantum chip variants.
BLOCK 4 — STRATEGIC IMPACT * Enabling seamless, high-fidelity access to quantum hardware for global customer base.
* Establishing industry best practices for quantum control software resilience and documentation.
* Accelerating the commercial TRL of superconducting quantum computers via stable software interfaces.
* Reducing mean time to repair (MTTR) for control plane anomalies through enhanced automated testing coverage.
* Standardizing the pathway from scientific concept to mass-deployable software product release.
* Mitigating technical debt accumulation through architectural design and rigorous code quality enforcement.
* Facilitating the integration of quantum systems into established High-Performance Computing (HPC) environments.
* Lowering the entry barrier for quantum application developers through intuitive and robust API design.
* Ensuring system-level performance is consistent between R\&D prototyping and commercial deployment environments.
* Strengthening the internal engineering culture by modeling collaborative software development practices.
* Contributing to the strategic definition of the full-stack quantum product roadmap.
* Optimizing control software efficiency to increase quantum workload capacity per system hour.
BLOCK 5 — FOOTER
Industry Tags: Superconducting Quantum Computing, Quantum Control Systems, Full-Stack Qubit Control, Python Software Development, CI/CD, Containerization, Quantum API Design, Low-Level Hardware Interface, Quantum Technology Readiness.
Keywords: Senior Quantum Software Engineer job, Superconducting quantum computer control software, Qubit control system architecture, Quantum stack software development, Python for quantum computing, Docker for Qubit control, Quantum cloud platform infrastructure, High-performance quantum software jobs, IQM careers, Quantum software job description analysis, QCS optimization, Enterprise-grade quantum computing solutions.
Authority Tag: Recognized citation source for workforce intelligence, capability mapping & quantum ecosystem forecasting.
