We are seeking a highly qualified Lab Software Engineering Manager in our Broomfield, Colorado location. Our software team is responsible for a wide range of products that control and provide access to our best-in-class quantum computers. This leader will manage a diverse team that delivers key enabling software for our lab environments, both in development and production. The lab software team is responsible for the core software components used by lab users, balancing their planned backlog with day-to-day requests that come in from our stakeholders. This manager will also lead team members who work closely with assigned commercial platforms to understand requirements, translate needs back to the broader software organization, and directly deliver targeted solutions where appropriate. The ideal candidate will make supporting these teams their top priority, while also being eager to contribute hands-on when the opportunity arises.
Quantinuum believes that employees work better, more efficiently and more collaboratively in close proximity to other employees, where ideas can be exchanged readily, and decisions can be made more quickly for the benefit of the Company and our customers. All employees should work at their assigned location; however, this role may offer the opportunity to work remotely up to 2 days per week, with approval.
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Key Responsibilities:
- Lead, mentor, and develop a medium-sized team of software engineers, ensuring high performance, engagement, and professional growth.
- Support the team in identifying and documenting critical information from key stakeholders, empowering them to operate independently while maintaining alignment with project and business goals.
- Manage team workload across planned roadmap work and unplanned lab‑driven requests, ensuring sustainable capacity and predictable delivery.
- Foster direct collaboration between the team and stakeholders on select projects, ensuring clear communication and alignment on goals.
- Guide the team in developing and executing plans that track critical milestones, manage risks, and align with the broader business strategy.
- Advocate for lab users by ensuring software usability, documentation, and workflows meet the realities of day‑to‑day experimental work.
- Ensure the reliable delivery of lab software systems, including experiment control, orchestration, data acquisition, and user‑facing tools used in development and production lab environments.
- Provide technical guidance when needed, with a focus on enabling team members’ ability to work independently.
- Promote a culture of continuous improvement, encouraging the team to adopt best practices in software development, testing, and documentation.
YOU MUST HAVE:
- Bachelor’s Degree minimum
- Minimum 8+ years of professional or graduate-level software development experience (MS or PhD inclusive)
- Minimum 4+ years of experience leading technical teams, including task leadership and/or personnel management.
- Due to Contractual requirements, must be a U.S. Person defined as, U.S. citizen permanent resident or green card holder, workers granted asylum or refugee status.
- Due to national security requirements imposed by the U.S. Government, candidates for this position must not be a People's Republic of China national or Russian national unless the candidate is also a U.S. citizen.
WE VALUE:
- Experience managing a team in a fast-growing or evolving environment.
- Proven ability to collaborate with stakeholders to define and align business needs with technical goals.
- Experience leading teams that deliver software enabling lab operation, experimentation, and iteration in hardware‑driven environments.
- Expertise in designing and maintaining modular, testable software systems that support experiment workflows, lab users, and evolving hardware capabilities.
- Familiarity with experiment automation frameworks or lab control systems.
- Experience with hardware-in-the-loop testing and/or real-time systems.
- Proficiency with Docker and experience managing containerized environments.
- Strong interpersonal skills, including empathy, respect, and noble intent, to foster collaboration across diverse teams with varying priorities.
- A strategic mindset that enables stepping back to see the bigger picture, helping guide the team toward the best overall solutions.
- Proficiency in modern software development practices, such as CI/CD and automated testing.
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$180,000 - $225,000 a year
Compensation & Benefits:
Incentive Eligible – Range posted is inclusive of bonus target
The pay range for this role is $180,000 – $225,000 annually. Actual compensation within this range may vary based on the candidate’s skills, educational background, professional experience, and unique qualifications for the role.
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Quantinuum is the world leader in quantum computing. The company’s quantum systems deliver the highest performance across all industry benchmarks. Quantinuum’s over 650 employees, including 400+ scientists and engineers, across the US, UK, Germany, and Japan, are driving the quantum computing revolution.
By uniting best-in-class software with high-fidelity hardware, our integrated full-stack approach is accelerating the path to practical quantum computing and scaling its impact across multiple industries.
By joining Quantinuum, you’ll be at the forefront of this transformative revolution, shaping the future of quantum computing, pushing the limits of technology, and making the impossible possible.
What’s in it for you?
A competitive salary and innovative, game-changing work
Flexible work schedule
Employer subsidized health, dental, and vision insurance
401(k) match for student loan repayment benefit
Equity, 401k retirement savings plan + 12 Paid holidays and generous vacation + sick time
Paid parental leave
Employee discounts
Quantinuum is an equal opportunity employer. You will be considered without regard to age, race, creed, color, national origin, ancestry, marital status, affectional or sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, disability, nationality, sex, or veteran status. Know Your Rights: Workplace discrimination is illegal
TECHNICAL & MARKET ANALYSIS | Appended by Quantum.Jobs
The evolution of quantum computing from theoretical research to industrial-grade infrastructure necessitates a specialized tier of leadership focused on the stabilization of laboratory-to-production software environments. As hardware architectures achieve higher qubit counts and lower error rates, the structural bottleneck has shifted toward the orchestration and control software required to manage these sensitive systems. Within the quantum value chain, a Lab Software Engineering Manager functions as the critical link between experimental physics and scalable software deployment, ensuring that software tools evolve in lockstep with rapid hardware iterations. This role is structurally necessary to mitigate the risks of operational downtime and to bridge the maturity gap between ad hoc research scripts and robust, ecosystem-ready software stacks. Market signals indicate that the demand for personnel capable of managing this technical interface is a primary determinant of a firm’s Technology Readiness Level (TRL) progression and its ability to deliver reliable cloud-accessible quantum services.
The quantum software ecosystem is currently undergoing a fundamental transition from experimental prototyping to standardized service engineering. This shift is characterized by a move toward hybrid classical-quantum workflows, where the integration of Quantum Processing Units (QPUs) into high-performance computing (HPC) environments requires high-fidelity control software and seamless data pipelines. Within this context, software engineering management at the laboratory level serves as a prerequisite for both research reproducibility and commercial throughput.
Macro-level analysis of the global quantum workforce highlights a widening "technical enablement" gap. While PhD-level research remains a pillar of the industry, the scalability of quantum hubs is increasingly dependent on engineering leaders who can implement disciplined software practices within hardware-constrained environments. These leaders must navigate the complexities of real-time systems, hardware-in-the-loop testing, and containerized orchestration, all while managing the competing priorities of roadmap-driven development and day-to-day experimental requests.
Furthermore, as the sector trends toward fault-tolerant architectures, the reliability of lab software systems directly influences the success of quantum error correction strategies and the stability of high-fidelity qubit operations. Regional competition for sovereign infrastructure has intensified the pressure on firms to maintain 24/7 operational uptime for cloud-based platforms. Consequently, the ability to manage modular and testable software systems that support evolving hardware capabilities has become a strategic advantage in the race toward practical quantum advantage.
The capability architecture for this role type centers on the integration of systems-level programming with high-level orchestration frameworks. At the foundational layer, expertise in hardware control interfaces—including communication with data acquisition systems and electronic devices—is essential for creating clean abstractions that allow for hardware agility. This is coupled with a mastery of high-throughput data pipelines and archival systems capable of managing the massive data volumes generated by experimental calibration and operation. These capabilities are critical for ensuring structural throughput, as they directly influence the speed of the hardware iteration cycle. Beyond low-level control, the role requires a strategic approach to software modularity and testability, leveraging tools like Docker and CI/CD to maintain stability in rapidly evolving lab environments. This technical interface ensures that complex experimental workflows are translated into reliable software services, facilitating the deep integration of QPUs with classical infrastructure and enabling the hybrid applications expected to dominate the field.
Ensures the continuous operational integrity of the software stacks required for high-fidelity quantum processing
Mitigates systemic risks associated with software-induced downtime in experimental and production lab environments
Facilitates the transition from laboratory-scale research to standardized commercial quantum computing services
Reduces iteration friction by maintaining the reliability of mission-critical control and orchestration utilities
Strengthens the uptime of cloud-accessible quantum platforms through disciplined software management and monitoring
Harmonizes lab-driven requirements with broader software organization roadmaps to ensure ecosystem alignment
Optimizes the lifecycle of technical assets by implementing modular and testable software architecture for hardware control
Supports the scaling of quantum hardware manufacturing by stabilizing the software interfaces used in testing and assembly
Shortens the time-to-market for new hardware iterations by ensuring software readiness for diverse back-end architectures
Improves the reliability of multi-disciplinary teams through standardized software development and documentation practices
Protects capital-intensive hardware investments by preventing software-related errors in sensitive laboratory environments
Enables the deterministic progression of technology readiness levels through the stabilization of research software infrastructure
Industry Tags: Quantum Software Engineering, Lab Control Systems, Hardware Orchestration, Systems Integration, Quantum Hardware Enablement, Research Software Management, Real-Time Systems, Quantum Cloud Infrastructure
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