We are seeking a Lead Semiconductor Fabrication Scientist in our Brooklyn Park, MN Location.
All applicants for placement in safety-sensitive positions will be required to submit to a pre-employment drug test.
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Key Responsibilities:
- Participate in all stages of development and manufacturing of microfabricated ion traps, including new concept creation, design, layout, fabrication, packaging and characterization
- Assess requirements of current and future ion traps, and specify or develop designs and processes meeting those requirements
- Generate new ideas and IP for ion trap features and components
- Work closely with an integrated team of scientists, engineers and technicians to translate system requirements and designs into functional hardware
- Proactively anticipate fabrication risks and implement mitigation strategies
- Lead engagements with 3rd parties to cultivate possible key partnerships, supplier relationships, and co-development opportunities
- Lead strategic, long-range planning for future trap designs and processes
YOU MUST HAVE:
- Minimum Bachelor’s degree with 10+ years’ experience OR Master’s degree with 8+ years’ experience OR PhD with 6+ years’ experience in one or more of the following areas: MEMS fabrication, IC fabrication, integrated optics of waveguides, ion trap fabrication, and chip-scale photonics
- 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:
- PhD in Physics, Materials Science or Engineering
- Demonstrated leadership in micro-fabricated device design, process and characterization
- Experience developing ion traps, integrated photonics, and related devices
- Experiencing interfacing with a semiconductor foundry
- Relevant experience with process integration and development in a micro-fabrication manufacturing environment
- Experience with a wide range of semiconductor/MEMS processes and processing tools including layout, thin film deposition, additive and subtractive patterning, photolithography, deep reactive ion etching, and process integration, and 2.5D/3D packaging
- Published results within their field of research
- Experience leading cross-functional teams
- Individuals who are results-oriented and able to work with little supervision, who consistently take the initiative to get things done despite competing priorities
- Good interpersonal skills, verbal and written
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$164,000 - $205,000 a year
Compensation & Benefits:
Incentive Eligible – Range posted is inclusive of bonus target.
The pay range for this role is $164,000 – $205,000 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
Applications will be accepted on an ongoing basis, there is no application deadline for this position.
TECHNICAL & MARKET ANALYSIS | Appended by Quantum.Jobs
The advancement of the global quantum hardware sector is currently predicated on the transition from laboratory-scale prototypes to industrial-grade, reproducible manufacturing processes. Lead roles in semiconductor fabrication for quantum applications are structurally necessary to bridge the gap between theoretical device physics and the high-yield requirements of utility-scale systems. This function secures the foundational hardware layer by converting complex ion trap designs and photonic circuits into reliable, microfabricated components. Market signals from the Quantum Economic Development Consortium and national semiconductor strategies indicate that this expertise is critical for stabilizing the supply chain of high-fidelity qubits. By implementing rigorous process integration and manufacturability-driven design, these leaders mitigate the systemic risks of hardware failure and performance variability. Consequently, this role type serves as a primary driver of Technology Readiness Level progression, ensuring that the physical architectures of quantum computers can scale in alignment with roadmap mandates.
The quantum computing ecosystem is undergoing a decisive shift from emphasizing qubit count to prioritizing fault tolerance and gate fidelity. As established by sector-wide benchmarks, the physical realization of these systems depends heavily on the sophistication of the fabrication environment. The primary bottleneck for trapped-ion and photonic modalities has shifted from basic device demonstration to the consistent production of complex, 2.5D/3D packaged architectures. This transition necessitates a departure from traditional academic cleanroom practices toward the adoption of industrial semiconductor manufacturing standards, which include rigorous statistical process control and advanced materials characterization.
Macro constraints such as the global scarcity of specialized nanofabrication talent and the high capital intensity of dedicated quantum foundries place a premium on roles that can orchestrate end-to-end development cycles. Current industry dynamics are influenced by national security mandates and public-private partnerships aimed at establishing sovereign quantum capabilities. This geopolitical context requires roles that not only possess deep technical fluency in microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) and integrated optics but also the strategic capacity to manage external foundry partnerships and internal research and development pipelines.
Integration risks remain a significant barrier to commercialization. The evolution of the value chain depends on the successful coupling of quantum-native hardware with established high-performance computing (HPC) infrastructures. Roles operating at this interface are essential for ensuring that the physical constraints of fabrication—such as thin-film stress, surface roughness, and thermal expansion—are reconciled with the functional requirements of the larger system. This structural layer of expertise is the mechanism through which laboratory breakthroughs are translated into the deterministic technology roadmaps required for large-scale enterprise adoption.
The capability architecture for this role type centers on the synchronization of advanced microfabrication protocols with the specific requirements of quantum information science. Mastery of lithography, deep reactive ion etching, and thin-film deposition is essential for the structural implementation of high-fidelity ion traps and chip-scale photonic components. These capabilities are fundamental to the throughput of hardware organizations, as they enable the parallelization of iterative design cycles and the validation of new device concepts. Expertise in process integration and packaging ensures that individual qubits can be effectively scaled into multi-chip modules without compromising coherence times or gate performance. Furthermore, the ability to navigate the hardware-software interface is critical for translating system-level requirements into deterministic fabrication targets. By establishing rigorous verification and validation frameworks, this function provides the leverage needed to assess the true manufacturability of emerging architectures before full-scale capital allocation. This technical leadership reduces the friction between scientific discovery and industrial deployment, which is vital for maintaining momentum in the competitive deep-tech market. - Accelerates the deterministic transition from laboratory prototypes to scalable, industrial-grade quantum hardware architectures
- Mitigates systemic execution risks by implementing rigorous statistical process control within cleanroom environments
- Facilitates the integration of advanced 2.5D and 3D packaging solutions for high-density qubit arrays
- Strengthens the reliability of hardware roadmaps through the application of manufacturability-driven design principles
- Reduces iteration friction between device-level physics research and full-scale semiconductor manufacturing processes
- Optimizes the allocation of specialized fabrication resources across complex, multi-stage development pipelines
- Enhances the stability of the quantum supply chain by cultivating high-authority partnerships with external foundries
- Supports the scaling of quantum systems by managing the structural dependencies of integrated photonic components
- Improves the transparency of technology readiness level progression for institutional investors and policy stakeholders
- Enables the structural reproducibility of quantum experiments through the standardization of fabrication protocols
- Protects high-capital hardware investments by ensuring alignment between scientific design and industrial throughput
- Orchestrates the convergence of academic research pathways with the practical demands of utility-scale manufacturingIndustry Tags: Quantum Hardware, Semiconductor Fabrication, Ion Trap Technology, MEMS Engineering, Process Integration, Integrated Photonics, Nanofabrication, Cleanroom Management, Deep Tech Manufacturing, 3D Packaging
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