At Atom Computing, we build quantum computers using arrays of optically trapped neutral atoms that will empower customers to achieve unprecedented computational breakthroughs. Join a world-class team of scientists, engineers, and business professionals to advance the state-of-the-art in quantum computing.
Atom Computing is seeking a Senior Embedded Platform Engineer to enhance our software development workflows and maintain the critical infrastructure that powers our quantum computer. In this role, you'll focus on infrastructure engineering to support embedded systems. Our environment includes a wide variety of embedded computers, sensors and actuators, requiring innovative approaches to managing and scaling. Reporting to the Infrastructure Engineering Manager, you’ll collaborate with a talented, collegial team of engineers and physicists while making a lasting impact on the future of computing.
Due to the mix of on-prem and cloud infrastructure, this role is required to be in the office in Boulder at least 3 days per week.
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Responsibilities
- Design OTA update and configuration procedures for embedded systems.
- Develop automated management processes for first- and third-party embedded devices, including RF subsystems, lasers and cameras.
- Consult with security, design security primitives specific to on-prem hardware and embedded devices.
- Build and optimize monitoring, alerting, and performance metrics systems to support both development and production environments.
- Collaborate with engineering teams to streamline CI/CD pipelines and improve deployment efficiency.
Experience & Education
- BS or MS in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, or equivalent on-the-job experience.
- 5+ years of post-degree professional experience maintaining large scale distributed systems.
Qualifications
- Familiarity with MicroTCA, VPX/OpenVPX, ATCA, CompactPCI Serial, PXIe, or other high-performance embedded systems form factors and interconnect standards.
- Experience with on-premise hardware services, including virtualization and containerization management solutions such as Proxmox VE, Docker and Podman.
- Experience with OTA update workflows, firmware deployment processes, and secure device update protocols.
- Experience with Yocto linux or compiling linux distributions, kernel modules, device drivers, etc.
- Solid knowledge of CI/CD pipelines using GitLab CI/CD or GitHub Actions.
- Ability to optimize and tune on-premise hardware for performance and low latency using tools such as perf, systemd-analyze, iostat, and tuning profiles.
- Proficiency in designing and implementing metrics, monitoring, and alerting pipelines using Datadog, Grafana, or other observability tools.
- Skilled in architecting infrastructure workflows with tools such as Terraform, Ansible, Helm, or Kubernetes.
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Atom Computing provides a wide variety of perks and benefits, including fully paid medical, dental, and vision insurance for our employees and their dependents. Additionally, we offer unlimited paid time off, 401K company matching, short- and long-term disability, FSA, dependent care benefits, and life insurance. We also offer drinks, snacks, and catered team lunches in our offices, every day!
The salary range for this position is between $140,000 - $175,000, commensurate with experience.
TECHNICAL & MARKET ANALYSIS | Appended by Quantum.Jobs
The Senior Embedded Platform Engineer role type represents a critical convergence of systems engineering and quantum control logic, essential for the transition of quantum processors from laboratory prototypes to resilient, enterprise-grade platforms. This function provides the structural bridge between high-level algorithmic execution and the deterministic management of complex hardware subsystems, such as neutral atom arrays or superconducting qubits. As the sector moves toward greater scalability, the stability of the underlying infrastructure determines the upper limits of device uptime and computational throughput. This role mitigates systemic risks associated with hardware-software fragmentation by establishing standardized deployment and monitoring frameworks. Consequently, it is a high-leverage point in the value chain, ensuring that scientific advancements are supported by professional-grade infrastructure that can survive the rigorous demands of hybrid classical-quantum production environments.
The quantum computing ecosystem is currently undergoing a decisive shift from individual experiment management to the industrialization of the hardware stack. While hardware modalities vary—from trapped ions to neutral atoms—the primary barrier to commercialization has shifted to the "infrastructure gap," where the complexity of managing thousands of interconnected embedded devices outpaces traditional manual methodologies. This necessitates a transition toward software-defined infrastructure (SDI) capable of orchestrating diverse subsystems, including RF control, laser stabilization, and high-speed sensor arrays, within a unified operational framework.
Current industry focus lies on bridging classical and quantum capabilities at scale, which requires the integration of high-performance computing (HPC) standards into quantum control layers. The fragmentation of form factors and interconnect standards poses a significant risk to interoperability. As such, the sector increasingly relies on experts who can implement robust on-premise hardware services while maintaining the flexibility of cloud-native deployment patterns. This hybrid approach is essential for satisfying the extreme low-latency requirements of quantum error correction decoding and real-time pulse shaping.
Workforce and infrastructure development remain priority areas as national quantum strategies emphasize the need for sovereign, resilient compute capabilities. The emergence of platform-centric engineering roles signifies a maturation of the value chain, moving beyond pure physics toward a systems-of-systems architecture. Organizations that successfully integrate these capabilities reduce their technical debt and accelerate their progression through Technology Readiness Levels (TRLs), positioning themselves to deliver stable, high-availability quantum services to an increasingly expectant global market.
The capability architecture for this role type centers on the synchronization of advanced systems engineering with the unique constraints of quantum hardware control. Proficiency in managing large-scale distributed systems is fundamental to ensuring the reliability of the control electronics that facilitate qubit manipulation. This requires a deep integration of containerization and virtualization layers to manage the disparate software environments required for various sensor and actuator subsystems.
Furthermore, the implementation of secure, automated firmware deployment and over-the-air (OTA) update protocols is vital for maintaining the security and integrity of on-premise hardware in an era of post-quantum cryptographic threats. These capabilities provide the leverage needed to optimize hardware performance and tune for the sub-millisecond latencies required by quantum workflows. By establishing rigorous observability and CI/CD pipelines, this function ensures that infrastructure updates do not disrupt the delicate coherence of quantum experiments. Such structural enablement is the primary mechanism for achieving the high-fidelity operations necessary for fault-tolerant computing and the parallelization of complex research initiatives. - Accelerates the transition of quantum control systems from laboratory-scale prototypes to industrial-grade infrastructure
- Mitigates operational risks by implementing standardized, automated management for heterogeneous embedded device environments
- Facilitates the integration of quantum hardware with established high-performance computing (HPC) architectural standards
- Enhances the resilience of quantum platforms through the deployment of secure, verified firmware update protocols
- Reduces iteration friction between experimental physics and the delivery of scalable software-defined platforms
- Optimizes the utilization of quantum processing units by streamlining deployment and configuration workflows
- Strengthens the security posture of on-premise hardware through the implementation of specialized security primitives
- Supports the scaling of qubit arrays by providing high-leverage infrastructure for sensor and actuator orchestration
- Improves the reliability of quantum cloud services through the implementation of professional-grade observability and alerting
- Enables the deterministic performance tuning required for latency-sensitive quantum error correction tasks
- Protects long-term research investments by ensuring hardware infrastructure is architecturally compatible with future software stacks
- Orchestrates the convergence of on-premise hardware control with hybrid-cloud resource management strategiesIndustry Tags: Quantum Computing Infrastructure, Embedded Systems Engineering, Neutral Atom Arrays, Software-Defined Infrastructure, Hardware-Software Integration, Hybrid Cloud Systems, HPC-QC Interfacing, Quantum Control Electronics, Systems Reliability Engineering
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