Field Service Engineer

About Qunnect:

Qunnect is a venture-backed quantum technology company based in Brooklyn, NY. We build and deploy first-in-class hardware that transforms existing telecommunications fiber infrastructure into quantum networks.

Our systems are deployed in real-world environments across the United States and internationally, supporting applications in research, defense, telecommunications, financial services, critical infrastructure, and next-generation distributed quantum systems.

We are looking for a Forward Deployed Field Services Engineer who wants to take quantum technology out of the laboratory and put it to work in the real world.

Role Description:

The Forward Deployed Engineer is responsible for deploying, commissioning, maintaining, and supporting Qunnect's quantum networking systems at customer sites around the world.

This is a highly hands-on and customer-facing role. You will travel regularly to customer sites, install Qunnect hardware, integrate systems with existing optical fiber infrastructure, bring systems online, validate their performance, troubleshoot issues, and train customers to operate and maintain their equipment.

You will become one of Qunnect's technical representatives in the field and will often be the person responsible for taking a system from crates on the loading dock to a fully operational quantum network.

Qunnect's systems combine quantum optics, atomic physics, lasers, fiber optics, electronics, timing systems, detectors, networking equipment, and software. You should therefore be comfortable working across disciplines and diagnosing complex systems rather than focusing narrowly on a single component.

The role also serves as an important bridge between our customers and our engineering teams. What you learn during deployments will directly influence future product design, documentation, reliability, and manufacturability.

Significant travel is a core part of this position. Candidates should be comfortable traveling frequently throughout the United States and internationally, sometimes for multi-day or multi-week deployments.

What You'll Do:

* Installation and commissioning of Qunnect quantum networking systems at customer sites.

* Deploy optical and quantum hardware into telecommunications facilities, laboratories, data centers, research networks, and other operational environments.

* Configure and validate Qunnect systems including entangled-photon sources, polarization control systems, single-photon detectors, timing equipment, fiber infrastructure, and associated electronics.

* Perform end-to-end system testing and acceptance measurements following installation.

* Diagnose and resolve optical, electronic, software, networking, and system-level problems in the field.

* Perform preventative maintenance, repairs, upgrades, and requalification of deployed systems.

* Train customers on system operation, routine maintenance, troubleshooting, and experimental use.

* Act as a technical point of contact for customers during deployments and field activities.

* Develop deep expertise across Qunnect's product portfolio and become capable of independently deploying and servicing complete systems.

* Develop and improve installation procedures, service procedures, field checklists, troubleshooting guides, and customer documentation.

* Create scripts and tools for system diagnostics, automated testing, and deployment validation.

* Analyze system performance and identify degradation, drift, or emerging failure modes.

* Coordinate deployment logistics including equipment preparation, site readiness, installation planning, and acceptance testing.

* Work closely with Qunnect's science, hardware, software, manufacturing, and product teams to resolve issues encountered in the field.

* Feed lessons learned from deployments back into product design, manufacturing, documentation, and reliability improvements.

* Support demonstrations, experimental campaigns, and new network deployments with customers and partners.

* Help establish the processes and standards required to scale Qunnect's global installed base.

Required Qualifications: M.Sc. in experimental quantum optics, atomic/molecular/optical physics (AMO), optics, photonics, or a closely related field.

* Significant hands-on laboratory experience with optical or quantum systems.

* Experience aligning and troubleshooting optical systems.

* Familiarity with lasers, fiber optics, polarization optics, detectors, optical instrumentation, and associated electronics.

* Experience with quantum light sources, single-photon detectors, time-tagging systems, or related quantum-optical instrumentation.

* Strong experimental intuition and the ability to diagnose complex systems methodically.

* Strong mechanical aptitude and comfort assembling, modifying, and repairing scientific equipment.

* Experience using test and measurement instrumentation.

* Ability to work independently and make sound technical decisions in the field.

* Comfortable interacting directly with customers, researchers, engineers, and technical partners.

* Ability to clearly explain sophisticated technical systems and train users with different levels of experience.

* Strong organizational skills and attention to detail.

* Comfort scripting in Python for diagnostics, data analysis, and test automation.

* Willingness and ability to travel extensively within the United States and internationally.

* Ability to work effectively in environments ranging from research laboratories to telecommunications facilities and data centers.

We're Particularly Interested in People Who:

Enjoy making sophisticated experimental systems work outside of controlled laboratory environments.

You should be equally comfortable aligning optics, debugging a detector, tracing fiber through a telecom facility, examining a Python diagnostic, explaining a system to a customer, and calling the engineering team back in Brooklyn when you uncover something the product needs to do better.

This role is well suited for an experimentalist or optics engineer who wants to remain deeply technical while spending less time running a single experiment and more time building, deploying, and operating real quantum infrastructure .

You should enjoy ownership. When a Qunnect system arrives at a customer site, your job is to make sure it leaves your hands working.

Travel:

This position involves frequent domestic and international travel for customer installations, commissioning, maintenance, demonstrations, and training. Travel may occasionally occur on short notice and deployments may require several consecutive days or weeks at a customer location.

When not traveling, this is an in-person role based at Qunnect's facilities in Brooklyn, NY.