Staff AI Product Engineer, FW/SW

PsiQuantum's mission is to build the first useful quantum computers: machines capable of delivering the breakthroughs the field has long promised. Since our founding in 2016, our singular focus has been to build and deploy million-qubit, fault-tolerant quantum systems. Quantum computers harness the laws of quantum mechanics to solve problems that even the most advanced supercomputers or AI systems will never reach. Their impact will span energy, pharmaceuticals, finance, agriculture, transportation, materials, and other foundational industries. Our architecture and approach is based on silicon photonics. By leveraging the advanced semiconductor manufacturing industry, including partners like GlobalFoundries, we use the same high-volume processes that already produce billions of chips for telecom and consumer electronics. Photonics offers natural advantages for scale: photons don't feel heat, are immune to electromagnetic interference, and integrate with existing cryogenic cooling and standard fiber-optic infrastructure. That approach has since been tested at the highest level of scrutiny the U.S. government applies to emerging technology, and it has held up. In 2025, PsiQuantum closed a $1 billion funding round that valued the company at $7 billion. In 2026, the U.S. Department of Commerce signed a $100 million Letter of Intent under the CHIPS and Science Act, followed by a $125 million agreement with DARPA under Stage C of its Quantum Benchmarking Initiative, PsiQuantum's most valuable U.S. government agreement to date. This year, we also broke ground on our utility-scale quantum computer in Brisbane, Australia, and continued building out our Chicago site. Victor Peng, our CEO, and co-founder Jeremy O'Brien, now Executive Chairman, lead a team and board that reflects how seriously the world is taking this build, joined this year by Intel's Lip-Bu Tan and Atomico's Niklas Zennstrom. PsiQuantum also develops the algorithms and software needed to make these systems commercially valuable. Our application, software, and industry teams work directly with leading Fortune 500 companies, including Airbus, Lockheed Martin, Mercedes-Benz, Boehringer Ingelheim, and Mitsubishi Chemical, to prepare quantum solutions for real-world impact. Quantum computing is not an extension of classical computing. It represents a fundamental shift, and a path to mastering challenges that cannot be solved any other way. The potential is enormous, and we now have the funding, the government validation, and the sites under construction to make it real. Job Summary This is a senior individual contributor role operating at the intersection of silicon photonics, embedded systems, electronics, controls, and system software . The engineer will be responsible for translating photonic device and system requirements into robust control algorithms, firmware, APIs, diagnostics, and system-level software. The ideal candidate has previously developed firmware and software for complex embedded hardware systems , understands closed-loop control and real-time system behavior , and is comfortable working directly with hardware during bring-up, characterization, debugging, and productization. Responsibilities Architect, develop, and maintain embedded firmware for control and management of silicon photonics products. Develop firmware that interfaces with photonic devices, ASICs/FPGAs, DACs, ADCs, temperature sensors, power-management devices, and other board-level electronics. Implement closed-loop control algorithms for parameters such as optical operating points, temperature, power, bias, alignment, switching state, and other device-specific control variables. Understand system dynamics, stability, convergence, calibration, tolerances, noise, drift, and failure modes when designing control loops. Develop real-time and event-driven firmware for complex embedded systems. Develop device initialization, calibration, configuration, monitoring, fault management, and recovery mechanisms. Define and implement state machines governing system startup, operation, fault handling, recovery, and shutdown. Work with system architects to define the overall software and firmware control architecture of the product. Support remote firmware/software update mechanisms, configuration management, versioning, and system recovery. Design firmware and software with reliability, testability, manufacturability, and field serviceability in mind. Develop automated calibration and test capabilities that can transition from engineering environments into manufacturing. Define manufacturing configuration, calibration data, device parameters, and nonvolatile storage requirements. Support production test, system qualification, reliability testing, and failure analysis. Develop diagnostic capabilities that allow manufacturing and field teams to quickly isolate failures. Experience / Qualifications BS or MS in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Computer Science, Controls Engineering, Physics, or a related technical discipline. Significant professional experience developing firmware and software for complex embedded systems. Strong programming experience in C/C++ for embedded systems. Experience with Python or similar languages for automation, system test, data analysis, and hardware control. Strong understanding of embedded processors, microcontrollers, memory architectures, interrupts, timing, concurrency, and hardware interfaces. Experience with RTOS and/or embedded Linux environments. Demonstrated experience developing software that directly controls physical hardware. Strong understanding of feedback and closed-loop control systems. Experience implementing calibration, compensation, monitoring, and control algorithms. Experience with embedded communication protocols such as SPI, I•C, UART, GPIO, Ethernet, or similar interfaces. Strong system-level debugging skills across hardware and software boundaries. Experience developing software for hardware bring-up, characterization, and automated test. Ability to read schematics, understand hardware architecture, and collaborate effectively with electrical and hardware engineers. Ability to take loosely defined system requirements and develop a robust firmware/software architecture and implementation. PsiQuantum provides equal employment opportunity for all applicants and employees. PsiQuantum does not unlawfully discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions), gender identity, gender expression, national origin, ancestry, citizenship, age, physical or mental disability, military or veteran status, marital status, domestic partner status, sexual orientation, genetic information, or any other basis protected by applicable laws. We are not accepting unsolicited resumes from employment agencies. Base pay is one part of the total compensation package. Full-time roles are eligible for equity and benefits. Our compensation ranges reflect the cost of labor across multiple U.S. geographic markets, and we pay based on defined geographic zones. This position may be filled within one of the following U.S. geographic zones, each with its own salary range. Actual compensation may vary outside of these ranges and is dependent on various factors including, but not limited to, a candidate's qualifications, relevant education and training, competencies, experience, geographic location, business needs, and internal equity. Your recruiter can share more details about the salary range applicable to your location during the hiring process. Zone 1 - Bay Area and NYC Zone 2 - Examples include Los Angeles and Washington DC Zone 3 - Examples include Austin, Chicago, and Sacramento Zone 4 - Examples include Nashville and Phoenix/Tempe and many remote locations This position includes the following benefits: competitive health coverage for you and your dependents, 401(k) with company match, equity grants, access to financial wellness tools and planning resources, wellness benefits, family support programs, life and disability insurance, paid leave programs, company-designated paid holidays, discretionary time off (DTO), and an end-of-year company shutdown. Some of these benefits have eligibility requirements and may vary based on location, role, or employment status. Many of these benefits are subsidized or fully paid for by the company. The estimated annual base salary range for this role is: Zone 1

$208,300—$244,700 USD

Zone 2

$187,400—$220,200 USD

Zone 3

$166,000—$195,800 USD

Zone 4

$145,800—$171,300 USD

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