Principal Software Engineer

Job Description

Job Title: Principal Software Engineer. Location: Los Angeles, United States

Responsibilities:

• Lead the architectural evolution of Q-CTRL’s software products to support scalability, reliability, and faster delivery of new capabilities.
• Design and guide a modular architecture for the Opal Suite ecosystem that allows product teams to build and release features independently.
• Drive long-term technical strategy and engineering objectives across multiple teams and departments.
• Work closely with product managers, designers, researchers, and engineering leaders to transform quantum computing technologies into commercial software products.
• Define engineering standards and best practices across systems such as distributed services, APIs, data storage, and workflow orchestration.
• Oversee large cross-team technical initiatives and coordinate solutions involving both technical and non-technical stakeholders.
• Mentor engineers and technical leaders on system design, architecture decisions, and engineering excellence.
• Communicate complex architecture decisions and technical trade-offs clearly to senior leadership and executive teams.
• Contribute directly to software development while leading architecture initiatives, typically spending about 30 percent of time coding and 70 percent leading technical strategy.

Qualifications:

• At least 10 years of experience as a software engineer with a strong focus on software architecture and large-scale systems.
• Proven experience leading architectural transformations across multiple teams, especially in cloud-native or microservices environments.
• Strong experience designing distributed systems, APIs, event-driven architectures, and high-performance data storage systems.
• Expertise in DevOps practices such as CI/CD pipelines and infrastructure-as-code tools.
• Excellent programming skills in languages such as Python, Rust, or Go;
• Strong documentation and communication skills including architecture diagrams, design documentation, and technical decision records.
• Ability to work across departments and guide engineering strategy across multiple product domains.
• Willingness to quickly learn and develop expertise in quantum computing technologies.

Preferred:

• Experience with high performance computing environments.
• Experience working with machine learning systems or platforms;
• Interest or prior exposure to quantum computing or advanced physics concepts.

Benefits and Compensation:

• Base salary range between $220,000 and $320,000 depending on experience, location, and skills.
• Eligibility for discretionary annual bonuses, equity, and additional compensation programs.
• Flexible work environment and hybrid work options;
• Competitive benefits aligned with Q-CTRL’s high performance culture.
• Opportunity to work on cutting-edge software enabling real-world quantum technology applications.

Information or Instructions:

• Q-CTRL is a global leader in AI-powered quantum control infrastructure software focused on making quantum technologies useful in industry, defense, and research.
• Founded in 2017 with offices in Sydney, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Berlin, and Oxford.
• The company raised $113 million in Series B funding in 2024 and recently demonstrated the first commercial quantum advantage with its Ironstone Opal navigation system;
• Applications with arrest or conviction records will be considered according to Los Angeles County Fair Chance Ordinance and the California Fair Chance Act.
• Official communications from the company will only come from the @q-ctrl.com domain.
• Recruitment agencies should not submit unsolicited profiles.
• Artificial intelligence tools may be used to support application review, but final hiring decisions are made by human recruiters.