Senior Software Engineering Manager

Job Description

Job Title: Senior Software Engineering Manager. Location: Berkeley, California, USA or Fremont, California, USA

Responsibilities:

• Lead and mentor a cross-functional software engineering team covering scientific tooling, analytics infrastructure, and fabrication-support systems.

• Improve prioritization, execution, accountability, project delivery, and engineering culture.

• Coach engineers, provide feedback, support career development, participate in hiring, and help scale the team.

• Work closely with the VP of Software Engineering on organizational priorities and leadership planning.

• Drive execution across scientific computing, fabrication tooling, analytics systems, and workflow automation.

• Develop internal tools and data systems connecting device design, fabrication, and performance workflows;

• Modernize research-oriented tools and prototypes into maintainable, reliable engineering systems.

• Establish long-term ownership, lifecycle planning, validation frameworks, and scalable infrastructure for hardware development.

• Participate in architecture reviews, debugging, technical decision-making, infrastructure improvements, and code contributions when needed.

• Collaborate with quantum engineers, physicists, chip designers, fabrication engineers, quantum control designers, and algorithm researchers.

• Balance stakeholder requests, improve prioritization, and support manufacturing and foundry operations across Berkeley and Fremont.

• Integrate experimental data, fabrication workflows, characterization tools, and engineering analytics into scalable platforms.

• Reduce reactive support work through proactive planning, better technical debt management, and sustainable engineering practices.

• Improve visibility into roadmaps, engineering priorities, trade-offs, and team capacity.

• Oversee data platforms and modeling tools combining design files, fabrication process data, and device performance metrics.

• Support design rule checking (DRC), layout-versus-schematic (LVS) checks, and process-aware quantum device design verification.

Qualifications:

• Bachelor's degree or equivalent in Software Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Physics, Applied Physics, or a related field. A master's degree or PhD is a plus.

• At least 7 years of software engineering experience, including 2 or more years in people leadership or equivalent technical leadership.

• Experience building data systems, preferably in scientific computing or physics-informed modeling.

• Experience managing large datasets, metadata, and scalable data pipelines.

• Experience with streaming architectures and tools such as Kafka, Kinesis, or Spark Streaming;

• Proficiency in Python and familiarity with JavaScript or TypeScript.

• Proficiency with AWS for development, production deployment, and distributed computing.

• Ability to coach engineers, manage performance, and build a positive team culture.

• Strong communication and stakeholder management skills, including the ability to explain team capacity and push back constructively on requests.

• Hands-on technical ability to contribute code when needed, alongside leadership responsibilities.

Preferred:

• Knowledge of quantum device physics, including superconducting qubits, trapped ions, photonics, or quantum information science.

• Familiarity with quantum control systems and low-level hardware/software interfaces, including cryogenic hardware, RF electronics, and qubit calibration.

• Experience with semiconductor, quantum, or other hardware and laboratory fabrication processes;

• Familiarity with electronic design automation (EDA), process design kits (PDKs), and chip layout tools such as KLayout or Cadence.

• Experience with scientific computing platforms, simulation tools, NumPy, SciPy, or PyTorch.

• Experience applying machine learning to scientific, operational, or hardware systems for prediction, optimization, or anomaly detection.

• Experience with compiled languages such as Go or Rust.

Benefits and compensation:

• Base salary of $220,000 to $250,000 per year.

• Competitive salary and equity.

• Medical, dental, and vision benefits.

• 401(k) plan.

• Paid parental leave.

• Rejuvenation days.

• Vacation policy aligned with local regulations and industry standards.

Additional information:

• Rigetti Computing develops full-stack quantum computing systems and manufactures quantum chips at its own facility.

• The company provides quantum computing services to enterprise, government, and research clients through its cloud platform.

• Rigetti is an equal opportunity employer and encourages applications from women, minorities, and underrepresented groups;

• AI tools may assist with application reviews and identifying inconsistencies or verification signals, but final hiring decisions are made by humans.

• Applicants may submit their information through the company's general application page if they do not see a suitable current opening.