Member of the Technical Staff, Fault Tolerant Quantum Compilation + Simulations

Posted on July 29th, 2026.

Unitary Foundation is a 501(c)(3) non-profit research group building a quantum technology ecosystem that benefits the most people. We pursue our mission through the production of public goods, support of the open-source community and digital commons, and the development of quantum’s open-source infrastructure.

Through this role you’ll be at the center of the emerging field of quantum technology, helping build open-source software for quantum compilation, simulation, and early fault-tolerant workflows.

Role - Member of the Technical Staff, Fault Tolerant Quantum Compilation + Simulations

We’re hiring a Member of Technical Staff to help define and build Unitary Foundation’s open-source quantum compilation and simulation stack. You will join a small technical team developing software and performing research through sponsored collaborations with national labs, universities, industry partners, and the open-source quantum software community.

This role is about technical ownership. You will work with collaborators to understand research and software bottlenecks, form a technical point of view, propose roadmaps, and build tools that can become useful shared infrastructure.

Our current work in this area includes projects such as Mitiq, UCC, and Clifft, and connects to software built across the wider open-source quantum community. The broader goal is not only to build UF tools, but to help cultivate a stronger ecosystem: improving, integrating, and sustaining the shared infrastructure needed for quantum compilation, simulation, error mitigation, resource estimation, benchmarking, validation, and early fault-tolerant workflows.

We care about software that developers and researchers can actually use: clear interfaces, reliable behavior, tests, documentation, examples, benchmarks, and maintainable designs. The opportunity is to help build part of the open-source backbone for quantum compilation and simulation, while still doing hands-on research and engineering.

We are also interested in how emerging AI tools can change the way scientific software and research are done. At UF, you will have room to experiment thoughtfully with AI-assisted and agentic workflows—for example, to explore technical literature, develop and test ideas, build software, design benchmarks, analyze results, or improve research infrastructure. We are looking for someone who is curious about these possibilities and brings the scientific judgment needed to evaluate where they create real leverage and where they do not.

What You’ll Do:

Build, integrate, and maintain open-source software. Design, implement, test, review, and release features across tools such as Mitiq, UCC, Clifft, and related community projects. Build software that researchers and developers can actually use: clear APIs, tests, documentation, examples, packaging, maintainability, and performance-aware design.
Lead technical contributions to collaborations. Work with external partners to turn research needs into durable software artifacts, not just one-off demos. Bring technical judgment to the work, including identifying better approaches than the initial request when needed.
Benchmark and evaluate tools. Develop transparent, reproducible benchmarks for quantum compilers, simulators, and related workflows, including tools built by UF and by the wider open-source community. Use those results to guide technical priorities and help the community understand tradeoffs between approaches.
Contribute to the ecosystem. Engage with UF’s microgrants, unitaryHACK, community calls, and related programs to connect our compilation and simulation work with the wider open-source quantum software community. Help identify, improve, integrate, or sustain community-built software when that is the right path to stronger shared infrastructure.
Do research and communicate it. Develop technical ideas, analyze results, write papers or technical reports when useful, present demos, and explain design choices.
Explore AI-enabled research workflows. Experiment with ways AI can support scientific software development, technical research, benchmarking, validation, and analysis, while applying rigorous judgment about where these tools are genuinely useful.
Set technical direction. Help shape the roadmap for Unitary Foundation’s compilation and simulation work. Identify high-leverage problems and turn ambiguous research goals into concrete open-source software plans.

About You:

We expect you to have experience with most of the following:

A track record of building, maintaining, or substantially contributing to software that other people use (ideally open source).
A strong technical background in quantum computing, especially fault tolerance, quantum error correction, compilation, simulation, resource estimation, or error mitigation.
Strong Python skills and experience with scientific software. Experience with C++/Rust is a plus.
Experience collaborating with researchers, engineers, users, and/or external partners.
Good software judgment around APIs, testing, documentation, code review, packaging, benchmarks, maintainability, performance tradeoffs, and edge cases.
Comfort working independently in a small team, including driving work forward when the roadmap is not fully specified.

A PhD in physics, computer science, mathematics, engineering, or a related field is one possible background for this role, but it is not required. We care most about your ability to combine quantum technical depth with strong software judgment and follow-through.

Helpful But Not Required:

Experience with quantum compilers, simulators, resource estimators, error-correction workflows, hardware-aware compiler tools, performance-sensitive scientific software, lower-level systems work, HPC, open-source quantum packages, or AI-assisted research and engineering workflows would be helpful.

Work Hours and Benefits:

Flexible Hours - We are happy to accommodate complex schedules or limitations, and care more about the work getting done than the times you’re sitting at your computer.

Alignment - Being a small team, we will be seeking a collaborator who aligns with our culture; we would love for it to be a delight to work together.

Whole Self - Our team is made up of smart, caring humans who take time to know one another personally and cater to individual needs or perspectives.

Remote - This is a fully remote role within the United States.

International Community - While this role is U.S.-based, we work with a global open-source community and collaborators across many cultures and institutions.

For U.S. employees, Unitary Foundation offers a full 401k plan and healthcare benefits.

Apply Here

Applications are open.

Please include a resume or CV and a short note about open-source software you have built, maintained, or meaningfully used. We are especially interested in how you think about software that other people depend on.