Senior Staff Software Engineer

Job description

Alice & Bob is developing the first universal, fault-tolerant quantum computer to solve the world’s hardest problems. The quantum computer we envision building is based on a new kind of superconducting qubit: the Schrödinger cat qubit. In comparison to other superconducting platforms, cat qubits have the astonishing ability to implement quantum error correction autonomously! We are at the forefront of the quantum race, competing with tech giants such as Google or IBM, and we are growing fast after securing €100 million of funding in 2025 to develop our unique technology. Currently 200+ and counting, between physicists, PhD students, engineers and experienced business professionals, we are united to reach our ambitious goal. Are you a quantum pioneer? Join us on a mission to reshape the future! **About the team:** The **Framework team** is a central resource, working across the organisation with researchers and technicians, and is fundamentally integrated into the workflows. As a **Senior Software Engineer** on this team you will play a key role in designing, developing, and maintaining high-quality software solutions. You will also contribute to our core products and drive innovation while building our in-house software which controls the hardware equipment and the experiments that we perform. Working as a technical leader, you will mentor junior engineers and contribute to architectural decisions. **About the role:** You will be responsible for defining the **service, and platform architecture** that enables agility, evolution, and scale of our quantum computing stack. Your mandate is to create a cohesive, maintainable, and future-proof platform that supports experiment workflows, automation, logical systems, and eventually the delivery of a **QPU-as-a-product** for HPC or cloud users. Your work will be central in bridging scientific R&D, data engineering, and production-grade platform design while enabling researchers and physicists to iterate rapidly without compromising reliability. ### Responsibilities: - Architect the **services, APIs, and internal frameworks** powering experiment workflows, calibration systems, automation loops, and configuration management. - Choose and integrate appropriate storage technologies (SQL, NoSQL, object stores, columnar formats) to support scaling needs and diverse access patterns. - Define architectural patterns that maximize **agility, modularity, and maintainability** across the platform. - Collaborate closely with physicists and researchers to ensure models and interfaces reflect real experimental needs and enable fast iteration. - Partner with data engineering to build reliable ingestion paths, schema governance, data lifecycle strategies, and cross-team storage standards. - Shape the end-to-end architecture required to deliver the QPU as a **cohesive product**: API design, user orchestration, deployment strategy, and integration with HPC/cloud ecosystems. - Drive long-term architectural strategy, technical roadmap, and cross-organizational alignment. - Mentor teams, challenge assumptions, and lead architecture reviews across the platform department. ### Requirements: - 12+ years experience designing large-scale backend/platform architectures. - Superior engineering proficiency in **Python**, async frameworks, service design, data orchestration, and performance optimization. - Demonstrated experience architecting complex **infrastructure and data-heavy distributed systems**. - Ability to define clean abstractions and synchronization mechanisms for **hardware/software interaction loops**. - Deep expertise with **storage technologies across SQL, NoSQL, timeseries, object storage, and distributed filesystems**. - Strong product mindset: ability to think about **end-to-end delivery**, user experience, reliability, and long-term lifecycle. - Ability to collaborate and challenge ideas with physicists, academic-level experts, and deeply technical researchers. - Strong technical leadership: able to influence direction, align teams, and support cross-domain decision-making. ### Bonus Skills: - Experience with containerization, reproducibility, and hybrid cluster deployments (Kubernetes, HPC). - Hands-on experience with **automation systems** (schedulers, workflow engines, configuration graphs, data pipelines). - Knowledge of distributed scheduling (SLURM, Kubernetes batch, Ray, Dask, etc.) and HPC environment specifics. - Experience delivering a hardware-backed product (accelerators, HPC nodes, scientific instruments) to external users. - Knowledge of Rust, C++, or Go for performance-critical or system-level components. ### Benefits: - Our success is your success: own it with our **BSPCE**plan - **Direct IP Compensation:** Earn substantial bonuses for driving the core patents that define our quantum architecture. - Flexible **remote**policy, up to 40 % a month - A **Parental Plan** including additional benefits such as crèche support or additional days-off to take care of under 12 years old children - Subsidized membership with**[Urban Sports Club](https://urbansportsclub.com/fr/sports/paris)** - **Mental health** support with [](https://www.moka.care/) - 25-day vacation policy (as per French law) + RTT - Half of transportation cost coverage (as per French law), or yearly allowance for the die-hard bicycle users - Competitive health coverage with Alan - Meal vouchers with Swile, as well as access to a fully equipped and regularly stocked kitchen - French language courses covered by the company for those interested ### Recruitment Process: - Screening call with Doriane (30 min) - Hiring Manager Interview (45 min) - Technical Interview with the Team (60 min) - Leadership Interview (30 min) - Fit Interview (30 min) - Reference check