Monitoring & Observability Engineer

Oxford Quantum Circuits (OQC); Reading; On-site; GBP 70,000 - 110,000; Full time

Job summary

Oxford Quantum Circuits (OQC) is seeking a Monitoring and Observability Engineer to keep our live quantum computing systems running at their best. You’ll monitor health and performance of cryogenic systems, respond to incidents and develop intelligent monitoring solutions to maximise uptime.

In the Live Services team you’ll build dashboards, refine alerting, automate responses and collaborate with engineering, operations and reliability groups to improve observability and reduce downtime.

Qualifications

• Experience in monitoring or observability for complex technical systems.
• Experience creating and maintaining operational dashboards and alerts.
• Experience supporting uptime, incident response, or on-call environments.
• Strong analytical and problem‑solving skills to identify trends and risks.
• Experience developing software in Python using modern practices.
• Excellent communication and cross‑team collaboration skills.

Responsibilities

• Monitor live systems, triage alerts and provide first-line incident response to maximise availability.
• Develop and maintain dashboards for visibility into health, trends and performance.
• Analyse recurring incidents to identify root causes and improve alert quality.
• Collaborate with Reliability, Software and Operations teams to enhance observability tooling.
• Define thresholds, alerts and metrics to support reliable live quantum services.
• Produce documentation covering monitoring processes and handovers.
• Contribute to automation and continuous improvement to reduce manual work.

Skills

Monitoring

Observability

Dashboards

Incident response

Python

On-call

Communication

Engineering collaboration

Data analysis

Problem solving

Education

Engineering/Physics/CS degree or equivalent

Tools

Grafana

Kubernetes

Containerisation

REST APIs

Python

Prometheus

Job description

At OQC, we aren't just theorising about the future; we're building it. Born from a philosophy of bold innovation, we've successfully transitioned quantum computing from an academic dream into a commercial reality. The most exciting thing is that we're just getting started and we've recently closed our £260 million Series C funding round - the largest fundraise ever completed by a quantum computing company in Europe.

The Purpose

As a Monitoring and Observability Engineer, you'll help keep OQC's live quantum computing systems running at their best. By improving system visibility, developing intelligent monitoring solutions and driving operational improvements, you'll play a key role in maximising uptime and enabling world-class live quantum computing services.

The Role

Working within our Live Services team, you'll monitor the health and performance of our live cryogenic systems, respond to operational incidents and continuously improve our observability capabilities. You'll collaborate across engineering, operations, software and reliability teams to develop dashboards, refine alerting strategies and automate operational responses that improve reliability and reduce downtime.

What You\'ll Be Working On

• Monitor live systems, triage operational alerts and provide first-line incident response to maximise system availability
• Develop and maintain dashboards that deliver clear visibility into system health, trends and operational performance
• Analyse recurring incidents and monitoring data to identify root causes, improve alert quality and drive preventative action
• Collaborate with Reliability Engineering, Software and Operations teams to enhance observability tooling and operational processes
• Define monitoring thresholds, alerting strategies and operational metrics that support reliable live quantum computing services
• Produce documentation covering monitoring processes, incident response, escalation procedures and operational handovers
• Contribute to automation and continuous improvement initiatives that reduce manual intervention and improve service reliability

What We\'re Looking For

• Experience working in monitoring, observability or operational support for complex technical systems
• Experience working with dashboards, telemetry, alarms, logs or time-series data
• Experience supporting uptime, incident response or on-call operational environments
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills with the ability to identify trends, anomalies and operational risks
• Experience developing software in Python using modern development practices
• Experience creating and maintaining operational dashboards
• Excellent communication skills with the ability to collaborate effectively across technical teams
• Degree, HNC/HND, apprenticeship or equivalent experience in Engineering, Physics, Computer Science, Controls, Instrumentation, Data or a related technical discipline
• Willingness to participate in an on-call rota and travel internationally when required

The \u2018Nice-to-Haves\u2019

• Experience with Grafana Labs or similar observability platforms
• Experience monitoring high-availability technical systems
• Understanding of incident management, root cause analysis, reliability engineering or Site Reliability Engineering (SRE) principles
• Experience with HTTP/REST APIs, Git, containerisation, Kubernetes or Infrastructure as Code
• Continuous improvement, ownership or leadership experience

Why Join OQC

You will join a world-class team at the forefront of the next computational era. We offer a culture of bold innovation, the chance to work with unique lab infrastructure, and the opportunity to see your work redefine the limits of computation.

Learn more about our benefits and positive work culture here: https://oqc.tech/company/careers-at-oqc/