Quantum Frontiers Associate — Innovation & Security

EY; West of England; Hybrid; GBP 70,000 - 110,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Wellness incentive

Flex leave (8 weeks/year)

Parental leave (26 weeks)

Job summary

EY is seeking a Quantum Associate to drive quantum technology initiatives, with a 60‑70% focus on quantum safety and 30% on quantum compute. The role requires a strong background in quantum tech, cryptography, and software development in a fast‑moving, collaborative environment.

Applicants should have 2–3+ years of hands‑on experience in related areas, and familiarity with PKI, TLS, and modern quantum SDKs. EY offers flexible work arrangements and a competitive salary package.

Qualifications

• Foundational understanding of quantum computing principles, qubits, gates, NISQ constraints, and error mitigation.
• Working knowledge of post‑quantum cryptography, including KEMs, signature schemes, and cryptographic standards.
• Familiarity with PKI, TLS 1.3, certificate management, and key‑exchange mechanisms.
• Proficiency with one or more quantum SDKs: Qiskit, Cirq, PennyLane, AWS Braket, Azure Quantum/QDK.
• Strong Python programming capabilities, including numerical libraries (NumPy, SciPy, pandas).
• Understanding of classical optimisation, linear algebra, and probabilistic reasoning.
• Experience with version control (Git), containers (Docker), and CI/CD workflows. Languages: Python, C++, Rust, or equivalent.

Responsibilities

• Lead and support development, demos, and presentations of solutions in quantum cybersecurity and quantum computing domains.
• Contribute to PQC readiness, risk assessments, migration planning, and crypto‑agility improvements.
• Develop and evaluate quantum algorithms and workflows for optimisation, ML, and simulation use cases.
• Build software kits and tools, design architectures, benchmark performance, and apply best software engineering practices.
• Produce leadership and sector presentations, assessment reports, standards, and executive‑level documents.
• Collaborate with cross‑functional teams including security engineering, ML/AI groups, platform teams, and product stakeholders.

Skills

Quantum concepts

Post-quantum crypto

PKI/TLS

Quantum SDKs

Python programming

GIT/CI/CD

C++

Rust

Optimization

Education

Bachelor’s/Master’s in Physics, CS, Cybersecurity, EE, Applied Math

Tools

Qiskit

Cirq

PennyLane

AWS Braket

Azure Quantum QDK

Job description

EY is seeking a Quantum Associate to drive quantum technology initiatives, with a 60‑70% focus on quantum safety and 30% on quantum compute. The role requires a strong background in quantum tech, cryptography, and software development in a fast‑moving, collaborative environment.

Applicants should have 2–3+ years of hands‑on experience in related areas, and familiarity with PKI, TLS, and modern quantum SDKs. EY offers flexible work arrangements and a competitive salary package.