Software Architect

Qblox; Delft; On-site; EUR 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

Qblox is seeking a Software Architect to own the technical vision of our quantum control stack. You will design from FPGA firmware to embedded software and Python APIs, guiding architecture as we scale from hundreds to thousands of qubits.

This role blends strategic leadership with hands-on coding, mentoring engineers, shaping abstractions, interfaces, and patterns, and ensuring delivery aligns with product needs and hardware realities.

Qualifications

• 10+ years of software engineering across multiple stack layers.
• Deep embedded systems expertise including hardware interfaces and timing constraints.
• Strong architectural design experience spanning hardware to high-level APIs.

Responsibilities

• Define the control stack architecture: firmware, embedded software, compilers, and high-level APIs.
• Plan for scale: design solutions that scale 10x without fundamental rewrites.
• Enable product vision by translating user needs into architectural decisions.
• Collaborate across hardware, firmware, software, product, and applications teams to align on standards.
• Unblock teams by addressing hard technical challenges and optimizations across layers.
• Debug across Python, compiler, firmware, and FPGA layers to ensure correctness.
• Contribute hands-on code when needed to validate architectural choices.
• Mentor engineers and promote consensus around technical direction.
• Listen to customers and users to refine architectural decisions.

Skills

Software architecture

Embedded systems

FPGA Expertise

Python API design

Systems thinking

Leadership

Cross-functional collaboration

Tools

C/C++

FPGA tooling

Job description

Our Mission

Qblox is a deep-tech scale-up whose mission is to accelerate the worldwide race towards scalable quantum computers. We provide some of the world's most advanced quantum control stacks to laboratories and quantum startups across the globe. Our hardware and software sit right next to the quantum chips, giving experimentalists precise control and readout of their qubits. Through our open-source interfaces (qblox-scheduler and qblox-instruments), users can write and execute experiments and algorithms using Python—from defining quantum circuits to compiling down to our quantum assembly, Q1ASM. We offer a dynamic environment where engineering meets cutting-edge physics research.

Our Mission

Qblox is a deep-tech scale-up whose mission is to accelerate the worldwide race towards scalable quantum computers. We provide some of the world's most advanced quantum control stacks to laboratories and quantum startups across the globe. Our hardware and software sit right next to the quantum chips, giving experimentalists precise control and readout of their qubits. Through our open-source interfaces (qblox-scheduler and qblox-instruments), users can write and execute experiments and algorithms using Python—from defining quantum circuits to compiling down to our quantum assembly, Q1ASM. We offer a dynamic environment where engineering meets cutting-edge physics research.

Your Mission: Architecting at the Edge of Physics and Engineering

We need a Software Architect who understands the full stack—from FPGA firmware through embedded systems to high-level Python APIs—and can design the architecture that ties it all together. You will own the technical vision for how our control stack scales from hundreds to thousands of qubits and beyond. This role is both strategic and tactical: you will shape the long-term architectural direction while maintaining a firm understanding of the hardware realities underneath. You are shaping a vision, not micro-managing progress, and we need a leader who makes engineers better, unblocks them, and builds consensus around technical direction.

Key Responsibilities

• Strategic Architecture
• Define the Control Stack: Design how firmware, embedded software, compilers, and high-level APIs work together as we scale to thousands of qubits.
• Plan for Scale: Architect solutions that work today and scale 10x without fundamental rewrites.
• Enable Product Vision: Work with product managers and application engineers to translate user needs into architectural decisions that actually work.
• Collaborative Direction: Build consensus on abstractions, interfaces, and trade-offs, and convince teams through clarity, not authority.
• Bridge Teams & Establish Patterns: Connect hardware, firmware, software, product, and application engineering teams around a shared technical vision, defining standards that teams actually want to follow.
• Tactical Execution
• Unblock Teams: Jump into the hardest technical challenges when teams are stuck, including instruction scheduling bottlenecks, timing constraints, compiler optimization, and distributed control.
• Debug Across Layers: Trace issues from Python down through the compiler, firmware, and FPGA when things do not work as expected.
• Code When it Helps: Write critical code, prototypes, or proof-of-concepts to validate architectural decisions or show teams the path forward.
• Guide, Don't Gatekeep: Review designs with a focus on helping engineers succeed, rather than finding reasons to say no.
• Listen to Users: Work with customer-facing teams and customers to understand where the architecture is helping or getting in the way.
• Experience: 10+ years of software engineering with deep experience across multiple layers of the stack.
• Embedded & FPGA Expertise: Deep embedded systems expertise (hardware interfaces, resource-constrained environments) and a strong understanding of what FPGAs can and cannot do, including timing constraints and firmware/hardware interaction.
• Systems Thinking & Performance: A track record of designing architectures that span from low-level hardware to high-level APIs, with experience optimizing for latency, throughput, and determinism.
• Hands-On Credibility: You still write code when needed and earn respect through technical depth, not title.
• Collaborative Mindset: Engineers genuinely enjoy working with you; you make teams more effective and know how to translate perspectives across product, applications, and field teams.
• Pragmatism: You know when to compromise on purity for shipping, and when to hold the line on fundamentals.
• Communication: Strong ability to explain complex technical decisions clearly to engineers, product managers, and customers.

Nice-to-Haves

• Domain Knowledge: A physics, quantum computing, or scientific computing background is nice to have, but not required.
• Compiler Experience: Background in compiler design, ASTs, intermediate representations (IRs), or transpilers.
• Scientific Ecosystem: Experience with quantum or scientific Python software such as Qiskit, Q-CTRL, QUA, Cirq, CUDA-Q, QCoDeS, NumPy, SciPy, xarray, or pytest.
• Distributed & Control Systems: Experience with digital signal processing, control systems, or coordinating multiple processors with tight timing requirements.
• Customer-Facing Experience: You have talked to users, understand their pain points, and let that inform your architectural decisions.

Why Join Qblox?

• Impact: Take on a central architectural role shaping how quantum control software scales globally.
• Innovation: Thrive in an interdisciplinary, cutting-edge environment at the intersection of high-level software, low-level firmware, and quantum hardware.
• Growth: Work with a fast-moving, high-performance team building tools used by leading quantum researchers worldwide.