Photonics Circuit Designer

Entangled Future; Palo Alto (CA); Hybrid; USD 180,000 - 240,000; Full time

Job summary

PsiQuantum, based in Palo Alto, California, is seeking a mid-level Photonics Circuit Designer to join the Engineering team in hardware engineering. The role focuses on designing and analyzing integrated photonic circuits for quantum applications, collaborating across technical and non-technical teams to push the frontier of quantum hardware.

The candidate should have a PhD or equivalent, strong photonics expertise, and proven software and layout experience to contribute to the development of

Qualifications

• PhD or equivalent in Electrical Engineering or Physics.
• 5 years of relevant work or academic research experience in integrated photonics.
• In-depth knowledge of photonic devices, including performance metrics and testing techniques.
• Extensive experience with photonic design using commercial software platforms.
• Experience with integrated photonic circuit layout.
• Extensive experience with Python for scientific applications and data manipulation.
• Excellent communication skills and the ability to collaborate effectively across technical and non-technical teams.

Skills

Integrated photonics

Photonic devices testing

Photonic design software

Circuit layout

Python for science

Communication skills

Education

PhD or equivalent in Electrical Engineering or Physics

Job description

Photonics Circuit Designer at PsiQuantum, Palo Alto, California, United States. A mid-level full time position in the Engineering team, listed under hardware engineering.

PsiQuantum’s mission is to build the first useful quantum computers - machines capable of delivering the breakthroughs the field has long promised. Since our founding in 2016, our singular focus has been to build and deploy million-qubit, fault-tolerant quantum systems. Quantum computers harness the laws of quantum mechanics to solve problems that even the most advanced supercomputers or AI systems will never reach. Their impact will span energy, pharmaceuticals, finance, agriculture, transportation, materials, and other foundational industries. Our architecture and approach is based on silicon photonics. By leveraging the advanced semiconductor manufacturing industry—including partners like GlobalFoundries—we use the same high-volume processes that already produce billions of chips for telecom and consumer electronics. Photonics offers natural advantages for scale: photons don’t feel heat, are immune to electromagnetic interference, and integrate with existing cryogenic cooling and standard fiber-optic infrastructure. In 2024, PsiQuantum announced government-funded projects to support the build-out of our first utility-scale quantum computers in Brisbane, Australia, and Chicago, Illinois. These initiatives reflect a growing recognition that quantum computing will be strategically and economically defining—and that now is the time to scale. PsiQuantum also develops the algorithms and software needed to make these systems commercially valuable. Our application, software, and industry teams work directly with leading Fortune 500 companies—including Lockheed Martin, Mercedes-Benz, Boehringer Ingelheim, and Mitsubishi Chemical—to prepare quantum solutions for real-world impact. Quantum computing is not an extension of classical computing. It represents a fundamental shift—and a path to mastering challenges that cannot be solved any other way. The potential is enormous, and we have a clear path to make it real.

Job Summary: Quantum computing promises to solve

Requirements

• Education: PhD or equivalent in Electrical Engineering or Physics.
• Experience:5 years of relevant work or academic research experience in integrated photonics.
• 5 years of relevant work or academic research experience in integrated photonics.
• In-depth knowledge of photonic devices, including performance metrics and testing techniques.
• Extensive experience with photonic design using commercial software platforms.
• Experience with integrated photonic circuit layout.
• Extensive experience with Python for scientific applications and data manipulation.
• Excellent communication skills and the ability to collaborate effectively across technical and non-technical teams.