Principal Platform Engineer

Quantum Software; Boulder (CO); On-site; USD 170,000 - 200,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Fully paid medical, dental, and vision

Unlimited PTO

401K company matching

Short-/long-term disability

FSA

Dependent care benefits

Life insurance

Drinks and snacks

Catered team lunches

Job summary

Atom Computing seeks a Principal Platform Engineer to design and operate systems powering quantum computing workloads. You will build infrastructure spanning on-prem labs and cloud, driving trade-offs in reliability, security, scalability, and cost.

This role requires strong systems thinking and hands-on platform engineering in a Boulder office at least 3 days per week. Responsibilities include integrating with software and hardware teams, owning deployment automation, and enforcing security

Qualifications

• BS or advanced degree in Computer Science.
• 7+ years of post-degree experience as an infrastructure, platform, or systems engineer.
• Have gone through a complete infrastructure build-out or major platform migration.
• Currently working with infrastructure-as-code tooling (Terraform, Ansible, Pulumi, or similar).
• Currently working with containerization and orchestration (Docker, Podman, Kubernetes).
• Experience managing hybrid environments spanning on-prem hardware (Proxmox, K8S) and cloud providers (AWS, GCP, or Azure).
• Knowledge of networking fundamentals, Linux systems administration, and CI/CD pipeline design.
• Expertise in monitoring, logging, and observability tooling (Prometheus, Grafana, Datadog, or equivalent).

Responsibilities

• Design, build, and maintain classical compute infrastructure supporting quantum control systems.
• Work closely with software, control systems engineers, and physicists to meet workload requirements.
• Own infrastructure-as-code, deployment automation, and system observability across on-prem and cloud.
• Establish and enforce security, access control, and compliance standards (e.g., NIST 800-53, SOC2).
• Participate in on-call rotation and drive incident response and reliability improvements.
• Evaluate and integrate new infrastructure tooling balancing build-vs-buy decisions.

Skills

Infrastructure design

Linux administration

CI/CD pipelines

Hybrid/cloud computing

Education

BS or advanced degree in Computer Science

Tools

Terraform

Ansible

Pulumi

Docker

Podman

Kubernetes

Proxmox

AWS

GCP

Azure

Prometheus

Grafana

Datadog

Job description

At Atom Computing, we build quantum computers using arrays of optically trapped neutral atoms that will empower customers to achieve unprecedented computational breakthroughs. Join a world-class team of scientists, engineers, and business professionals to advance the state-of-the-art in quantum computing.

Atom Computing is seeking a Principal Platform Engineer to build and operate the systems that power our quantum computing and research workflows. In this role, you will design and design infrastructure spanning on-prem lab environments and cloud platforms, driving key trade-off decisions across reliability, security, scalability, and cost. This position requires solid expertise in infrastructure and platform engineering and strong systems thinking, along with the ability to navigate complex design problems.

Due to the need for collaboration with Atom's software, hardware, and control systems teams, this role is required to be in the office in Boulder, CO at least 3 days per week.

Job Responsibilities

• Design, build, and maintain classical compute infrastructure supporting quantum control systems
• Work closely with Atom Computing's software engineers, control systems engineers, and physicists to understand workload requirements and deliver compute infrastructure that meets them
• Own infrastructure-as-code, deployment automation, and system observability across on-prem lab environments and cloud platforms
• Establish and enforce security, access control, and compliance standards (e.g., NIST 800-53, SOC2) across systems
• Participate in on-call rotation and drive incident response, root-cause analysis, and reliability improvements
• Evaluate and integrate new infrastructure tooling, balancing build-vs-buy decisions against team velocity and operational overhead

Experience & Education

• BS or advanced degree in Computer Science
• 7+ years of post-degree experience as an infrastructure, platform, or systems engineer

Qualifications

• Have gone through a complete infrastructure build-out or major platform migration
• Currently working with infrastructure-as-code tooling (Terraform, Ansible, Pulumi, or similar)
• Currently working with containerization and orchestration (Docker, Podman, Kubernetes)
• Experience managing hybrid environments spanning on-prem hardware (Proxmox, K8S) and cloud providers (AWS, GCP, or Azure)
• Knowledge of networking fundamentals, Linux systems administration, and CI/CD pipeline design
• Expertise in monitoring, logging, and observability tooling (Prometheus, Grafana, Datadog, or equivalent)

$170,000 - $200,000 a year

Atom Computing provides a wide variety of perks and benefits, including fully paid medical, dental, and vision insurance for our employees and their dependents. Additionally, unlimited paid time off, 401K company matching, short- and long-term disability, FSA, dependent care benefits, and life insurance.We also offer drinks, snacks, and catered team lunches in our offices, every day!

The base salary range for this position is between $170,000 - $200,000, commensurate with experience. In addition to salary, we offer an annual bonus and equity in the company.

QUANTUM ROLE CONTEXT | Appended by Quantum.Jobs v2

Role context:

This role exists to bridge core software development and foundational compute infrastructure within high-tech research environments. Positioned between multidisciplinary engineering groups and cloud operations, the function provides scalable, reliable systems that support internal workflows. By establishing automated environments and maintaining hardware interfaces, professionals in this position enable software developers, system controls teams, and experimental researchers to execute computational workloads smoothly, balancing operational overhead against team development speed.

Quantum ecosystem relevance:

The position serves as essential enabling infrastructure within the quantum domain. While not directly manipulating physical qubits, platform engineers provide the classical computing foundations, automated pipelines, and hybrid operational environments required to control quantum hardware. Their work ensures that complex quantum control workflows, simulation experiments, and researcher data pipelines run with high availability, robust security compliance, and minimal downtime across local laboratory setups and cloud platforms.

Capability signals:

• - Demonstrates advanced mastery in infrastructure as code and cloud deployment automation strategies
• - Proven capability in orchestrating containerized application environments across hybrid classical infrastructure
• - Technical expertise in enforcing regulatory security standards and robust access control frameworks
• - Deep knowledge in designing continuous integration pipelines and Linux systems administration tasks
• - Hands-on experience implementing enterprise monitoring and observability architectures for complex systems