Principal Platform Engineer

Atom Computing; Colorado; On-site; USD 195,000 - 220,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Fully paid health insurance

Dental insurance

Vision insurance

401(k) with company matching

Disability insurance

FSA

Dependent care benefits

Life insurance

Drinks and catered lunches

Unlimited PTO

Job summary

Atom Computing seeks a Principal Platform Engineer in Boulder, CO to design and run the systems powering our quantum computing workflows. You will shape infrastructure spanning on-prem labs and cloud platforms, balancing reliability, security, scalability, and cost.

The role requires office presence in Boulder three days per week and close collaboration with software, hardware, and control systems teams. Candidates should have strong IaC, containerization, and observability experience.

Qualifications

• BS or advanced degree in Computer Science.
• 7+ years of post-degree experience in infrastructure/platform/systems engineering.
• Experience building out infrastructure or migrating major platforms.
• Proficient with infrastructure-as-code tooling (Terraform, Ansible, Pulumi).
• Experience with containerization/orchestration (Docker, Kubernetes).
• Experience managing hybrid environments (on-prem and cloud).
• Knowledge of networking, Linux system administration, and CI/CD design.
• Expertise in monitoring, logging, and observability (Prometheus, Grafana, Datadog).

Responsibilities

• Design, build, and maintain compute infrastructure for quantum control systems.
• Collaborate with software, control systems, and physics teams to meet workload requirements.
• Own infrastructure-as-code, deployment automation, and observability across environments.
• Enforce security, access control, and compliance standards (NIST 800-53, SOC2).
• Participate in on-call rotation and drive incident analysis and reliability improvements.
• Evaluate new tooling and balance build-vs-buy decisions with velocity and overhead.

Skills

Infrastructure design

7+ years experience

Security/compliance

Observability

On-call incident response

Education

BS or higher in Computer Science

Tools

Terraform

Ansible

Pulumi

Docker

Kubernetes

Proxmox

AWS/GCP/Azure

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)

$195,000 - $220,000 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 $195,000 - $220,000, commensurate with experience. In addition to salary, we offer an annual bonus and equity in the company.