The team:
The Pulse Team is responsible for developing the low-level software stack that controls the hardware systems enabling our physicists to conduct cutting-edge quantum experiments, and eventually be at the core of our quantum computer.
About the role:
As a Senior Software Engineer, you will play a pivotal role in designing, developing, and maintaining robust, high-performance software solutions at the core of our technology. Acting as a technical leader within the team, you will drive architectural decisions, champion engineering best practices, and mentor junior engineers to support their professional growth. You will be in charge of developing the low level of our stack, as close as possible to our hardware.
Your work will be central in bridging scientific R&D, data engineering, and production-grade platform design while enabling researchers and physicists to iterate rapidly without compromising reliability.
Responsibilities:
- Design and maintain low-level drivers and hardware abstraction layers for control electronics — including signal generators, AWGs, digitizers, and custom FPGA-based instruments.
- Define clean hardware/software interfaces that decouple control electronics from higher-level experiment logic, enabling fast hardware iteration without breaking the software stack.
- Collaborate closely with physicists and researchers to ensure models and interfaces reflect real experimental needs and enable fast iteration.
- Drive long-term architectural strategy, technical roadmap, and cross-organizational alignment.
- Mentor teams, challenge assumptions, and lead architecture reviews across the platform department.
Requirements:
- 8+ years experience designing low level software stack, close to the hardware.
- Superior engineering proficiency in Python
- Ability to define clean abstractions and synchronization mechanisms for hardware/software interaction loops — including real-time constraints, timing accuracy, and low-latency communication with control hardware.
- Hands-on experience writing drivers or low-level interfaces for hardware instruments (e.g. via VISA, SCPI, PCIe, Ethernet/UDP, or custom protocols).
- Solid understanding of Digital Signal Processing (DSP) fundamentals — sampling, filtering, modulation/demodulation, and their application to waveform generation and acquisition.
- Ability to collaborate and challenge ideas with physicists, academic-level experts, and deeply technical researchers.
- Strong technical leadership: able to influence direction, align teams, and support cross-domain decision-making.
- Hands-on experience with automation systems (schedulers, workflow engines, configuration graphs, data pipelines).
- Strong product mindset: ability to think about end-to-end delivery, user experience, reliability, and long-term lifecycle.
- Experience delivering a hardware-backed product (accelerators, HPC nodes, scientific instruments) to external users.
Recruitment Process:
- Screening call with Doriane (30 min)
- Hiring Manager Interview (45 min)
- Technical Interview with the Team (60 min)
- Leadership Interview (30 min)
- Fit Interview (30 min)
- Reference check
Skills Required
- 8+ years experience designing large-scale backend/platform architectures.
- Superior engineering proficiency in Python, async frameworks, service design, data orchestration, and performance optimization.
- Ability to define clean abstractions and synchronization mechanisms for hardware/software interaction loops, including real-time constraints and low-latency communication.
- Hands-on experience writing drivers or low-level interfaces for hardware instruments (VISA, SCPI, PCIe, Ethernet/UDP, or custom protocols).
- Strong product mindset: end-to-end delivery, user experience, reliability, and long-term lifecycle thinking.
- Ability to collaborate with physicists, academic-level experts, and deeply technical researchers.
- Strong technical leadership: influence direction, align teams, and support cross-domain decision-making.
- Hands-on experience with automation systems (schedulers, workflow engines, configuration graphs, data pipelines).
- Experience delivering a hardware-backed product (accelerators, HPC nodes, scientific instruments) to external users.
What We Do
Founded in 2020, Alice & Bob secured $30 M funding in Series A. Today, we're recognized as one of the leaders in Quantum Computing. Our cat qubits are error corrected by design, reducing hardware requirements by up to 200 times compared to other platforms enabling fault-tolerant quantum computing at scale. Our headquarters is located in Paris, with offices in Boston, MA. We are 80+ smart and dedicated innovators, coming from 17+ countries and growing by the day. We are committed to one mission: build a useful quantum computer. Check open positions: bit.ly/joinusatAB
