Senior Software Engineering Manager
- Compensation
- Not disclosed
- Location
- Not listed
- Work setup
- Not specified
- Seniority
- Senior
- Employment
- Not specified
- Experience
- 2+ years
- Category
- Software engineering
- Posted
Skills
Must have
- BS or equivalent degree in Software Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Physics, Applied Physics, or related field; MS or PhD a plus.
- 7+ years of software engineering experience, including 2+ years in a people leadership role, whether formal management or equivalent tech lead capacity
- Demonstrated experience building data systems, ideally in scientific computing or physics-informed models.
- Demonstrated experience with software systems managing large datasets, metadata, and scalable data pipelines.
- Experience with streaming architectures and tools (e.g., Kafka, Kinesis, Spark Streaming).
- Proficiency in Python; familiarity with JavaScript or TypeScript. Comfort in a scientific computing environment is strongly valued.
- Proficiency with AWS for development and production deployment and distributed computing.
- People leadership ability, including coaching, performance management, and building team culture, whether formal management experience or demonstrated informal leadership.
- Strong communication and stakeholder management skills; ability to represent the team's capacity and push back constructively on internal customer requests.
- Hands-on technical ability; should be capable of making code contributions on an as-needed basis, even if day-to-day focus is leadership.
Nice to have
- Knowledge of quantum device physics, such as superconducting qubits, trapped ions, photonics, or quantum information science.
- Knowledge of quantum control systems and low-level hardware/software interfaces, including cryogenic hardware, RF electronics, and qubit calibration.
- Familiarity with fabrication processes in semiconductor, quantum, or other hardware/lab-based environments.
- Familiarity with EDA tools, process design kits (PDKs), and chip layout software such as KLayout or Cadence.
- Experience with scientific computing platforms, simulation tools, and scientific computing libraries/tools such as NumPy, SciPy, PyTorch, etc.
- Experience applying machine learning to scientific, operational, or hardware systems for prediction, optimization, or anomaly detection.
- Experience with compiled languages such as Go or Rust.
Full description
About Us
At Rigetti, our mission is to build the world’s most powerful computers to solve the world’s most challenging problems. Rigetti is a pioneer in superconducting Qubits and full stack quantum computing systems. In addition to introducing the first multi-chip quantum processor, Rigetti has led the way in software systems for quantum computing, with a distributed operating environment for hybrid quantum-classical computing, and a state-of-the-art streaming characterization and measurement development and execution platform
We are seeking a Senior Software Engineering Manager to head the team responsible for software systems that enable the creation, delivery and maintenance of Rigetti’s quantum computers. This includes systems for device design, chip fabrication workflows, physics-informed data analysis, quantum gate-design, and quantum mitigation and error correction technologies. This also includes managing the team and supporting the development of software systems for quantum QPU and system characterization. This is a hands-on leadership role for someone who thrives at the intersection of state-of-the-art software engineering, hardware, and scientific computing.
Role Overview
As a Senior Software Engineering Manager, you will lead the team responsible for software platforms that enable the design, fabrication, characterization, and measurement of Rigetti's quantum systems – with a strong emphasis on integrating into the engineering process.
You will manage and develop a team of professional software engineers, and collaborate closely with quantum hardware teams, quantum control systems designers, chip designers, fabrication engineers, and algorithm researchers. You’ll be responsible for engineering and system design that spans the entire gamut of our foundry operations through the delivery of an integrated quantum computing system, and delivery of characterization and measurement software to customers.
This is a unique opportunity to build software systems critical for the design and delivery of Rigetti’s quantum computers at a time of significant organizational momentum. The ideal candidate is passionate about accelerating our hardware development flywheel and can empower technical teams in complex scientific environments while creating structure, accountability, prioritization, and long-term sustainability.
Key Responsibilities
Team Leadership & Organizational Development
- Lead and mentor a cross-functional software engineering team spanning scientific tooling, analytics infrastructure, and fabrication-support systems.
- Create stronger operational rigor around prioritization, execution, accountability, and project delivery.
- Provide coaching, growth support, feedback, and career development for engineers across varying levels of seniority.
- Help establish healthy engineering culture, team norms, and stronger collaboration practices.