Cryogenic Systems Engineer at Equal1 (California)

Equal1· California·4d ago

Role details

Work type

Onsite

Employment

Full-Time

Job description

We are seeking an experienced Cryogenic Systems Engineer to join Equal1’s cryomechanical and quantum system integration team. In this role, you will oversee the development of compact mK cryocooler systems from concept through design, assembly, testing, certification, and customer delivery.

You will work with absorption and GM coolers, and support the development of Joule-Thomson cryogenic turbocompressor systems with compression cycles at the 4K / 30K temperature stages. The role requires strong cryogenic system design experience, thermodynamic and gas-flow modelling capability, and practical knowledge of vacuum systems, helium handling, CAD, assembly, and temperature control.

MAIN DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

Develop thermodynamic and gas-flow concepts for cryogenic cooling systems, including He-4 and He-3 cycles.
Simulate and analyse cooling cycles, gas flows, thermal performance, and system behaviour.
Define concepts and requirements for cryogenic components and work with CAD/mechanical teams to realise the designs.
Support the design and integration of Joule-Thomson cryogenic turbocompressor systems.
Oversee manufacturing, assembly, integration, and testing of cryogenic systems and subsystems.
Work with vacuum systems, helium handling, temperature control systems, sensors, and cryogenic instrumentation.
Support certification and delivery of cryocooler systems to internal and external customers.

EXPERIENCE AND QUALIFICATIONS

Required

10+ years’ experience in cryogenic system design.
Experience with sub-4K cryostat design and low-temperature system integration.
Experience with GM, pulse tube, and/or Joule-Thomson cryocoolers.
Knowledge of the He-4 / He-3 phase diagram and cryogenic cooling cycles.
CFD and/or thermal modelling experience.
Knowledge of CAD systems, including basic 3D CAD for component design.
Practical understanding of vacuum systems, helium systems, assembly methodologies, and temperature control.
Strong communication skills and ability to work across multidisciplinary engineering teams.

Preferred

Experience with turbo pumps and/or cryogenic turbocompressor design.
Experience with CTE analysis and cooling cycle design.
Experience supporting certification of complex technical equipment.

Why work at Equal1

Work Environment: "Hybrid by default" — employees work across offices in Ireland, Netherlands, US, Canada, and Romania
Culture: Rated 5.0/5.0 on employer review sites (Work-Life: 5.0, Compensation: 5.0, Culture: 5.0, Career: 5.0)
Team: Small (~38 people), highly technical (26% technical, 15% research), with talent from Intel (5 alumni), University College Dublin (7), TNO, Qualcomm, and Movidius
Impact: You'd be building deployable quantum infrastructure that's already shipping — not just doing research
Career Growth: Open roles include VP of Quantum Software Engineering, Quantum Error Correction Lead, Senior Verification Engineer, Spin Qubit Calibration Engineer — indicating serious scaling of the engineering team
Notable: Employees have gone on to Stanford, PsiQuantum, Qualcomm — showing the team is deeply embedded in the quantum ecosystem

About Equal1

Company Overview

One-liner: Equal1 builds the world's first rack-mounted silicon quantum computers designed to deploy alongside classical CPUs and GPUs in standard data center infrastructure.
Entity Type: Private (Series A, last raised $60M in January 2026)
Headquarters: Dublin 4, Ireland (with offices in Fremont, CA; Delft, Netherlands; Sherbrooke, Canada; Timișoara, Romania)
Founded: 2017
Founders: Dirk Leipold (President & Co-Founder), R. Bogdan Staszewski (Co-Founder)

Core Business

Primary Industry: Quantum Computing / Nanotechnology / High-Performance Computing
Target Customers: Enterprise and government data centers, HPC clusters, AI labs, defense and aerospace organizations (current customer includes the European Space Agency)
Mission Statement: "Quantum will not deliver from the lab. It delivers when it becomes deployable: infrastructure that can be bought, run, scaled and trusted inside high-performance compute environments."

Products & Services

Equal1 RacQ: A rack-mounted silicon quantum computer that fits into a standard server rack with standard power and cooling. It runs alongside existing CPU/GPU infrastructure and supports hybrid quantum-classical workloads. Currently shipping to customers.
UnityQ: The silicon quantum processor (QSoC - Quantum System-on-Chip) built in standard CMOS foundries. Each generation adds more qubits, higher fidelity, and exponential compute within the same rack footprint.
Quantum Solutions: Capabilities for optimization (logistics, portfolio, scheduling), simulation (molecular systems, materials science), Monte Carlo (risk, pricing, modeling), and Quantum AI (training paths beyond classical scaling).

Market Standing

Total Funding: $106.5M across 12 rounds (last round: $60M in January 2026 led by Ireland Strategic Investment Fund)
Valuation: Not publicly disclosed
Notable Investors: Ireland Strategic Investment Fund, Matterwave Ventures, Atlantic Bridge, Enterprise Ireland, Elkstone Partners, EIC Fund
Key Partnership: Signed a deal with Nvidia (September 2024) for hybrid supercomputer and quantum systems
Growth Signals:
- RacQ already shipping to customers including the European Space Agency
- Headcount growing 15.6% YoY (38 employees as of mid-2026)
- Opened Dutch lab in 2024, partnered with TNO (Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research)
- 34 patents filed in quantum information science
- Multiple generations of silicon already proven

Competitive Advantages

Silicon CMOS Advantage: Unlike other qubit modalities (superconducting, ion trap, photonic) that require exotic manufacturing, Equal1 builds in standard silicon foundries — making their chips manufacturable, deployable, and upgradeable at scale.
Rack-Mounted Form Factor: The only quantum computer that fits in a standard data center rack with standard power and cooling — no cryogenic infrastructure or dedicated quantum facility required.
Deployed Today, Not "Soon": RacQ is already shipping to paying customers, including a major space agency.
Nvidia Partnership: Direct integration with the dominant AI/HPC ecosystem.

Strategic Focus

Scaling qubit count and fidelity with each UnityQ processor generation
Deepening hybrid quantum-classical compute integration with Nvidia
Expanding commercial deployments into optimization, simulation, and AI workloads
Building out the software stack and framework engineering team
Growing headcount in engineering, quantum error correction, device physics, and software roles

Sources

Job description

MAIN DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

EXPERIENCE AND QUALIFICATIONS

Preferred

Why work at Equal1

Application questions