---
title: 'Optical Engineer at Atom Computing'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/optical-engineer-atom-computing-boulder-6vted41aed9n'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-09-13'
---

# Optical Engineer at Atom Computing

- **Company:** Atom Computing
- **Location:** Boulder, CO
- **Employment:** full-time
- **Work type:** onsite
- **Posted:** 2026-06-23
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-09-13
- **Apply:** https://jobs.lever.co/atomcomputing/0aaee1fd-703c-43cf-8a14-592b21ab0dcf

## 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 an Optical Engineer to help lead the design of opto-mechanical subsystems and to help build them out and develop fixtures and processes for their precision alignment and assembly.

Job Responsibilities

- Partner with mechanical engineers and physicists to iteratively design optical subsystems in the areas of laser distribution, high numerical aperture microscope imaging, and optical cavities
- Analyze and make recommendations to the engineering team for balancing competing requirements
- Create novel designs and specifications of optical systems and subsystems from the component level up to the system level
- Evaluate suitability of design solutions by performing detailed tolerance and stray light analysis
- Develop alignment procedures for optical designs
- Assist in hands-on assembly and precision alignment of finalized optical designs
- Characterize the performance of optical subsystems
- Capable of lifting and moving objects that weigh up to 25 pounds.

## Experience & Education

- Bachelor’s degree in Optical Sciences, Optical Engineering or related field. Advanced degree a plus
- 3-5+ years optical design experience
- 2+ years of hands-on optics assembly experience in a laboratory environment

## Qualifications

- Experience with Fourier Optics, flat field relay optical systems, and telecentric imaging
- Experience in the design of high-numerical-aperture imaging systems
- Experience with Zemax, FRED, or equivalent ray-tracing software
- Experience with Onshape, Solidworks, or equivalent 3D CAD design software
- High attention-to-detail and accuracy
- Creative, critical thinking with ability to strategize and solve problems in a dynamic environment
- Ability to work effectively in an open, collaborative environment
- Excellent communication, listening and people skills

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 $120,000 - $145,000, commensurate with experience. In addition to salary, we offer an annual bonus and equity in the company.

## About Atom Computing

## Company Overview
- **One-liner**: Atom Computing builds large-scale, gate-based quantum computers using arrays of optically-trapped neutral atoms to help companies and researchers achieve unprecedented computational breakthroughs.
- **Entity Type**: Private (funded; $60M Series B closed January 2022, ~$191.2M total funding across 12 rounds)
- **Headquarters**: Berkeley, California, United States
- **Founded**: January 2018
- **Founders**: Ben Bloom (Founder & CTO), Jonathan King (Co-Founder & Chief Scientist); Rob Hays serves as CEO & President

## Core Business
- **Primary industry**: Quantum computing / quantum hardware and software
- **Target customers**: B2B; enterprise researchers, commercial quantum algorithm developers, national labs, and scientific institutions seeking on-premises quantum systems
- **Mission or purpose**: Building large-scale quantum computers to enable breakthrough discoveries and tackle increasingly challenging applications, with a clear path to fault tolerance.

## Products & Services
- **[AC1000 — Quantum Computing Platform]**: A universal, gate-based quantum computer commercially available for on-premises deployment. Features 1,200+ physical qubits, all-to-all qubit connectivity, better-than-threshold fidelities, mid-circuit measurement with qubit reuse/reset, and real-time conditional branching — designed to support building logical qubits.
- **[Partner Program]**: Early-access collaboration program for software and application development partners to explore quantum algorithms, provide feedback, and work alongside Atom Computing's technical team on real-world applications.

## Market Standing
- **Valuation/Market Cap**: Not disclosed
- **Key Metric**: Total funding of ~$191.2M across 12 rounds (as of 2026); latest reported annual revenue ~$5.3M
- **Notable Investors/Partners**: Third Point Ventures (led Series B), Innovation Endeavors, Prelude Ventures, National Science Foundation (grants)
- **Growth Signals**:
  - Headcount grew ~63.6% YoY to 98 employees (2026), with +2.4% monthly growth
  - 31 active job postings; job postings up +520% year-over-year and +93.8% quarter-over-quarter
  - Expanded to offices in Berkeley, Boulder, and Austin; workforce distributed across United States and Denmark
  - 24 scholarly works with ~9,800+ citations; field-weighted citation impact of 3.7; 67% open access
  - Published industry-leading coherence times (>40s) on nuclear spin qubits in Nature Communications

## Competitive Advantages
- **Massive scalability**: Neutral-atom qubits are held microns apart by focused lasers, have no electrical charge, and can be tightly packed into arrays scaling to thousands or millions of qubits without a substantial increase in system footprint
- **Long coherence**: Use of alkaline-earth metal atoms with closed outer electron shells delivers industry-leading coherence times and insensitivity to environmental noise
- **Reduced complexity**: All qubit control is mediated by light through free space rather than individual electrical cables per qubit — a simpler path to scale
- **High fidelity**: Neutral atoms are intrinsically identical and present no fundamental physics obstacles to reaching fault-tolerant thresholds
- **Advanced technical capabilities**: First-mover positioning with mid-circuit measurement, qubit reuse/reset, and real-time conditional branching on a 1,200+ qubit commercial system

## Strategic Focus
- Advancing toward fault-tolerant quantum computing and logical qubits
- Scaling neutral-atom arrays to thousands and millions of qubits
- Expanding commercial deployment of the AC1000 platform with enterprise and research partners
- Growing the partner ecosystem for software and application development
- Scaling the engineering and technical team (significant increase in software, quantum engineering, and opto-mechanical postings)

## Why Work Here
- **Culture**: Described as collaborative and curiosity-driven — "explore the unconventional, experiment, and let curiosity be your guide"; team includes scientists, hardware/software engineers, and business professionals
- **Work environment**: Flexible working arrangements, catered in-office lunches, team gatherings, and a "come as you are" atmosphere
- **Benefits**: Comprehensive healthcare, life insurance, 401k matching, and unlimited paid time off
- **Locations**: Offices in attractive tech hubs — Berkeley, CA; Boulder, CO; and Austin, TX
- **Engineering culture**: Deep technical ownership across quantum engineering, control systems, and software; talent recruited from Rigetti Computing, Quantinuum, National Instruments, NIST, and top universities (Stanford, University of Colorado Boulder); alumni exit to Google, AWS, and U.C. Berkeley

## Sources
1. [atom-computing.com — Careers](https://atom-computing.com/careers/)
2. [atom-computing.com — About Us](https://atom-computing.com/about-us/)
3. [atom-computing.com — Quantum Computing Technology](https://atom-computing.com/quantum-computing-technology/)
4. [linkedin.com — Atom Computing Company Page](https://www.linkedin.com/company/atom-computing)
5. [cbinsights.com — Atom Computing Profile](https://www.cbinsights.com/company/atom-computing)

## Other roles at Atom Computing

- [Technical Marketing Director, Quantum Computing](https://feeny.ai/job/technical-marketing-director-quantum-computing-atom-computing-boulder-sdyerfpq595r) — Boulder, CO
- [Laser Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/laser-engineer-atom-computing-boulder-ahkn0ge9x8gw) — Boulder, CO
- [Platform Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/platform-engineer-atom-computing-boulder-6mg7ytrwqkpy) — Boulder, CO
- [Principal Platform Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/principal-platform-engineer-atom-computing-boulder-czdhprdra52z) — Boulder, CO
- [Senior Embedded Platform Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-embedded-platform-engineer-atom-computing-boulder-pweseq20aq5b) — Boulder, CO
- [Senior Infrastructure Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-infrastructure-engineer-atom-computing-boulder-gqhrh0qas3jq) — Boulder, CO
- [General Application](https://feeny.ai/job/general-application-atom-computing-boulder-txp57rz50d1r) — Boulder, CO
- [Quantum Software Manager](https://feeny.ai/job/quantum-software-manager-atom-computing-berkeley-2111vsvgqg6v) — Berkeley, CA
- [Senior Systems Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-systems-engineer-atom-computing-boulder-c9bq34x14bbp) — Boulder, CO
- [Principal Hardware Engineer: High Speed Mixed Signal Designer](https://feeny.ai/job/principal-hardware-engineer-high-speed-mixed-signal-designer-atom-computing-7yyw5ehqhcaw) — Boulder, CO