--- title: 'Optical Engineer - Lens Designer at Atom Computing' canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/optical-engineer-lens-designer-atom-computing-boulder-58k6f0zvm1fd' type: 'job' last_seen: '2026-11-08' --- # Optical Engineer - Lens Designer at Atom Computing - **Company:** Atom Computing - **Location:** Boulder, CO - **Compensation:** $150k–$175k - **Employment:** full-time - **Work type:** onsite - **Posted:** 2026-11-06 - **Last confirmed live:** 2026-11-08 - **Apply:** https://jobs.lever.co/atomcomputing/55636c93-b673-4161-bedd-37ee529549da ## 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 specializing in Lens Design to create custom, high-performance optical systems from the ground up. In this role, you will own the complete optical design lifecycle—from initial concept and ray-tracing to tolerancing, finalizing optical prescriptions, and working directly with fabrication vendors to bring custom lenses for our quantum computer to life. Job Responsibilities - Design, build, and test lens assemblies and systems for fiber collimation, laser delivery, imaging systems. - Research and develop novel lens and mirror systems for laser delivery and imaging systems. - Perform analysis on aberration correction, athermalization, and chromatic performance to balance competing system requirements - Evaluate suitability of design solutions by performing detailed tolerance and stray light analysis - Develop alignment procedures for optical designs - Generate rigorous optical fabrication drawings and specifications (e.g., ISO 10110 standards) for custom lens components and assemblies. - Collaborate directly with custom optics foundries and coating vendors to ensure manufacturability (DFM) and oversee the procurement of custom optical elements. ## Experience & Education - Bachelor’s degree in Optical Sciences or Optical Engineering, advanced degree a plus - 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 - Expertise in Design for Manufacturing (DFM) for precision optics - Fluency in optical drawing standards (ISO 10110). - ## Experience with lens tolerancing in ray-tracing software - ## Experience with STOP analysis - ## Experience with stray light analysis - 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 ## 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 - [Quantum Operations Engineering Manager](https://feeny.ai/job/quantum-operations-engineering-manager-atom-computing-copenhagen-bjny6m9kdhkq) — Copenhagen, Denmark - [Senior Accountant](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-accountant-atom-computing-boulder-99hhqqtam351) — Boulder, CO - [Senior Silicon Systems Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-silicon-systems-engineer-atom-computing-austin-5cf6ctk14rg8) — Austin, TX - [Project Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/project-engineer-atom-computing-boulder-3g63fxrb528y) — Boulder, CO - [Senior Hardware Engineer - High Speed Mixed Signal Designer](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-hardware-engineer-high-speed-mixed-signal-designer-atom-computing-boulder-ssaaj1q913jf) — Boulder, CO - [Laser Engineer - System Integration and Test](https://feeny.ai/job/laser-engineer-system-integration-and-test-atom-computing-boulder-p34sg5htmw9j) — Boulder, CO - [Quantum Engineering Manager](https://feeny.ai/job/quantum-engineering-manager-atom-computing-boulder-f6tce9ex3pe6) — Boulder, CO - [Lead Quality Control Inspector](https://feeny.ai/job/lead-quality-control-inspector-atom-computing-boulder-97sce3j3qf5z) — Boulder, CO - [Principal Subsystem Build and Test Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/principal-subsystem-build-and-test-engineer-atom-computing-boulder-pjz5ddc8dxx2) — Boulder, CO - [Principal AI Developer Experience Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/principal-ai-developer-experience-engineer-atom-computing-boulder-j86866kcam10) — Boulder, CO