---
title: 'Principal AI Developer Experience Engineer at Atom Computing'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/principal-ai-developer-experience-engineer-atom-computing-boulder-j86866kcam10'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-10-18'
---

# Principal AI Developer Experience Engineer at Atom Computing

- **Company:** Atom Computing
- **Location:** Boulder, CO
- **Compensation:** $170k–$200k
- **Employment:** full-time
- **Work type:** hybrid
- **Posted:** 2026-10-15
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-10-18
- **Apply:** https://jobs.lever.co/atomcomputing/3378aa55-86c5-449f-b3e9-0ebb73d8ee0b

## 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 a Principal AI Developer Experience Engineer to improve how our physicists and engineers use AI in their daily work. You will set best practices for AI-assisted engineering and build shared tooling that lets teams quickly adopt new AI-driven workflows. You will also influence product architecture to broaden where LLM-driven workflows apply, including areas where hardware, timing, or reliability requirements have typically called for conventional methods. This role’s aim is to accelerate work in experiment analysis, optics development, PCB and FPGA design, and quantum control software (C++/Rust) development.

Due to the need to engineer physical systems, the role will be on-site in Boulder, CO at least 3 days per week.

## Responsibilities

- Define, document, and maintain best practices for AI-assisted coding, testing, code review, and research workflows.
- Influence guidelines for using LLMs on performance-critical software, including embedded C++ and Rust, RTOS applications, and kernel device drivers: where AI assistance is appropriate, how generated code is reviewed and tested, and how memory safety, timing, and determinism are verified before merge.
- Make forward-looking electronics architecture improvements to our AI tooling and integrations so they keep pace with advances in models and agents and with shifts in engineers' tool preferences, and track industry benchmarks for AI-assisted developer productivity so our practices stay current.
- Build ways to measure the output of AI and LLM-driven workflows, such as defect and revert rates of AI-assisted changes, review findings, test coverage, performance regressions, new capabilities added, and time saved, and use the results to refine tools and guidelines.
- Ensure safe and reliable operation of AI in quantum processors.

## Experience & Education

- Master’s or PhD in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or Artificial Intelligence
- 8+ years of software development

## Qualifications

- Strong software engineering skills in Python, and experience writing embedded software in C++ or Rust, including manual memory management, hard real-time constraints, and kernel device driver implementation.
- Influencing an organization of > 50 engineers using AI agents (Claude Code, Cursor, or GitHub Copilot) on a daily basis, identifying pitfalls and measuring impact.
- Working knowledge of how LLMs behave in practice: context management, prompting, agentic workflows, harnesses, effective safety practices, tool use, and judging output quality.
- Clear written and spoken communication with audiences ranging from physicists to new software hires. An ability to influence a multi-discipline engineering organization.

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 $170,000 - $200,000, 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

- [Lead Quality Control Inspector](https://feeny.ai/job/lead-quality-control-inspector-atom-computing-boulder-97sce3j3qf5z) — Boulder, CO
- [Principal Subsystem Build & Test Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/principal-subsystem-build-test-engineer-atom-computing-boulder-pjz5ddc8dxx2) — Boulder, CO
- [Principal Manufacturing Quality Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/principal-manufacturing-quality-engineer-atom-computing-boulder-fp8wgksgjxmv) — Boulder, CO
- [Planning and Configuration Control Manager](https://feeny.ai/job/planning-and-configuration-control-manager-atom-computing-boulder-eyev6kxnctkd) — Boulder, CO
- [Optical Bonding Technician](https://feeny.ai/job/optical-bonding-technician-atom-computing-boulder-rbheeg4wqsp4) — Boulder, CO
- [Senior System Integration & Test Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-system-integration-test-engineer-atom-computing-boulder-rs2ph639cms5) — Boulder, CO
- [Research Intern](https://feeny.ai/job/research-intern-atom-computing-berkeley-w0sh0bzkxq0x) — Berkeley, CA
- [Head of Photonics](https://feeny.ai/job/head-of-photonics-atom-computing-boulder-msqcx64za7bz) — Boulder, CO
- [Senior IT Systems Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-it-systems-engineer-atom-computing-boulder-tfdxpcqyp0z8) — Boulder, CO
- [Principal ASIC Verification Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/principal-asic-verification-engineer-atom-computing-austin-sntb3tvg02vj) — Austin, TX