---
title: 'Principal Optical Engineer at Atom Computing'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/principal-optical-engineer-atom-computing-boulder-c3awk0vbdfc1'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-11-01'
---

# Principal Optical Engineer at Atom Computing

- **Company:** Atom Computing
- **Location:** Boulder, CO
- **Compensation:** $170k–$200k
- **Employment:** full-time
- **Work type:** onsite
- **Posted:** 2026-09-24
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-11-01
- **Apply:** https://jobs.lever.co/atomcomputing/aa1147d6-db4a-49bf-baa4-0f1c04796de8

## 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. We are seeking a Principal Optical Engineer. As a technical lead, you will define and implement rigorous standards for optical engineering, ensuring design integrity through detailed modeling and analysis. You will collaborate closely with physicists and subject matter experts to architect the optical assemblies and modules essential for our next-generation neutral atom quantum computers. This position reports directly to the VP of Optical Engineering and requires on-site work at our Boulder, CO facility four to five days per week.

Job Responsibilities

- Initiate and lead the design and specification of complex, next-generation optical systems and subsystems from the component level up to the system level
- Collaborate with technical leaders across engineering domains to understand key product use cases to inform next generation hardware development lifecycle
- Work with physicists and subject matter experts to develop requirements and system architecture for optical assemblies, subsystems, and modules to support next generation neutral atom computers
- Establish and enforce best practices for optical design, performing critical design reviews, detailed tolerance analysis, and advanced stray light modeling to ensure suitability of design solutions
- Define and standardize precision alignment procedures for all optical designs and subsystems, ensuring robust and repeatable assembly
- Provide high-level leadership and oversight for hands-on assembly and precision alignment of finalized optical designs
- Mentor junior team members and generate internal training documents and procedures
- Contribute as a subject matter expert to technical writing, grant proposals, and presentations
- Generate new intellectual property and inventions
- Develop complex optical components and devices with external vendors including managing the design process and defining deliverables
- External speaking and/or customer engagements
- Troubleshoot technical issues at Atom and off-site customer facilities
- 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
- 10+ years optical design experience
- 7+ years of hands-on optics assembly experience in a laboratory environment
- Experience bringing a complex optical system from conception to productization

Required Qualifications

- Deep expertise and demonstrated leadership in the design of high-numerical-aperture imaging systems and complex laser distribution networks
- Proven track record of driving complex technical initiatives from conception through deployment, and the ability to mentor and scale the engineering team's capabilities
- Proficiency with Zemax, FRED, or equivalent ray-tracing software
- Experience with structural-thermal-optical-performance (STOP) analysis
- Experience with Onshape, Solidworks, or equivalent 3D CAD
- Deep experience and knowledge of free-space optics, fiber optics, lasers, optical metrology/characterization, polarization, and detection
- Experience with high-power lasers and optical design toward high-power systems.
- Creative, critical thinker with ability to strategize and solve complex problems in a dynamic environment
- Strong interpersonal skills and commitment to teamwork

## Preferred Qualifications

- Experience with neutral atom quantum computing
- Industry/Professional experience in commercial product development and deployment to a customer site

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

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- [Laser Engineer - Manufacturing](https://feeny.ai/job/laser-engineer-manufacturing-atom-computing-boulder-p34sg5htmw9j) — Boulder, CO
- [Lead Quality Control Inspector](https://feeny.ai/job/lead-quality-control-inspector-atom-computing-boulder-97sce3j3qf5z) — Boulder, CO
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- [Principal AI Developer Experience Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/principal-ai-developer-experience-engineer-atom-computing-boulder-j86866kcam10) — Boulder, CO
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