---
title: 'Principal Software Engineer at Atom Computing'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/principal-software-engineer-atom-computing-boulder-d4w5qgnjzxp5'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-09-13'
---

# Principal Software Engineer at Atom Computing

- **Company:** Atom Computing
- **Location:** Boulder, CO
- **Employment:** full-time
- **Work type:** hybrid
- **Posted:** 2026-06-21
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-09-13
- **Apply:** https://jobs.lever.co/atomcomputing/f5351968-3b6b-45be-a977-50a2fee553e3

## 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 talented team of scientists, engineers, and business professionals to advance the state-of-the-art in quantum computing. We are seeking a Principal Software Engineer to provide technical leadership for the software platform that orchestrates our quantum computers. In this role, you'll set the technical direction for a core area of our stack: the systems that coordinate quantum computing workloads, interface with the hardware control and calibration systems, and manage the experimental data our systems produce, while driving the architecture of our next-generation systems. Reporting to the Software Engineering Manager, you will be responsible for leading the technical direction of a focused set of projects, partner with the team that owns our hardware control and compilation systems, and collaborate closely with our quantum engineers. This is a primarily backend role with occasional frontend work. Our backend services are written in Python and Rust, and our frontend components are written in TypeScript/React. Many of our services run directly on the quantum computers themselves, in a Linux environment, so you'll be writing and guiding software that operates close to the hardware. This role is based in our Boulder, CO or Austin, TX office.

Job Responsibilities

- Provide technical leadership for a core area of our software platform, guiding the design and execution of its projects and setting the technical direction that aligns your area with the broader team roadmap.
- Drive architectural decisions across the software stack that orchestrates quantum computing on our systems, interfacing with (but not controlling) the hardware control and calibration systems owned by our partner team, and managing the experimental data our systems produce.
- Invent novel technologies and solutions that advance our technology roadmap, contributing to inventions and patents where appropriate.
- Rewrite and productionize prototype code written by our Quantum Engineers, turning research code into reliable, well-tested, maintainable services, and establishing the patterns the team builds on.
- Mentor engineers across the team, raising the bar on code quality, design, documentation, and engineering practice.
- Deploy, monitor, and support our production platform, sharing in a team on-call rotation to keep our quantum computers reliably available to customers.
- Partner with our infrastructure team to strengthen our CI/CD pipelines, contributing improvements that speed up and stabilize how we ship.
- Represent Atom Computing's engineering work externally where relevant, in customer and partner engagements and in the broader technical community.

## Experience & Education

- Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, or a related field. Advanced degrees (Master's or PhD) are welcome but not required.
- 10+ years of professional experience as a software engineer, with a track record of significant technical achievements.

Required Qualifications

- A passion for writing software and a proven track record of designing and implementing architecture-level features in complex systems.
- Proficiency with Python and SQL.
- Experience developing and operating software in Linux environments.
- Familiarity with Git, automated testing, and modern software development practices.
- Willingness to learn the atomic, optical, laser physics, and quantum mechanics concepts needed to put your work in context.

Nice to Haves

- Experience with a compiled language such as C++ or Rust.
- Experience with cloud infrastructure (e.g. Azure, AWS, or GCP) and Terraform.
- Experience building TypeScript/React frontend components.
- Experience with containerization technologies.
- Strong organization and project management skills.
- Experience working at both a large technology company and a startup.

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 $180,000 - $220,000, 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