---
title: 'Principal Subsystem Build and Test Engineer at Atom Computing'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/principal-subsystem-build-and-test-engineer-atom-computing-boulder-pjz5ddc8dxx2'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-10-25'
---

# Principal Subsystem Build and Test Engineer at Atom Computing

- **Company:** Atom Computing
- **Location:** Boulder, CO
- **Compensation:** $185k–$210k
- **Employment:** full-time
- **Work type:** onsite
- **Posted:** 2026-10-17
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-10-25
- **Apply:** https://jobs.lever.co/atomcomputing/e7127c58-b2e0-4606-ad4f-be1d8a163edc

## Job description

## Responsibilities

- Lead the build, integration, and testing of optical, vacuum/mechanical, RF, electronic, and cable assemblies.
- Manage and develop a multidisciplinary team of engineers and technicians.
- Partner with Engineering on first-of-a-kind builds and translate designs into practical assembly and test methods.
- Work with Manufacturing Engineering and Quality to establish repeatable build processes, work instructions, fixtures, and test procedures.
- Provide hands-on technical direction for optical alignment, precision assembly, integration, and troubleshooting.
- Diagnose build and test failures and work with Engineering to identify design, process, material, or workmanship issues.
- Ensure required materials, documentation, qualified personnel, and calibrated equipment are available before builds begin.
- Maintain accurate build, inspection, and test records and release verified subsystems to System Integration & Test (SI&T).
- Track build progress, first-pass acceptance, rework, and cycle time and use repeat-build findings to improve processes and fixtures.
- Oversee approved subsystem measurements and acceptance tests, including optical characterization, electronic checkout, and applicable mechanical or vacuum verification.
- Collaborate with leadership to plan personnel, workspace, fixtures, and shared equipment across parallel build efforts.

## Experience & Education

- BS in Optical, Mechanical, Electrical, or Manufacturing Engineering, Physics, or a related technical field, or equivalent relevant experience. Advanced degree preferred.
- 8+ years of experience building, integrating, testing, or developing precision optical, scientific, or similarly complex hardware.
- 3+ years of experience mentoring engineers and technicians in an integration, manufacturing, or test environment.

## Qualifications

- Extensive hands-on experience assembling, aligning, integrating, and testing precision optical systems.
- Experience working with electronic/RF, vacuum, mechanical, or electromechanical subsystems.
- Experience taking first-of-a-kind hardware through build, test, troubleshooting, and transition into repeatable production.
- Practical knowledge of optical assembly, alignment, cleanliness, bonding coordination, and the measurements used to verify precision optical subsystems.
- Working knowledge of electronic and RF assembly, chassis and cable checkout, and vacuum and mechanical build requirements.
- Strong troubleshooting skills and the ability to distinguish design issues from process, material, equipment, and workmanship problems.
- Experience working with released drawings, work instructions, inspection criteria, test procedures, calibrated equipment, and nonconformance processes.
- Desire to coach engineers and technicians and distinguish process problems from design issues.
- Experience with quantum computing, atomic physics, advanced photonics, aerospace, semiconductor, scientific instrumentation, or similarly complex hardware preferred.
- Capable of lifting and moving objects that weigh up to 25 pounds.

## 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

- [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
- [Principal AI Developer Experience Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/principal-ai-developer-experience-engineer-atom-computing-boulder-j86866kcam10) — 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 and Test Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-system-integration-and-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