--- title: 'Senior Software Engineering Manager at Rigetti Computing' canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/senior-software-engineering-manager-rigetti-computing-berkeley-ca-or-fremont-as2w9n5qm1jw' type: 'job' last_seen: '2026-09-10' --- # Senior Software Engineering Manager at Rigetti Computing - **Company:** Rigetti Computing - **Location:** Berkeley CA OR Fremont, CA - **Compensation:** $220k–$250k - **Employment:** full-time - **Work type:** hybrid - **Posted:** 2026-06-12 - **Last confirmed live:** 2026-09-10 - **Apply:** https://jobs.lever.co/rigetti/52a1c423-97e2-49f3-b8b5-820dc99faf77 ## Job description ## About Us At Rigetti, our mission is to build the world’s most powerful computers to solve the world’s most challenging problems. Rigetti is a pioneer in superconducting Qubits and full stack quantum computing systems. In addition to introducing the first multi-chip quantum processor, Rigetti has led the way in software systems for quantum computing, with a distributed operating environment for hybrid quantum-classical computing, and a state-of-the-art streaming characterization and measurement development and execution platform We are seeking a Senior Software Engineering Manager to head the team responsible for software systems that enable the creation, delivery and maintenance of Rigetti’s quantum computers. This includes systems for device design, chip fabrication workflows, physics-informed data analysis, quantum gate-design, and quantum mitigation and error correction technologies. This also includes managing the team and supporting  the development of software systems for quantum QPU and system characterization. This is a hands-on leadership role for someone who thrives at the intersection of state-of-the-art software engineering, hardware, and scientific computing. ## Role Overview As a Senior Software Engineering Manager, you will lead the team responsible for software platforms that enable the design, fabrication, characterization, and measurement of Rigetti's quantum systems – with a strong emphasis on integrating into the engineering process. You will manage and develop a team of professional software engineers, and collaborate closely with quantum hardware teams, quantum control systems designers, chip designers, fabrication engineers, and algorithm researchers. You’ll be responsible for engineering and system design that spans the entire gamut of our foundry operations through the delivery of an integrated quantum computing system, and delivery of characterization and measurement software to customers. This is a unique opportunity to build software systems critical for the design and delivery of Rigetti’s quantum computers at a time of significant organizational momentum. The ideal candidate is passionate about accelerating our hardware development flywheel and can empower technical teams in complex scientific environments while creating structure, accountability, prioritization, and long-term sustainability. ## Key Responsibilities ## Team Leadership & Organizational Development - Lead and mentor a cross-functional software engineering team spanning scientific tooling, analytics infrastructure, and fabrication-support systems. - Create stronger operational rigor around prioritization, execution, accountability, and project delivery. - Provide coaching, growth support, feedback, and career development for engineers across varying levels of seniority. - Help establish healthy engineering culture, team norms, and stronger collaboration practices. - Serve as a day-to-day thought partner to the VP of Software Engineering while helping create additional leadership bandwidth across the organization. - Participate in hiring and team scaling efforts as the organization grows. Technical & Engineering Leadership - Partner closely with engineers to drive execution across scientific computing, fabrication tooling, analytics systems, and workflow automation. - Support development of internal tooling and data systems that connect design, fabrication, and device performance workflows. - Help modernize and operationalize internal tooling that has historically evolved organically through research and prototyping efforts. - Drive better long-term ownership, maintainability, and lifecycle planning for internally developed systems and infrastructure. - Help evolve engineering infrastructure and validation frameworks that improve scalability, reproducibility, and operational reliability across hardware development environments. - Support technical decision-making, architecture discussions, and engineering prioritization while remaining hands-on enough to engage credibly with the team. - Contribute technically when appropriate, particularly around debugging, architecture reviews, infrastructure improvements, or smaller engineering initiatives. Cross-functional Collaboration - Work closely with quantum engineers, physicists, fabrication engineers, and hardware teams to understand operational pain points and evolving workflow requirements. - Help balance competing stakeholder requests while improving prioritization discipline and long-term planning. - Partner with fabrication teams as Rigetti continues evolving manufacturing and foundry operations across Berkeley and Fremont. - Support systems that connect experimental data, fabrication workflows, characterization tooling, and engineering analytics into scalable internal platforms. Operational & Strategic Impact - Help transition the team from highly reactive support work toward more proactive engineering planning and scalable systems development. - Improve processes around technical debt management, prototype ownership, platform sustainability, and operational support models. - Create better visibility into engineering priorities, roadmap tradeoffs, and team capacity. - Support ongoing evolution of Rigetti’s scientific and engineering software ecosystem as the company scales hardware development efforts. - Oversee the development, and architecture of data platforms and modeling tools that combine design files, fabrication process data, and device performance metrics. - Empower the development and support for tools for design rule checking (DRC), layout-vs-schematic (LVS) checks, and process-aware design verification for quantum devices. ## Qualifications - BS or equivalent degree in Software Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Physics, Applied Physics, or related field; MS or PhD a plus. - 7+ years of software engineering experience, including 2+ years in a people leadership role, whether formal management or equivalent tech lead capacity - Demonstrated experience building data systems, ideally in scientific computing or physics-informed models. - Demonstrated experience with software systems managing large datasets, metadata, and scalable data pipelines. - Experience with streaming architectures and tools (e.g., Kafka, Kinesis, Spark Streaming). - Proficiency in Python; familiarity with JavaScript or TypeScript. Comfort in a scientific computing environment is strongly valued. - Proficiency with AWS for development and production deployment and distributed computing. - People leadership ability, including coaching, performance management, and building team culture, whether formal management experience or demonstrated informal leadership. - Strong communication and stakeholder management skills; ability to represent the team's capacity and push back constructively on internal customer requests. - Hands-on technical ability; should be capable of making code contributions on an as-needed basis, even if day-to-day focus is leadership. Nice-to-Have - Knowledge of quantum device physics, such as superconducting qubits, trapped ions, photonics, or quantum information science. - Knowledge of quantum control systems and low-level hardware/software interfaces, including cryogenic hardware, RF electronics, and qubit calibration. - Familiarity with fabrication processes in semiconductor, quantum, or other hardware/lab-based environments. - Familiarity with EDA tools, process design kits (PDKs), and chip layout software such as KLayout or Cadence. - Experience with scientific computing platforms, simulation tools, and scientific computing libraries/tools such as NumPy, SciPy, PyTorch, etc. - Experience applying machine learning to scientific, operational, or hardware systems for prediction, optimization, or anomaly detection. - Experience with compiled languages such as Go or Rust. As engineering leaders, we value diversity and are committed to building a culture of inclusion to attract and engage innovative thinkers. Our technology, meant to serve all of humanity, cannot succeed if those who built it do not mirror the diversity of the communities we serve. Applications from women, minorities, and other under-represented groups are encouraged. ## About Rigetti Rigetti Computing is a pioneer in full-stack quantum computing. The company has operated quantum computers over the cloud since 2017 and serves global enterprise, government, and research clients through its Rigetti Quantum Cloud Services platform. The company’s proprietary quantum-classical infrastructure provides ultra-low latency integration with public and private clouds for high-performance practical quantum computing. Rigetti has developed the industry’s first multi-chip quantum processor for scalable quantum computing systems. The company designs and manufactures its chips in-house at Fab-1, the industry’s first dedicated and integrated quantum device manufacturing facility. Rigetti was founded in 2013 and today employs more than 150 people with offices in the United States, U.K., and Australia. Learn more at www.rigetti.com. Don't see the job you want? Apply here so we can keep in touch with you when the right role opens up in the future! Export Licensing Compliance Rigetti is committed to full compliance with applicable anti-discrimination laws. We are an equal opportunity employer and value diversity at our company. We strive to create an inclusive work environment and will not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status. ## About Rigetti Computing ## Company Overview - **One-liner**: Rigetti Computing builds full-stack superconducting quantum computers and processors, offering cloud-based quantum computing services to enterprises, governments, and researchers. - **Entity Type**: Public (NASDAQ: RGTI) - **Headquarters**: Berkeley, California, USA - **Founded**: 2013 - **Founders**: Chad Rigetti ## Core Business - **Primary industry/industries**: Quantum computing hardware and software, superconducting quantum processors, cloud quantum services. - **Target customers**: B2B, Enterprise, Government, Research institutions (DOE, DOD, national labs, financial institutions, hyperscalers). - **Mission or purpose**: Build the world’s most powerful computers to help solve humanity’s most important and pressing problems. ## Products & Services - **Quantum Processors (QPU)**: Superconducting quantum chips, including the latest Cepheus-1-108Q (108-qubit chiplet-based system) with 99.1% median two-qubit gate fidelity. Available via cloud and on-premises. - **Quantum Cloud Services (QCS)**: Platform for hybrid quantum-classical computing, offering ultra-low latency connectivity between classical HPC and Rigetti QPUs. Accessible via AWS Braket, Microsoft Azure, and qBraid. - **Fab-1**: Dedicated quantum integrated circuit foundry in Fremont, CA, enabling vertical integration for chip design and fabrication. - **Open-Source Software**: Suite of tools for writing, simulating, and running quantum programs (e.g., Quilc, pyQuil). ## Market Standing - **Valuation/Market Cap**: Not publicly available in provided sources (public company, ticker RGTI; market cap varies with trading). - **Key Metric**: ~$569 million cash, cash equivalents, and available-for-sale investments (as of March 31, 2026). Also, 19 quantum systems deployed to date. - **Notable Investors/Partners**: Quanta (committed $250M over 5 years, $35M invested at $11.59/share), UK National Quantum Computing Centre, Air Force Research Lab, C-DAC (India), Fermilab SQMS Center, HSBC, Standard Chartered Bank, ADIA Lab, Moody’s Analytics, NASA, USRA, AWS, Microsoft Azure. - **Growth Signals**: Deployed 108-qubit chiplet system in April 2026; aiming for 1,000+ qubits at 99.9% median 2Q fidelity within ~3 years; expanding into Asian markets (India, Japan); 285 issued/pending patents; 164 employees; 70,000 combined sq. ft. of facilities. ## Competitive Advantages - **Vertical integration**: Full ownership of Fab-1, the world’s first dedicated quantum chip foundry, enabling rapid iteration and proprietary chiplet scaling. - **Chiplet architecture**: Demonstrated scaling path from 9-qubit chiplets to 108-qubit systems, with a roadmap to 1,000+ qubits. - **Fast gate speeds**: 60 ns two-qubit gate speed (targeting <50 ns) with high fidelity (99.1% median 2Q, 99.9% 1Q). Best-in-class coherence times (T1 ~40 µs). - **Strong IP portfolio**: 123 issued and 162 pending patents covering quantum engineering, fabrication, and algorithms. - **Multi-cloud distribution**: QPUs integrated into AWS, Azure, and other cloud providers, lowering access barriers for customers. ## Strategic Focus - **Technology roadmap**: Improve median two-qubit gate fidelity to 99.5% in 2026, then to 99.9% at <50 ns gate speed while scaling to 1,000+ qubits to achieve quantum advantage in ~3 years. - **Commercial expansion**: Target government-sponsored deployments and on-premises sales (e.g., UK, India, Japan) to drive technology development until quantum advantage is realized. - **Partnerships**: Deepen collaboration with Quanta (joint investment of $500M over 5 years) and financial sector leaders to develop practical quantum use cases. - **Financial strength**: Maintain strong cash position (~$569M) to fund R&D and scaling efforts. ## Why Work Here - **Culture**: Emphasizes collaboration, innovation, and a "growth mindset" — employees are encouraged to challenge assumptions, learn from failures, and shape the future of quantum computing. - **Compensation & benefits**: Full-time employees receive stock-based compensation (ownership in the company), comprehensive medical/dental/vision (96% of employee and 93% of dependent premiums covered), flexible vacation policy, remote work options, and generous parental and military leave. - **Work environment**: ~164 employees across Berkeley HQ and Fremont Fab-1; hybrid/remote flexibility; early-career talent development through embedded internship programs. - **Engineering culture**: World-class team of experts (58 PhDs) working on cutting-edge superconducting quantum systems, from chip design to cloud deployment. Opportunities to contribute to real projects in quantum software, algorithms, hardware, and systems. ## Sources 1. [Rigetti Careers Page](https://www.rigetti.com/careers) 2. [Rigetti About Page](https://www.rigetti.com/about-rigetti-computing) 3. [Rigetti Investor Deck - June 2026](https://investors.rigetti.com/static-files/fbac3801-223f-4f0f-a207-47d25084a1d7) 4. [Rigetti Job Listings (Lever)](https://jobs.lever.co/rigetti) 5. [Rigetti Homepage (System Specs)](https://www.rigetti.com/) ## Other roles at Rigetti Computing - [Field Engineer: Cryogenics & RF Hardware](https://feeny.ai/job/field-engineer-cryogenics-rf-hardware-rigetti-computing-berkeley-ca-or-fremont-z7tz70gq1r43) — Berkeley CA OR Fremont, CA - [Lead Quantum Engineer, Systems Performance](https://feeny.ai/job/lead-quantum-engineer-systems-performance-rigetti-computing-berkeley-xrx3qcnc1hb5) — Berkeley, CA - [Senior Quantum Engineer, Gate Calibration](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-quantum-engineer-gate-calibration-rigetti-computing-berkeley-vqsg1847y2k0) — Berkeley, CA - [Senior Mechanical Engineer - Cryogenic](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-mechanical-engineer-cryogenic-rigetti-computing-berkeley-y0q9887364d2) — Berkeley, CA - [Quality Control Technician](https://feeny.ai/job/quality-control-technician-rigetti-computing-berkeley-854mtb4qepq7) — Berkeley, CA - [Director, Global Quantum System Deployment](https://feeny.ai/job/director-global-quantum-system-deployment-rigetti-computing-berkeley-ca-or-q65xkqs9vf6x) — Berkeley CA OR Fremont, CA - [Senior Process Engineer - Physical Vapor Deposition (PVD)](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-process-engineer-physical-vapor-deposition-pvd-rigetti-computing-fremont-pwbqkhks9v69) — Fremont, CA - [Senior Quantum Field Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-quantum-field-engineer-rigetti-computing-united-states-united-kingdom-2y3mgzbpms66) — United States / United Kingdom - [Senior Technical Program Manager (TPM)](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-technical-program-manager-tpm-rigetti-computing-berkeley-a5g35skx4sbe) — Berkeley, CA - [Future Open Position](https://feeny.ai/job/future-open-position-rigetti-computing-united-states-d0tz4x3f3dyk) — United States