IC Layout Automation Software Engineer, Rigetti Computing
$190-220k
Plus equity
Office located in Fremont, CA
Cloud-based quantum computing
Be an early applicant
Cloud-based quantum computing
101-200 employees
Be an early applicant
$190-220k
Plus equity
Office located in Fremont, CA
101-200 employees
Company mission
To build the world’s most powerful computers to help solve humanity’s most important and pressing problems.
Role
Who you are
- This is a highly interdisciplinary role that requires strong software fundamentals alongside familiarity with IC design workflows and fabrication processes
- B.S., M.S., or Ph.D. in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Physics, Applied Physics, Materials Science, or a related technical field
- Strong proficiency in Python, with experience developing and maintaining production-quality software in a real-world engineering or technical environment
- Proven ability to own and improve complex, long-lived codebases, including refactoring, architecture decisions, testing, documentation, and maintainability
- Experience working with IC layout data and formats, including GDSII
- Familiarity with EDA / IC layout tooling such as KLayout, gdspy, Cadence, or similar platforms
- Strong communication skills, with the ability to operate across teams that use different technical language and workflows
- Working knowledge of semiconductor fabrication workflows, with exposure to lithography processes
- Familiarity with lithography required; experience with e-beam lithography a strong plus
- Ability to translate design, fabrication, or process requirements into reliable software implementations
- Demonstrated ability to work cross-functionally with stakeholders across software, hardware, design, fabrication, and research teams
- Ability to manage ambiguity, prioritize competing requests, and bring structure to evolving technical systems
- Comfortable working closely with cleanroom, fab, or lab-based teams in an R&D environment
What the job involves
- Rigetti is seeking an IC Layout Automation Software Engineer to develop and maintain software systems that support the design and fabrication of superconducting quantum circuits
- This role sits at the intersection of software engineering, IC layout, and semiconductor fabrication, enabling the translation of device and process requirements into manufacturable layouts
- You will work closely with cross-functional teams across design, fabrication, and research to build and evolve tools that are critical to how quantum devices are designed and produced
- You will play a key role in improving the reliability, usability, and scalability of layout generation and design tooling used in a cutting-edge R&D environment and over time, in shaping what that tooling becomes
- Design, develop, and maintain production-quality software systems for IC layout generation and design workflows
- Refactor and improve existing codebases to increase maintainability, usability, and performance
- Build scalable and extensible software architectures that support evolving design and fabrication requirements
- Ensure code quality through best practices in testing, documentation, and version control
- Translate design and fabrication requirements into layout-ready implementations
- Work with GDSII and IC layout formats to generate, manipulate, and validate layout data
- Develop and maintain tooling that supports layout generation, verification, and iteration
- Integrate software workflows with existing EDA tools and design environments
- Partner closely with design, fabrication, and research teams to understand requirements and deliver effective solutions
- Collaborate with stakeholders to define workflows and improve how design requests are translated into implementation
- Support users across multiple technical domains, improving usability and reducing friction in tooling
- Contribute to prioritization discussions across competing stakeholder needs
- Improve usability and accessibility of internal design tools to reduce errors and increase efficiency
- Identify and address gaps in current workflows, proposing more robust and user-friendly solutions
- Support the evolution of tooling from ad hoc usage toward more structured and scalable systems
- Balance reactive work (stabilization, bug fixing) with proactive development of new capabilities
Our take
Quantum computing received its first proof of concept in recent years, but remains abstract and unapproachable in terms of real-life applications. The technology would be enormously beneficial in combination with recent tech innovations such as cloud computing, but this application has been relatively unexplored.
Rigetti Computing builds quantum-computer systems that can be accessed through a cloud-based platform. These cloud services allow users to utilize the power of Rigetti's computers, built through a hybrid of quantum processors and traditional servers. The idea here is to increase access to the cutting-edge potential of quantum computing to all types of companies.
Despite the company's respected position in the field, which saw its 2022 participation in a joint project with Riverlane to tackle syndrome extraction (a key step in making quantum computers more accurate), it has found little fortune in 2023. In February it layed off 28% of its staff and replaced both its CFO and CTO, as it faced delisting from the Nasdaq stock exchange. The company hopes that refocussing on its core technology will enable it to recover from this situation and regain its footing moving forward.
Kirsty
Company Specialist at Welcome to the Jungle
Insights
Company
Funding (last 2 of 12 rounds)
Jun 2022
$0.7m
GRANT
Aug 2020
$79m
SERIES C
Total funding: $272.8m
Company benefits
- Comprehensive medical, dental, and vision coverage - we cover 98% and 95% of employees’ and dependents’ premiums respectively
- Stock-based compensation for every full time employee
- Flexible vacation policy
- Remote work options
- Generous parental and military leave
Company HQ
Southwest Berkeley, Berkeley, CA
Leadership
Subodh Kulkarni
(CEO)Member of the Board of Directors at KeyTronic Corp, Chairman of the Board at Prism Computational Sciences, and BoD Member at CyberOptics, where they were formerly the President and CEO.
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