Senior Quantum Engineer, Two-Qubit Gate Calibration at Rigetti (Berkeley)
Job Description
Rigetti is hiring a Senior Quantum Engineer to drive two-qubit gate performance on its tunable-coupler superconducting processors in Berkeley. The role finds the dominant sources of gate error, traces them to their physical origin and removes them, feeding results back to design and fabrication.
At a glance
- Role: Senior Quantum Engineer, Gate Calibration
- Where: Berkeley, California, USA
- Level: PhD in physics, applied physics, electrical engineering or similar
- Focus: two-qubit gates on tunable-coupler superconducting processors
- Apply: open until filled (re-checked 12 October 2026)
About the gate calibration role
- Lead experimental programmes to characterise, calibrate and optimise two-qubit gates, from single-pair physics to full-processor deployment
- Identify gate-error bottlenecks such as coherent control error, decoherence, leakage, crosstalk and TLS interactions, and isolate their origin through experiments, benchmarking and simulation
- Develop robust, automated calibration methods using optimal pulse shaping, dynamical decoupling and other error suppression
- Improve metrology for full-processor Hamiltonian extraction and turn findings into feedback for device design, fabrication and control teams
- Prepare new devices for internal and external use, and publish relevant findings
In superconducting quantum processors, the quality of two-qubit gates and the performance of the whole system set how deep a computation can run before errors take over. Improving them requires careful experiments, error budgeting and feedback between device design, fabrication and control.
What Rigetti is looking for
- A PhD in physics, applied physics, electrical engineering or a related field
- Significant hands-on experience calibrating and characterising two-qubit gates on superconducting devices; tunable-coupler experience is a strong plus
- Deep understanding of gate design, pulse engineering and decoherence, with a record of turning error diagnostics into fidelity gains
- Strong scientific Python, and the ability to run complex experiments independently from concept to validated result
- Excellent communication in a collaborative team
Nice to have
- QuTiP or similar tools for gate and noise modelling
- Deploying calibration or benchmarking across large multi-qubit processors
- Randomised benchmarking variants, gate set tomography or cycle benchmarking
- Publications on high-fidelity entangling gates, error suppression or quantum control, and mentoring experience
Pay and location
Rigetti’s posting does not state a salary. The role is based in Berkeley, California.
How to apply
Apply through the official Rigetti job posting. Rigetti’s posting does not give a closing date, so the role is open until filled; ResearchJobs.in will re-check this listing on 12 October 2026. Check the posting for location and work-authorisation details before you apply.
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Hiring institution: Rigetti Computing
Official advertisement: jobs.lever.co
How to prepare for this application
- Error budgets: practise breaking a two-qubit gate error into coherent, incoherent and leakage contributions.
- Tunable couplers: revise how they switch interactions on and off and the gates they enable.
- Benchmarking: know interleaved randomised benchmarking and when gate set tomography is worth it.
- Scale: think about how a calibration that works on one pair survives across hundreds of pairs.
- Results: prepare a case where your diagnosis led to a measurable fidelity improvement.
About Rigetti Computing
Rigetti Computing, founded in 2013, is a full-stack quantum computing company that has offered quantum computers over the cloud since 2017 to enterprise, government and research clients. It designs and makes its superconducting chips in-house at Fab-1, which it describes as the industry's first dedicated quantum device manufacturing facility, and employs more than 150 people in the United States, the UK and Australia.
