Principal Software Engineer

About the team

At Q-CTRL, Quantum Computing Engineering is a global team of software engineers and infrastructure experts, combining deep technical expertise with a startup mindset to deliver real impact through software innovation. Our work is underpinned by robust standards, and by embracing the three virtues. Our team excels in areas across back-end, front-end, machine learning, and platform engineering.

We transform Q-CTRL’s world‑leading technological breakthroughs into commercial software products with applications across defense, research, and industry. We work closely with Product, Design, and Research teams to accelerate the path to quantum advantage worldwide.

We are seeking a Principal Software Engineer to lead the architectural evolution of Q-CTRL’s product portfolio, enabling faster delivery, greater scalability, and enhanced Product team autonomy. This role is critical in realizing the Opal Suite architecture – a scalable and resilient ecosystem for supporting rapid product innovation and expansion. Reporting to the VP of Software Engineering, you will oversee efforts across multiple teams and departments, working closely with their Technical Leads, Research and Engineering Managers.

As a thought leader in system architecture, you will drive technical excellence across teams, guiding the development of a modular, high‑performance architecture that supports seamless integrations and empowers Product teams to innovate independently and at speed.

• Driving architectural direction as an individual contributor across products with an emphasis on back‑end and platform engineering, yet with a mindset that is agnostic of a specific technology stack.
• Influencing technical strategy and OKRs, aligning stakeholders across multiple teams and seniority levels, with a horizon beyond 12 months.
• Setting and driving engineering excellence across the organization, particularly around patterns and abstractions that span products and domains.
• Overseeing (and often owning) large cross‑team and cross‑department technical solutions, involving technical and non‑technical stakeholders.
• Mentoring engineers at all levels on technical topics, particularly around system design, acting as a dotted‑line leader in some instances, with the assistance of an Engineering Manager.
• Expertly articulating trade‑offs in complex design to audiences inclusive of executive and senior leadership.
• Spending around 30% of time coding and 70% of time leading, flexing these percentages depending on company needs.

• 10+ years of software engineering experience as a passionate individual contributor with a focus on software product architecture.
• Experience with Dev Ops practices, including CI/CD pipelines and infrastructure‑as‑code tools.
• A physics background is not required however, a keen desire to rapidly learn and upskill in quantum computing technologies is critical.
• High performance computing and/or machine learning experience a bonus.

• Proven track record of leading cross‑disciplinary architectural transformations, particularly in cloud‑native and microservices environments.
• Expertise in designing and implementing high‑performance data storage, APIs, workflow orchestration, event‑driven, and distributed systems.
• Exceptional technical documentation and communication skills (architecture diagrams, design documents, technical decisions).
• Strong programming skills in languages like Python, Rust, and Go.

The targeted base salary range for this position is between $220,000 - $320,000 and will ultimately be determined by specific job‑related skills, experience, level, location and other contributing factors. Depending on the position offered, this role may be eligible for annual discretionary bonuses, equity and other forms of compensation outside of the targeted base salary range. For more information on benefits at Q-CTRL, please visit our careers page at

Should you have any questions related to the compensation package, please speak directly with the Talent Acquisition representative.

Q-CTRL is the global leader in AI‑powered quantum control…