Research Software Developer At 1QBit

1QBit is dedicated to solving the world’s most intractable challenges by recasting problems to harness the power of quantum computing. We identify demanding industry problems and apply breakthroughs in computation to machine intelligence and optimization science to build software that allows applications to continually benefit from advances in both quantum and classical hardware.

We believe that quantum technologies will form the next pillar of computational progress. We research, benchmark, and build software development kits, online platforms, and applications that make the power of quantum computers accessible to researchers, developers, and industry-leading organizations so they can solve their most difficult problems in fields such as optimization, simulation, and machine learning.

As an interdisciplinary team of world-class mathematicians, physicists, engineers, operations research scientists, software developers, quantum computing experts, and business leaders, we share a curiosity and drive to uncover new ways of solving currently intractable problems.

Our work is guided by a shared set of values focused on five fundamental principles:

• Audacity – A drive to pioneer and apply new methods. To dream without limit and then do the hard work of bringing your ideas into reality
• Open Thinking – A belief in the sharing of ideas. To approach each exploration with a receptive mindset and collaborate openly to produce the best possible results
• Interdisciplinary Collaboration – A respect for the diversity of people, backgrounds, and skills. A wide range of perspectives reveals a more complete landscape and yields deeper insights
• Ownership – A feeling of pride in the work of the team and a deep sense of purpose and accomplishment from your contribution
• Beginner’s Mindset – A desire to improve as an expert while retaining the curiosity and openness that inspired you to begin

Your Role

This is a unique opportunity for you to join a growing team, as we are looking for a research software developer to join the Advanced Computing team. In this role you will work with software developers and chemists to integrate new features into our QEMIST and OpenQEMIST packages, targeting various architectures such as multithreaded CPUs, GPUs and novel quantum processors. Some of your tasks will include prototyping and running pioneer experiments on quantum hardware that may not be available to the public yet. You will be working in a young and rapidly-changing codebase with very small legacy support requirements. With the QEMIST and OpenQEMIST products, 1QBit seeks to deliver a scalable state-of-the-art high-performance computing platform to solve intractable industrially-relevant problems for molecular simulation.

“Why 1QBit?”, you might ask… Well, as the first company dedicated to the development of quantum computing software, we are defining and transforming how the industry evolves.

If being a pioneer is not enough, you will also have the opportunity to work on some of the world’s most challenging computational problems in the areas of machine learning, optimization, and simulation.

What You’ll Do

• Work collaboratively in a heterogeneous team to design new features and integrate novel, state-of-the-art computing platforms
• Implement and test new quantum hybrid algorithms on near-term quantum computers and APIs
• Benchmark and optimize our implementations for the target hardware
• Participate in planning and prioritizing building of new features

What You’ll Bring

Members of our team bring a confluence of personality, skills, and intent that contributes to their individual development and our collective growth as an organization. The knowledge and mindset you will bring to our team include the following:

Not a must, but nice to have:

• Solid understanding of performance, complexity and scalability of parallel applications
• Familiarity with gate-model quantum computing and some of its classical simulation techniques
• Familiarity with quantum physics or theory of quantum information
• Experience with the development, debugging and optimization of GPU code with a language such as CUDA or OpenACC
• Familiarity with modern C++ (C++11 and more recent)

Who You Are

You share our belief that principles, not policies, enable individuals and teams to apply their unique lens in making decisions. Like all 1QBit team members, you thrive in our flat hierarchy of empowered individuals. You embrace the rigorous examination of the thoughts and work of diverse minds from multiple disciplines because you know it uncovers deeper insights and produces robust results. You believe there is no failure in exploration because new breakthroughs often require rigorous examination of multiple paths before a conclusion is reached. You have a desire to apply yourself to purposeful work that is inspiring, meaningful, and fun, to create value for the world by advancing the ability to solve complex problems. You have a relentless curiosity for exploring new methodologies and you have an intrinsic drive to architect the foundation of the quantum ecosystem because you love the challenges and understand the rewards that the next paradigm of computation will bring.