AI Specialist - Agentic Research

About Xanadu:
Xanadu’s mission is to build quantum computers that are useful and available to people everywhere.

At Xanadu, we are learners, innovators, researchers, collaborators and problem solvers. We are creating something that has never been built before. Few people in their life will be able to be a part of something like this, where if we are successful, the technologies we develop will solve some of the world’s most challenging problems, and literally change the world. And that is something to be excited about!

Your Role and Responsibilities:

As an AI Specialist at Xanadu, you will play a crucial role in integrating state of the art AI technologies into our R&D processes. This unique position allows you to contribute to the development of our internal automation stacks, aimed at advancing the first commercially viable quantum computer. The AI team’s focus is to accelerate and automate the discovery, optimization, and validation for our internal research. Situated at the intersection of multiple technical disciplines, you will have the opportunity to work with world leading researchers, scientists, engineers, and software developers. By infusing cutting-edge AI into internal R&D tooling, you have the chance to super-charge their research progress and even reshape how they work. You will:

• Design, develop, and maintain our agentic AI research system for accelerating internal R&D.
• Build automated processes and feedback loops for executing complex research tasks at scale.
• Collaborate closely with researchers – theorists, experimentalists, engineers – to craft creative solutions for complex challenges.
• Develop custom workflows using agentic skills, tool callings, and harnesses.
• Develop SDKs, APIs, and data visualizations that interface with internal users.
• Ensure high-quality production code through automated tests, CI/CD pipelines, and code review processes.

At Xanadu, we primarily work with GitHub, Python, AWS, Postgres, Docker, Terraform, and Claude. Proficiency in these technologies is essential.

Required qualifications and experience:

• BSc. in Computer Science, Engineering, Physics, Math, or a related field.
• 4+ years of SWE/ML/Research Engineer experience building AI/ML tools in a scientific/engineering research environment.
• 2+ years of experience in at least one of these areas: Agentic Systems, RL-based feedback loops, or large-scale NN training and deployment.
• Experience of systematic evaluation and benchmarking of LLMs and agents
• Diverse experience with using and building AI agents, including context/harness engineering, knowledge retrieval, and agent orchestration.
• Working knowledge in optimization related problems (Bayesian, Gradient-based).
• Solid understanding of common ML concepts.
• Proven background in building and deploying production systems on AWS. Adept at working with Linux shell, CLI tools, Git, and GitHub.
• Knowledge of the full lifecycle of software development, including version control, code review, testing, CI/CD, logging, monitoring, debugging, and documentation. 
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills.
• Strong communication and collaboration skills.
• Curiosity and enthusiasm about new and unfamiliar technologies with ability to learn technical/scientific concepts quickly with minimal direction.
• Good knowledge of physics and linear algebra.

Preferred qualifications and experience

• PhD/MSc in Computer Science, Engineering, Physics, Math, or related field.
• Experience building domain specific agentic systems.
• Familiarity with RL and gym environments.
• Deep knowledge in physical sciences or math.
• Familiarity with quantum computing.