Systems Software Engineer

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. What we are doing is extremely hard, the classic moon shot. 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 Embedded Software Engineer (Software for Hardware) at Xanadu, you will join the software-for-hardware team and help build the control and measurement software for our infrastructure to design and build utility-scale quantum computers in the next decade. You will work alongside Xanadu physicists, electrical engineers, and hardware designers, often supporting experiments directly in the lab. Your main role will involve developing and maintaining software that connects custom hardware — control boards, instruments, and data acquisition systems — to the higher-level framework our scientists use to run experiments. Using common communication protocols, you will write and integrate device drivers behind clean, consistent interfaces so that experiments stay reliable and portable as the hardware evolves. On other days, you will help bring up new hardware, debug issues across the stack, improve how measurement data is captured and managed, and roll out changes safely across many active setups. You will grow to understand Xanadu's hardware control and measurement needs across a range of systems, and take pride in turning prototype-stage code into dependable, maintainable software. Being enthusiastic about best software development practices and clean code, you will also contribute to shared tooling and team efforts that raise the engineering bar across the company. Doing so you will support our scientists and hardware engineers in writing better code and efficiently using the software you and everyone else at Xanadu develops.

Basic qualifications and experience:

• Understanding of the full life cycle of software development, including version control, code review, testing, continuous integration, logging, documentation, maintenance, and user support
• Solid (2+ years) experience with Python programming for automation of tools and processes, with the ability to employ programming paradigms such as object oriented and functional programming and related design patterns where applicable
• Some experience writing software that talks to instruments or hardware — for example, controlling lab equipment, sensors, or measurement devices over protocols like SCPI, IVI, VISA, serial/USB, or TCP/IP (preferably in Python) — or a strong willingness to learn
• Ability and willingness to troubleshoot and fix issues anywhere in a complex hardware-software stack
• Familiarity with Linux (command line, shell scripting), containerization (e.g. Docker), and basic networking concepts (TCP/IP, SSH, ports/firewalls)
• Exposure to asynchronous or concurrent programming (e.g. async/await, threading, or multiprocessing), useful for device drivers and servers that handle multiple connections at once
• Curiosity about new and unfamiliar technologies
• Excellent communication skills
• Desire to work and ability to thrive in a fast-paced research environment
• Willingness to work in Toronto downtown in person >=4 days a week

Preferred qualifications and experience:

• B.S., M.S., or PhD in computer science, electrical engineering, physics, or related field
• Significant (>2 years) experience in writing instrumentation drivers and similar software, or experience with lab instrumentation frameworks
• Activity in open source software projects
• Experience with embedded software development, testing, and debugging
• Exposure to robotics
• Basic familiarity with photonics and optical physics
• Familiarity with quantum mechanics or quantum computation is an advantage but not required

This is for a new position. Your base salary will be determined based on your location, experience, and internal benchmarks. The base salary range is 110,000 - 150,000 CAD. You will also be eligible for equity and benefits.