Q-Block Computing

Principal Quantum Scientist

Ottawa, ON · Principal · Full-time

Sponsorship not specified$150k-$200kDetected 94 days ago

RESTCadenceControlsResearchLeadershipCommunicationCollaborationMentoring

About the role

What we offer is the environment that kind of scientist needs to do their best work: deep engineering infrastructure, institutional conviction behind long-horizon science, and the freedom to ask questions that are larger than a grant cycle.
How Q-Block Computing Research differs from an academic institution: Q-Block Computing Research is built for scientists who want to pursue fundamental questions without the structural constraints that have come to define modern academic life.
In a university, the size of a question is often bounded by the length of a grant cycle, the cadence of graduate student throughput, and the incentives of annual publication counts.

Lead flagship research programs, including work on neutral-atom quantum systems, fault-tolerant quantum architectures, quantum metrology, and the development of new experimental probes and quantum-enabled instruments.
Mentor and develop the scientific staff in your research group within Q-Block Computing Research, including senior scientists; establish a research culture characterized by intellectual honesty, experimental courage, and patient ambition.
Lead and contribute to the development of major research programs and long-term scientific collaborations with leading universities, national laboratories, and government research agencies.
Scientists here have access to that infrastructure as a matter of course, which means experiments that would take a university lab half a decade to build can be standing up in a year.
The candidate we are looking for has already demonstrated the ability to set and drive their own research agenda at the highest level of the field.
They are capable of choosing problems that matter, building the tools to attack them, and carrying a program from concept to result with very little external scaffolding.

10+ years of substantive research experience in quantum physics, including significant independent research leadership at the level of a principal investigator, group leader, senior staff scientist, or equivalent.

Experience at the frontier of neutral-atom quantum computing, quantum error correction, optical lattice clocks, entanglement-based sensing, or quantum network science.
Track record of translating fundamental science into new experimental capabilities, instruments, or technology concepts that influenced subsequent research or development efforts.
Familiarity with Canadian or allied government research programs, national laboratory ecosystems, or defense-adjacent fundamental science programs is an asset.
Record of scientific communication at the highest level: invited talks, review articles, influential preprints, or other evidence of scientific leadership beyond one's immediate group

In a university, the size of a question is often bounded by the length of a grant cycle, the cadence of graduate student throughput, and the incentives of annual publication counts.

set standards for experimental rigor, theoretical depth, and honest scientific communication across all research activities.
Connect fundamental research to Q-Block's technology development programs - including PolarisQ, AllanQ, and LuciaQ - in ways that enrich both the science and the capability, without sacrificing the primacy of foundational inquiry.
Represent Q-Block Computing Research externally through publications, conference participation, scientific advisory roles, and scientific community engagement.
Q-Block Computing is a Canadian quantum technology company on a mission to decode Nature's foundational model - to build instruments precise enough to orchestrate atoms and photons, and to ask whether a quantum system can, in principle, capture Nature's computational power.
We are a home for the curious mind and unconventional thinking, a sanctuary for avant-garde science and blue-sky research on time horizons longer than today's academic institutions.
The research we do here shapes what becomes possible across every other part of the company; the rest of the company exists, in part, to make this research possible.

Q-Block Computing is an equal opportunity employer.
We are committed to treating all employees and applicants for employment with respect and dignity.
If you require assistance and/or reasonable accommodation due to a disability during the application or recruiting process, please feel free to notify us.
All interested candidates are encouraged to apply.

This listing is sourced directly from Q-Block Computing's careers page and normalized into a canonical job model.