Senior Software Engineering Manager
Job Description
We are seeking a Senior Software Engineering Manager to head the team responsible for software systems that enable the creation, delivery and maintenance of Rigetti’s quantum computers. This includes systems for device design, chip fabrication workflows, physics-informed data analysis, quantum gate-design, and quantum mitigation and error correction technologies. This also includes managing the team and supporting the development of software systems for quantum QPU and system characterization. This is a hands-on leadership role for someone who thrives at the intersection of state-of-the-art software engineering, hardware, and scientific computing.
Role Overview
As a Senior Software Engineering Manager, you will lead the team responsible for software platforms that enable the design, fabrication, characterization, and measurement of Rigetti's quantum systems – with a strong emphasis on integrating into the engineering process.
You will manage and develop a team of professional software engineers, and collaborate closely with quantum hardware teams, quantum control systems designers, chip designers, fabrication engineers, and algorithm researchers. You’ll be responsible for engineering and system design that spans the entire gamut of our foundry operations through the delivery of an integrated quantum computing system, and delivery of characterization and measurement software to customers.
This is a unique opportunity to build software systems critical for the design and delivery of Rigetti’s quantum computers at a time of significant organizational momentum. The ideal candidate is passionate about accelerating our hardware development flywheel and can empower technical teams in complex scientific environments while creating structure, accountability, prioritization, and long-term sustainability.
Key Responsibilities
Team Leadership & Organizational Development
Lead and mentor a cross-functional software engineering team spanning scientific tooling, analytics infrastructure, and fabrication-support systems.
Create stronger operational rigor around prioritization, execution, accountability, and project delivery.
Provide coaching, growth support, feedback, and career development for engineers across varying levels of seniority.
Help establish healthy engineering culture, team norms, and stronger collaboration practices.
Serve as a day-to-day thought partner to the VP of Software Engineering while helping create additional leadership bandwidth across the organization.
Participate in hiring and team scaling efforts as the organization grows.
Technical & Engineering Leadership
Partner closely with engineers to drive execution across scientific computing, fabrication tooling, analytics systems, and workflow automation.
Support development of internal tooling and data systems that connect design, fabrication, and device performance workflows.
Help modernize and operationalize internal tooling that has historically evolved organically through research and prototyping efforts.
Drive better long-term ownership, maintainability, and lifecycle planning for internally developed systems and infrastructure.
Help evolve engineering infrastructure and validation frameworks that improve scalability, reproducibility, and operational reliability across hardware development environments.
Support technical decision-making, architecture discussions, and engineering prioritization while remaining hands-on enough to engage credibly with the team.
Contribute technically when appropriate, particularly around debugging, architecture reviews, infrastructure improvements, or smaller engineering initiatives.
Cross-functional Collaboration
Work closely with quantum engineers, physicists, fabrication engineers, and hardware teams to understand operational pain points and evolving workflow requirements.
Help balance competing stakeholder requests while improving prioritization discipline and long-term planning.
Partner with fabrication teams as Rigetti continues evolving manufacturing and foundry operations across Berkeley and Fremont.
Support systems that connect experimental data, fabrication workflows, characterization tooling, and engineering analytics into scalable internal platforms.
