What you’ll do :

• Lead quantum optimisation R&D projects end-to-end within the Quantum Graph Optimization (QGO) team: from early technical discussions and problem framing to project delivery and handover.

• Investigate and synthesize the state of the art (academic and industrial literature) to identify relevant directions, assess feasibility, and propose impactful research paths.

• Develop and scale quantum optimization use cases on Pasqal quantum processors: improve and extend existing use cases ; identify, evaluate, and develop new ones, with a focus on combinatorial optimization.

• Translate real-world problems into optimization formulations and evaluate solution strategies using a mix of analytical reasoning and numerical experimentation.

• Design and run benchmarking and feasibility studies, including assessing the limitations of classical approaches and identifying realistic pathways toward quantum advantage.

• Develop solutions and experiment pipelines in close collaboration with the software engineering team, using emulation backends locally and on HPC when relevant.

• Work hardware-aware: investigate realistic implementations on neutral-atom hardware (analog and digital paradigms), including parameter constraints, noisy emulations, and practical limitations (e.g., addressability, shot-rate).

• Define blueprints for quantum utility experiments and collaborate closely with R&D hardware teams to bring them to fruition.

• Collaborate with internal and external stakeholders (Engineering, R&D, academic and industrial partners, and clients) throughout all phases of projects, ensuring alignment on technical scope, success criteria, and deliverables.

• Contribute to Pasqal’s intellectual property strategy, including identifying novel ideas and supporting invention disclosures and patent filings when appropriate.

• Support team-wide execution and knowledge sharing, including helping on code/components outside your direct ownership when needed and contributing to ongoing scientific watch activities.

• Monitor and respond to calls for project proposals, helping shape and coordinate Pasqal’s submissions and participation in collaborative R&D programs

• Strong background in combinatorial optimization: familiar with classical problems, linear programming, constrained programming, heuristics, metaheuristics, complexity theory, graph theory

• R&D mindset: ability to explore, prototype, benchmark, and iterate on new approaches. Write clear technical reports and contribute to scientific publications

• Programming skills (Python): good software engineering practices such as version control, testing, and documentation

• Solid experience on algorithm evaluation & benchmarking: experiment design, reproducibility, performance analysis

• Able to collaborate with Engineering and R&D teams across different disciplines

• IP awareness: ability to identify patentable ideas and support IP drafting processes

• Project leadership: plan and drive projects end-to-end, manage milestones and risks

• Partner-facing skills: technical relationship management with industrial and academic partners

• EU project experience: monitoring and answering European calls for proposals, proposal writing, consortium work

• Knowledge about quantum computing, with interest in neutral-atom-based analog approaches. Experience in quantum optimization.