Manager, Optical Validation

PsiQuantum · Milpitas, California

  • Senior
  • Full-time
  • $201,400 – $236,600
  • Posted 2026-11-09
  • Confirmed live on 10 November 2026

Apply at PsiQuantum

Job description

PsiQuantum's mission is to build the first useful quantum computers: machines capable of delivering the breakthroughs the field has long promised. Since our founding in 2016, our singular focus has been to build and deploy million-qubit, fault-tolerant quantum systems.

Quantum computers harness the laws of quantum mechanics to solve problems that even the most advanced supercomputers or AI systems will never reach. Their impact will span energy, pharmaceuticals, finance, agriculture, transportation, materials, and other foundational industries.

Our architecture and approach is based on silicon photonics. By leveraging the advanced semiconductor manufacturing industry, including partners like GlobalFoundries, we use the same high-volume processes that already produce billions of chips for telecom and consumer electronics. Photonics offers natural advantages for scale: photons don't feel heat, are immune to electromagnetic interference, and integrate with existing cryogenic cooling and standard fiber-optic infrastructure.

That approach has since been tested at the highest level of scrutiny the U.S. government applies to emerging technology, and it has held up. In 2025, PsiQuantum closed a $1 billion funding round that valued the company at $7 billion. In 2026, the U.S. Department of Commerce signed a $100 million Letter of Intent under the CHIPS and Science Act, followed by a $125 million agreement with DARPA under Stage C of its Quantum Benchmarking Initiative, PsiQuantum's most valuable U.S. government agreement to date. This year, we also broke ground on our utility-scale quantum computer in Brisbane, Australia, and continued building out our Chicago site. Victor Peng, our CEO, and co-founder Jeremy O'Brien, now Executive Chairman, lead a team and board that reflects how seriously the world is taking this build, joined this year by Intel's Lip-Bu Tan and Atomico's Niklas Zennström.

PsiQuantum also develops the algorithms and software needed to make these systems commercially valuable. Our application, software, and industry teams work directly with leading Fortune 500 companies, including Airbus, Lockheed Martin, Mercedes-Benz, Boehringer Ingelheim, and Mitsubishi Chemical, to prepare quantum solutions for real-world impact.

Quantum computing is not an extension of classical computing. It represents a fundamental shift, and a path to mastering challenges that cannot be solved any other way. The potential is enormous, and we now have the funding, the government validation, and the sites under construction to make it real.

Job Summary:

The Optical Validation Manager will ensure sub-assemblies and blades will be validated according to plan. He/She will lead the team in characterization, test, binning, and failure analysis for next-generation optical modules based on Silicon-Photonics for quantum computing applications. In this role, you will lead the validation activities for the next generation of products, from initial proof of concept of new test methodology and early designs to high-volume manufacturing.

Responsibilities:

• Own the development of comprehensive characterization, verification and validation plans, and execution on the challenging deadlines for fiber-optics based modules .

• Manage the validation team, including technical oversight & project management, talent management, performance evaluations, and coaching.  

• Own the validation effort: supervise the measurement, deliver validation reports and daily summary of activities. Identify issues, provide descriptions and drive Failure Analysis in collaboration with cross-functional team. 

• Have awareness of milestones and impact of delay on overall program and provide reports with expected yield indications for the operation team .

• Review hardware design (including integration of optics, electronics, firmware, software and thermal design), identify key parameters to measure and influence design to ensure testability.

• Establish seamless collaborations with cross-functional teams to provide the key learning for the development of next generation products.

• Lead technical discussion to review data and results, help the team summarize the outcome and take decisions on next steps.

• Grow high performing team: mentor young Engineers and foster growth of experienced Engineers and technical leads. Define technical career paths, and empower team members through proactive coaching, regular performance evaluations, and active knowledge sharing to build deep subject matter expertise across the organization.  

Experience/Qualifications:

• Bachelor's degree or above in Engineering or related field with 10+ years of industry experience, relevant to validating and testing optical systems and 3+ years team and people management experience.

• Proven record of leading validation and failure analysis of fiber-optics based hardware products.

• Excellent verbal and written communication skills with an ability to communicate effective

Prepare for the interview

Nothing collected for this employer yet. The Blind 75 is what technical screens draw from; practice it here, with a coach, in Java or Python.

More at PsiQuantum

All open software jobs