Senior Quantum Applied Research Scientist, Calibration and Decoding

About the role

NVIDIA is seeking a Senior Quantum Applied Research Scientist who will contribute to the advancement of quantum computing by developing real-time models that integrate quantum device physics, calibration experiments, and machine learning. This role will focus on designing and building AI systems that can predict and optimize the performance of quantum hardware.

Responsibilities

• Research and develop open AI models for quantum system calibration to advance the state of the art and empower the quantum community to build on shared foundations.
• Create physics-informed synthetic data generation pipelines that leverage quantum device models, noise channels, and Hamiltonian characterization to produce high-quality training data for calibration and decoding model development.
• Develop surrogate models of quantum hardware that capture device physics and drift behavior, enabling rapid performance prediction and parameter inference without full experimental overhead.
• Architect performant real-time AI systems that jointly account for calibration state and decoding requirements, co-designing model latency, throughput, and update cadence to meet the demands of fault-tolerant feedback loops.
• Apply reinforcement learning and online learning methods to calibration policy optimization, enabling models that improve continuously from hardware feedback and generalize across device families and modalities.
• Develop GPU-accelerated implementations to ensure the full pipeline scales.
• Communicate research findings and collaborate with academic and industry partners to advance the field, while championing rapid innovation, technical depth, and creative problem solving.

Requirements

• Masters degree in Physics, Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Applied Mathematics, or a related field (Ph.D. strongly preferred); or equivalent experience.
• 8+ years of combined experience and high impact in quantum systems and AI/ML research.
• Hands-on expertise in machine learning and deep learning for science or physics, including model architecture design, training at scale, fine-tuning, and evaluation.
• Strong background in quantum device physics and information science, including noise models, error mechanisms, and fault-tolerant quantum systems across one or more qubit modalities.
• Broad understanding of quantum control, such as pulse-level hardware interfaces and classical feedback through software abstractions.
• Excellent communication and collaboration skills.

Qualifications

• Hands-on experience developing learned calibration or decoding models and deploying them within real-time quantum control feedback loops, with direct awareness of latency and throughput constraints.
• Deep expertise in reinforcement learning—including policy optimization, reward shaping, and sim-to-real transfer—applied to physical systems or closed-loop control problems.
• Experience with physics-informed or generative approaches to synthetic data generation, including noise simulation, Hamiltonian learning, or data augmentation for scientific AI models.
• Experience with large-scale model training and fine-tuning—including parameter-efficient methods (LoRA, QLoRA, adapters) and domain adaptation.
• Proficiency with CUDA and NVIDIA GPU programming for accelerating quantum simulation, AI model training, or real-time inference workloads at scale.

Skills

• Experience with quantum computing and machine learning.
• Knowledge of quantum device physics and information science.
• Understanding of quantum control and pulse-level hardware interfaces.
• Expertise in reinforcement learning and online learning methods.
• Experience with physics-informed or generative approaches to synthetic data generation.
• Ability to develop and deploy real-time AI systems for quantum hardware.

Benefits

NVIDIA offers highly competitive salaries and a comprehensive benefits package, including equity and benefits. Applications for this job will be accepted at least until June 12, 2026. This posting is for an existing vacancy. NVIDIA is committed to fostering an inclusive work environment and proud to be an equal opportunity employer. As we highly value diversity in our current and future employees, we do not discriminate (including in our hiring and promotion practices) on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, gender expression, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, disability status or any other characteristic protected by law.