Senior Optomechanical Engineer; opens window

Company Overview

Photon Queue builds the world's leading quantum memory devices – systems that store and release single photons. Using a unique free-space storage architecture that achieves kilometer-scale optical path lengths in a compact form factor, we sidestep the fundamental limitations of every competing approach and deliver storage fidelity and efficiency levels that no other technology can match in a device that can actually be deployed and integrated into real quantum systems.

We're solving a critical infrastructure problem for the quantum ecosystem: without a reliable way to synchronize photons across a quantum network or photonic processor, the promise of quantum computing, sensing, and communications stalls. Photon Queue is the synchronization layer that makes progress possible. Our systems are already in use at Sandia National Laboratories and the University of Maryland, and demand is growing fast.

Life at Photon Queue

We're an early-stage, fast-growing team of physicists and engineers turning two decades of laboratory research into the best commercial quantum memory platform. With strong institutional backing and commercial traction at leading national labs, we're at an exciting breakout moment – the kind where the work you do today directly shapes the trajectory of the company tomorrow.

There's no corporate bureaucracy here, just sharp people working on hard problems, with direct ownership over what they build and clear visibility into its impact. Every person on the team shapes the product and the company. If you thrive in an environment where your work matters from day one and where espresso, rigor, and curiosity are the culture, you'll fit right in.

About the New Mexico Branch

This role is one of the two founding hires for Photon Queue's new Albuquerque branch located at Roadrunner Quantum Labs. The New Mexico team owns the engineering that sits between our core research and our shipping product: systematic component qualification, vendor development, and integration engineering that makes our devices more efficient, more reliable, and easier to manufacture.

It is a small, high-autonomy team with a defined charter and real budget behind it. You will be one of two engineers standing up the lab, choosing the vendors, building the stations, and setting the technical direction with the full support of the Chicago engineering team. We will expand the New Mexico branch as we expand our product development capabilities and increase sales.

Role Summary

The Senior Optomechanical Engineer owns the precision optical hardware program for Photon Queue's New Mexico branch. This is a hands-on, end-to-end role: you will source, build, characterize, and optimize optical and mechanical subassemblies, develop the vendors and tooling behind them, and lock down repeatable processes that our Chicago manufacturing team can build against. You will work at the intersection of precision optomechanics, metrology, and supply chain, and your output is measured in device performance that ships.

Location:

On-site, Albuquerque, NM (Roadrunner Quantum Labs)

Candidates must have current US work authorization - we are unable to sponsor visas at this time.

We are an in-office company, and our expectation is that employees primarily work from their Photon Queue office 5 days a week. However, we also recognize the importance of flexibility and trust our employees to manage their schedules responsibly. This may include occasional remote work, starting the day with morning meetings from home before heading to the office, or leaving earlier when needed to accommodate family commitments.

Responsibilities

Custom Subassembly Engineering

• Own the design and development of custom optical subassemblies, from component sourcing…