Job application by Ciro Santilli Created 2025-04-18 Updated 2025-09-11
2025 round one during week of April 21st, not toning down online profiles:Keywords:
- Paris quantum computing
- Alice&Bob:
- jobs.lever.co/alice-bob/2acf8f0c-6947-41ad-b30f-9779a1b49681 Senior Software Engineer, Framework team
I'm looking to do a meaningful job in a deeptech field, and quantum computing seems like it could become huge. I've learnt a few basics, and would like to go further with job experience in the area.
Salary: 90k.Rejected after first interview with the hiring manager. They said they wanted someone with more experience setting up CI/CD. - 2025-07-03 jobs.lever.co/alice-bob/b4632e27-cf56-4570-84bb-d56a169d1c43 Senior Software Engineer - Cloud. Webdev. I don't really want to do this, but it's a way in. Asking salary: 70k. Rejected 2025-07-11.
- 2025-09-02 jobs.lever.co/alice-bob/b7386caa-70dd-4670-bb69-a5c97322332f Senior Software Engineer - Firmware Calibration
- Pasqal:
- careers.pasqal.com/jobs/5817098-software-development-engineer-integration Software Development Engineer IntegrationApplication auto-reply also points to:which is cool.I'm looking to do a meaningful job in a deeptech field, and quantum computing seems like it could become huge. I've learnt a few basics, and would like to go further with job experience in the area.Rejected 1 week later without interview even though my CV seemed like a perfect match for this job. Sent an email to the contributors of Pulser.After the application they keep sending you relevant new job openings, which was really good, applying to another one:I applied for this job careers.pasqal.com/jobs/5817098-software-development-engineer-integration but got rejected by HR lady without interview.Pinging you guys here just in case because sometimes my profiles scare the HR people and then when I ping the programmers they like me. I grabbed your emails from GitHub.
- 2025-06-20 careers.pasqal.com/jobs/6075845-embedded-software-engineer-w-m Embedded Software engineerRejected 2025-07-03.Why Pasqal?I want to get into quantum computing in France, and there are only 5 major hardware companies and I'm applying to each of them when there's a job that seems that I can do. I don't know enough to pick the one with the tech that is most promising to win, though it seems no one can at this point. Being in Massy, a little further from central Paris, is a plus, I like quieter areas.
- 2025-09-04 careers.pasqal.com/fr/jobs/6379846-mid-senior-software-engineer-h-f Mid-Senior Software Engineer - H/F. Cloud.
J'ai une forte envie de faire ce job. Le quantum computing a l'air trop cool, l'impact pourrait être énorme, et les techs de base (high performance computing) du job m'amusent aussi. Mes études basiques jusqu'à présent : cirosantilli.com/quantum-computing. Ma femme est employée par une entreprise française et je cherche à déménager dans la région parisienne.
- C12 Quantum Electronics
- 2025-06-20 Senior Measurement Software Engineer jobs.lever.co/c12qe/0b27ff8c-a094-4da4-ba32-2ecd55ae6233
I am interested in getting into quantum computing because the this field seems like it could be promising. My wife is French and working for a French company in Paris and we are looking to relocate to the greater Paris region. I've heard good things from the company. I have only done basic undergrad physics in university but I'm very interested in learning more from a more concrete point of view, AMO seems really cool. I can handle low level programming well.
- Quandela:
- 2025-09-05 apply.workable.com/quandela/j/546CECA897/ Support QPU Engineer - Technical Account Manager. Was stated as software engineer on LinkedIn I think. Rejected 2025-09-09.
- Welinq: none yet but add to loop
- Alice&Bob:
- UK quantum computing:
- Oxford Ionics
2025-07-15 Senior Software Engineer apply.workable.com/oxford-ionics/j/F82EC50A7A/Rejected 2025-07-29. - Riverlane
- 2026-08-17
- apply.workable.com/riverlane/j/5B86BF380A/ System Software Engineer. Rejected 2025-08-29.
- apply.workable.com/riverlane/j/42D4AB487A/ Software Engineer - Modelling. Rejected 2025-09-09.
I've been watching quantum computing lightly from a distance, and I would be very excited to get involved and try to help, it seems like something really worth trying for humanity, my notes: cirosantilli.com/quantum-computing I'm very curious about learning more about the physics of quantum computers and error correction.
- Quantinuum
- 2025-08-26 jobs.eu.lever.co/quantinuum/0535d099-4f84-4ef3-a3fa-a182dde4362a Backend Software Engineer. Rejected 2025-08-29.
- Oxford Ionics
- DeepMind:
- Turned down two days later before anything.As evidenced by my Stack Exchange contributions, I love trying out new software to see if it works and how well. I love benchmarking it. And I love documenting what I observed in great detail to help others to choose the best software for them. I also love meeting various new people and understanding what they are up to and how I can help.
- job-boards.greenhouse.io/deepmind/jobs/6576118 Software Engineer, Hardware Design
At ARM and AMD I've worked on various different parts of the hardware cycle, notably C++ emulation and low level software. I just get this strong feeling that hardware and low level software design should be the easiest thing for machines to automate, as it is the area that requires the least amount of "common sense" information about the world.
- Paris machine learning:
- H Company:Fastest initial job application steps ever! Name, email, CV, over.
- jobs.ashbyhq.com/hcompany/e6793ce6-918b-48a6-bf56-205c477cc1c0 Member of technical staff (Evaluations). Declined 12th June.
- jobs.ashbyhq.com/hcompany/89d867e7-2bd3-4918-aebc-cabbac526b6f Senior Back-end Engineer
- Mistral AI:
- jobs.lever.co/mistral/db67d7a2-bcec-4151-9b3a-8212ddabf419 Senior Software Engineer, Data Engineering - Paris. Declined May 7th without interview, at least they said they have lots of applicants and some have more closely related qualifications.
- 2025-07-03
- jobs.lever.co/mistral/c1e1e2c0-03f4-4434-938a-a5df3080baf2 Software Engineer, IDE (Typescript), (Contractor). VS Code browser extension.
Available from September. I made this extension as a small part of my personal project over a month full time: marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=ourbigbook.ourbigbook-vscode It has no installs because the personal project is a failure, but the extension works. I can do other stuff besides the vscode extension itself as well. But I need at least 1 year contract.
- jobs.lever.co/mistral/e76d2957-2bf6-4d8f-90a2-29bf9a927823 Software Engineer, Product (Python)Got an interview.I have 3 years full time on my failed website: ourbigbook.com/ My frontend is meh but backend is OK. Never done huge volumes though since the project was a failure. But Heroku + my basic PostgreSQL DB fu held up to 3k visits / day when I got some coverage for cirosantilli.com/cia-2010-covert-communication-websites from www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14752155/CIA-fake-websites-Star-Wars-communicate-spies.htmlI've also did some automatic population of the database to 100k rows and my indices seem to be right that the website is still usable: docs.ourbigbook.com/news/llm-generated-wikibot-abstracts
- jobs.lever.co/mistral/c1e1e2c0-03f4-4434-938a-a5df3080baf2 Software Engineer, IDE (Typescript), (Contractor). VS Code browser extension.
- Poolside AI:> Of all the applications of deep learning, code generation is one of those that interest me the most as they seem one of the most pertinent in order to one day achieve AGI (the others being theorem proving and robotics), and I'd like to try and get some work experience in the area, which is why I'm applying to your company.
- poolside.ai/careers/member-of-engineering-evaluations--ba11fe78-f6f6-4165-b76b-020a46ad8fee Member of Engineering (Evaluations)
Of all the applications of deep learning, code generation is one of those that interest me the most as they seem one of the most pertinent in order to one day achieve AGI (the others being theorem proving and robotics), and I'd like to try and get some work experience in the area.
- poolside.ai/careers/member-of-engineering-data-platform--13d32f62-d530-4372-b458-0687d99eea04 Member of Engineering (Data Platform)
This job seemed like a possibility as I've done some personal "data intensive" projects in the past (not distributed unfortunately, ~500 GB so it fit on my local disk), and I kind of enjoyed it and would be interested in trying out a more "data heavy" job like this for a change.
Rejected May 6th without interview. - poolside.ai/careers/member-of-engineering-evaluations--ba11fe78-f6f6-4165-b76b-020a46ad8fee Member of Engineering (Evaluations)
- Nabla jobs.ashbyhq.com/nabla/85543350-f2e4-4328-95c2-7716ce143279 Back-End Engineer. There was also a Senior but I didn't have the 5 years experience lol. Rejected 2025-07-21.
- Cohere
- 2026-08-04 jobs.ashbyhq.com/cohere/138b7442-1e5f-439e-97a3-bb9e41673c81 Senior/Staff Software Engineer, EMEA, Agentic Platform. Considered but didn't apply, they asked for too much experience.
- H Company:
- Big tech:
- Google. Many jobs in London, nothing in Paris. www.google.com/about/careers/applications/jobs/results
- www.google.com/about/careers/applications/jobs/results/91141790538572486-senior-software-engineer-google-pixel-graphics Senior Software Engineer, Google Pixel Graphics. Went through entire interview process but LeetCode not good enough. Non-Leetcode went great.
- www.google.com/about/careers/applications/jobs/results/96937277808091846-senior-software-engineer-pixel-graphics-gpu-software Senior Software Engineer, Pixel Graphics, GPU Software
- 2025-07-22 www.google.com/about/careers/applications/jobs/results/113249786332619462-senior-software-engineer Senior Software Engineer, TPU Performance, Hardware/Software Co-Design. Hopeless but one must try.
- Amazon, focusing on AWS of course. Lots of jobs in London, nothing in Paris: www.amazon.jobs/en-gb/
- 2025-06-20
- www.amazon.jobs/en/jobs/2915117/software-development-engineer-aws-uk Software Development Engineer, AWS Utility Computing
- www.amazon.jobs/en-gb/jobs/2884321/systems-development-engineer-database-services Systems Development Engineer, Database Services. Rejected two days later on a Sunday, nice.
- www.amazon.jobs/en-gb/jobs/2530616/senior-systems-development-engineer Senior Systems Development Engineer
- www.amazon.jobs/en-gb/jobs/2902679/senior-systems-engineer Senior Systems Engineer
- 2025-06-20
- Apple Inc., focusing on low level and or embedded bullshit just to see if they give interviews:
- jobs.apple.com/en-gb/details/200523081/swe-kernel-engineer-coreos
- jobs.apple.com/en-gb/details/200577840/gpu-driver-engineer-kernel-firmware first received an email saying I would get an interview. But then they 180'ed a few hours later with some excuse. But the job announcement was still up. So it feels like something fishy happened, e.g. I failed some security check.
- jobs.apple.com/en-gb/details/200604360/virtualisation-engineer
- 2025-09-10 jobs.apple.com/en-gb/details/200520511-2114/gpu-modeling-engineer GPU modeling
- Microsoft: a few jobs in London, very few in Paris
- Facebook: several boring jobs in London, a few research jobs in Paris
- Google. Many jobs in London, nothing in Paris. www.google.com/about/careers/applications/jobs/results
- London machine learning:
- InstaDeep:
- www.instadeep.com/job-offer/fea583b3-d333-447e-8811-8ce58367c003/ Software Engineer (Simulation) asking 85k
I really like the idea of using simulations to speed up development of ideas or AI. I've done this in my past jobs in the semiconductor industry, and a bit on side time tinkering with simple simulation games that might be useful to train AI. I'm curious to what you will be simulating! The general areas that your company operates in, biotech and PCB design are also in my interest.lI really like the idea of using simulations to speed up development of ideas or AI. I've done this in my past jobs in the semiconductor industry, and a bit on side time tinkering with simple simulation games that might be useful to train AI. I'm curious to what you will be simulating!
- www.instadeep.com/job-offer/fea583b3-d333-447e-8811-8ce58367c003/ Software Engineer (Simulation) asking 85k
- Anthropic
- 2025-06-18
- job-boards.greenhouse.io/anthropic/jobs/4632138008 Software Engineer, Infrastructure. Declined first thing next Monday.
- job-boards.greenhouse.io/anthropic/jobs/4753256008 Software Engineer, Inference Scalability and Capability. This one suggested JAX, Rust and multi-GPU experience would be good. Haha it's hopeless.
- job-boards.greenhouse.io/anthropic/jobs/4632830008 Software Engineer, ML Performance and Scaling
I just want to help achieve AGI so I don't need to work anymore. I can do non-glamorous things to achieve that goal, but eventually I'd inevitably get into research itself. I haven't done deep learning except basic examples, but I can handle low level stuff, and I want to learn.
Why Anthropic?I'm applying to any LLM companies, and the ones with more funding are more likely to have dumb coding jobs that I can do without a PhD in ML, and more likely to have the resources to reach some critical point if scaling continues. The small labs have the advantage of nimbleness to try new architectures, but they only employ PhDs.I think I got the first stage technical thing for this one. But it was the most weird exercise ever, 2 hours to finish, they had a compiler in Python with a simplified GPU-like architecture and you're supposed to optimize a algorithm written in their custom assembly (writen in plain Python to make things even worse) and I was not able to do anything besides understand the problem somewhat. Then the reject came immediately.In one paragraph, provide an example of something meaningful that you have done in line with your values. Examples could include past work, volunteering, civic engagement, community organizing, donations, family support, etc.*Endless open source knowledge sharing e.g.:- stackoverflow.com/users/895245 Stack Overflow
- github.com/cirosantilli/linux-kernel-module-cheat Linux kernel emulation tutorial
- ourbigbook.com/ my failed knowledge sharing website that only I use
- www.matta.ai/careers/backend-engineer Backend EngineerHi, I'm applying to this job because I get a feeling that using machine learning to improve industry is cool and useful.My backend experience is 3 years full time on my failed open source elearning project: github.com/ourbigbook/ourbigbook / ourbigbook.com/ the last of which I did after receiving a 100k pound grant. The website is written in Node.js + PostgreSQL, but I also like Python (went with Node.js for Next.js in this case) and have used Python professionally on my jobs and also for personal project, see CV or e.g. github.com/cirosantilli/linux-kernel-module-cheat I also did a bit of Django previously.I've never handled huge traffic on that site because it failed to gain interest, but on rare occasions where a post got traction it survived 3k requests / day just fine. I've done some amount of SQL optimization and performance verification, and I've added 100k AI generated posts to it and it survived, meaning my indexes were OK.
- InstaDeep:
- Semiconductor:
- AMD:
* careers.amd.com/careers-home/jobs/57882 Senior Software Development Engineer on ROCm. Rejected a few days later without interview.
* careers.amd.com/careers-home/jobs/65271 Virtual Software Modeling Engineer - Qualcomm: very few client jobs in France, a decent amount in UK, but nothing too good fitting at first glance
- Arm, all with referrals from old colleagues:
- 2025-06-30:
- GPU
- careers.arm.com/job/cambridge/staff-principal-software-engineer/33099/77726588832 Staff Software Engineer - System Performance Analysis GPU driver. Got screening interview. Rejected 2025-07-18.
- careers.arm.com/job/cambridge/staff-software-engineer-system-performance-analysis/33099/77284796288 Staff/Principal Software Engineer. Linux kernel driver. Rejected after final technical interview 2025-08-15.
- careers.arm.com/job/cambridge/principal-software-engineer-machine-learning/33099/82468207936 Principal Software Engineer - Machine Learning. Seems ambitions but friend recommended me so I just clicked. Rejected 2025-07-03.
- careers.arm.com/job/cambridge/staff-gpu-software-applications-engineer/33099/82643339264 Staff GPU software applications engineer. Got screening interview with hiring manager. Got 80k GBP offer 2025-09-04.
- Non-GPU
- carers.arm.com/job/cambridge/staff-software-engineer/33099/74848341808 Staff Software EngineerSounds cool.
This diverse role will largely focus on providing software enablement for our next generation CPU and accelerator based technologies on target use-cases.
- careers.arm.com/job/manchester/staff-application-performance-engineer/33099/80144718528 Staff Application Performance EngineerReally cool. I don't have the perf pre-requisites, but it would be cool to do this. Rejected 2025-07-03.
performance workflows on Arm Neoverse platforms
- careers.arm.com/job/cambridge/senior-software-engineer-machine-learning-tools/33099/74848310720 Senior Software Engineer - Machine Learning Tools. Got screening interview. Rejected 2025-07-16 by hiring manager before interview.
- experienced-arm.icims.com/jobs/14442/senior-linux-kernel-engineer-%e2%80%93-hardware-enablement Senior Linux Kernel Engineer – Hardware Enablement. Rejected 2025-07-05.
- experienced-arm.icims.com/jobs/12987/staff-software-engineer/job?mode=submit_apply Staff Software Engineer
Accelerating algorithms with hand-optimized Arm assembly using the latest Arm technologies such as SVE
- 2025-08-21
- careers.arm.com/job/cambridge/senior-performance-tools-engineer/33099/75816396960 rejected 2025-08-26
- careers.arm.com/job/cambridge/senior-software-performance-analysis-engineer/33099/74720022336 rejected 2025-08-25
- careers.arm.com/job/cambridge/senior-software-engineer-networking-for-ai/33099/81797177488
- careers.arm.com/job/cambridge/senior-software-engineer-cpython-runtime/33099/84058266624 I was not particularly qualified for this but a friend referred so I clicked. Got first technical interview, but rejected because as I told them from the start, I don't know much about interpreters.
- carers.arm.com/job/cambridge/staff-software-engineer/33099/74848341808 Staff Software Engineer
- GPU
- 2025-06-30:
- Intel: no jobs in UK/France
- Nvidia: a few high end jobs in UK/France, some of them are EMEA remote
- 2025-06-30 Senior Software and System Architect nvidia.wd5.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/NVIDIAExternalCareerSite/job/Spain-Remote/Senior-Software-and-System-Architect_JR1997578?locationHierarchy1=2fcb99c455831013ea52aa2df70e324e Read wrong, seems to require senior networking skills that I don't have, but by then had already asked for a referral from an ex colleague and so just applied anyways. Lol! rejected 2025-07-16
- 2025-06-04 nvidia.wd5.myworkdayjobs.com/NVIDIAExternalCareerSite/job/UK-Remote/Senior-System-Software-Engineer--Base-OS-Kernel_JR1999799 Senior System Software Engineer, Base OS Kernel
- Codasip: no SW jobs in UK, only HW
- SiFive: only 10 jobs globally, 1 sales in UK
- Graphcore:
- 2025-07-02 job-boards.greenhouse.io/graphcore/jobs/7743036002 Staff System Software Engineer. Automation and testing stuff. Got first interview with technical person. Rejected 2025-08-22.
- Undo:
2027-08: client support, through recruiter, did first light technical and went well, did second with manager and not so well then reject. Asked me where I see myself in 5 years and replied no fucking idea whoever pays the most in semiconductors.
- AMD:
- EDA:
- Open source
- Canonical
- Linux kernel engineering: failed after take home exercise
- Common Crawl: commoncrawl.org/jobs Software Engineer/Data Scientist, Python, Spark
- Canonical
- Random compute
- Atos, now mostly Eviden: all jobs require 10 years of experience lol
- Random french tech
- Random deeptech:
- Oxford:
- Oxford Instruments 2025-07-21 jobs.oxinst.com/job/Oxford-Senior-Software-Engineer/819253802/ 70k salary. Cover: I just want to do something sciency. Rejected one day later.
- Proxima Fusion 2025-07-15 Research Software Engineer jobs.lever.co/proximafusion/23aab9a8-34ec-40d2-bb14-440f1130021c Got screening interview, but rejected afterwards on 2025-08-08 before technical.
- Salience Labs 2025-09-10 careers.saliencelabs.ai/jobs/6208031-embedded-software-engineer
- Oxford:
- biotech maybe
- optical compute
- NcodiN: no jobs
- Flux Computing:
- Robotics
- HPC
- Formal proof:
This application is hopeless, but here's the pitch. One thing that would be really really awesome for formal mathematics would be a website where anyone (including bots) can go and prove whatever theorem they want on the web UI or API, and then it gets formally verified, and the proven results shows up on the web UI, and other people can use it for their own further proofs. So it's a bit like Lean's mathlib, but the advantage over a centralized standard library is that you don't need to review people's pull requests. And you can do stuff like "watch if a results is proven". More babling at: ourbigbook.com/cirosantilli/website-front-end-for-a-mathematical-formal-proof-system Cheers.
- GPU
- C++
- Linux
- systems software
- numerical software
- robotics
Universal Quantum Updated 2025-07-16
As of 2021, their location is a small business park in Haywards Heath, about 15 minutes north of Brighton[ref]
Funding rounds:
- 2022:
- 67m euro contract with the German government: www.uktech.news/deep-tech/universal-quantum-german-contract-20221102 Both co-founders are German. They then immediatly announced several jobs in Hamburg: apply.workable.com/universalquantum/?lng=en#jobs so presumably linked to the Hamburg University of Technology campus of the German Aerospace Center.
- medium.com/@universalquantum/universal-quantum-wins-67m-contract-to-build-the-fully-scalable-trapped-ion-quantum-computer-16eba31b869e
- 2021: $10M (7.5M GBP) grant from the British Government: www.uktech.news/news/brighton-universal-quantum-wins-grant-20211105This grant is very secretive, very hard to find any other information about it! Most investment trackers are not listing it.The article reads:Interesting!
Universal Quantum will lead a consortium that includes Rolls-Royce, quantum developer Riverlane, and world-class researchers from Imperial College London and The University of Sussex, among others.
A but further down the article gives some more information of partners, from which some of the hardware vendors can be deduced:The consortium includes end-user Rolls-Royce supported by the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) Hartree Centre, quantum software developer Riverlane, supply chain partners Edwards, TMD Technologies (now acquired by Communications & Power Industries (CPI)) and Diamond Microwave
- Edwards is presumably Edwards Vacuum, since we know that trapped ion quantum computers rely heavily on good vacuum systems. Edwards Vacuum is also located quite close to Universal Quantum as of 2022, a few minutes drive.
- TMD Technologies is a microwave technology vendor amongst other things, and we know that microwaves are used e.g. to initialize the spin states of the ions
- Diamond Microwave is another microwave stuff vendor
www.riverlane.com/news/2021/12/riverlane-joins-7-5-million-consortium-to-build-error-corrected-quantum-processor/ gives some more details on the use case provided by Rolls Royce:The work with Rolls Royce will explore how quantum computers can develop practical applications toward the development of more sustainable and efficient jet engines.This starts by applying quantum algorithms to take steps to toward a greater understanding of how liquids and gases flow, a field known as 'fluid dynamics'. Simulating such flows accurately is beyond the computational capacity of even the most powerful classical computers today.This funding was part of a larger quantum push by the UKNQTP: www.ukri.org/news/50-million-in-funding-for-uk-quantum-industrial-projects/ - 2020: $4.5M (3.5M GBP) www.crunchbase.com/organization/universal-quantum. Just out of stealth.
Co-founders:
- Sebastian Weidt. He is German, right? Yes at youtu.be/SwHaJXVYIeI?t=1078 from Video 3. "Fireside Chat with with Sebastian Weidt by Startup Grind Brighton (2022)". The company was founded by two Germans from Essex!
- Winfried Hensinger: if you saw him on the street, you'd think he plays in a punk-rock band. That West Berlin feeling.
Homepage points to foundational paper: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.1601540
Universal Quantum emerges out of stealth by University of Sussex (2020)
Source. Explains that a more "traditional" trapped ion quantum computer would user "pairs of lasers", which would require a lot of lasers. Their approach is to try and do it by applying voltages to a microchip instead.- youtu.be/rYe9TXz35B8?t=127 shows some 3D models. It shows how piezoelectric actuators are used to align or misalign some plates, which presumably then determine conductivity
Quantum Computing webinar with Sebastian Weidt by Green Lemon Company (2020)
Source. The sound quality is to bad to stop and listen to, but it presumaby shows the coding office in the background.Fireside Chat with with Sebastian Weidt by Startup Grind Brighton (2022)
Source. Very basic target audience:- youtu.be/SwHaJXVYIeI?t=680 we are not at a point where you can buy victory. There is too much uncertainty involved across different approaches.
- youtu.be/SwHaJXVYIeI?t=949 his background
- youtu.be/SwHaJXVYIeI?t=1277 difference between venture capitalists in different countries
- youtu.be/SwHaJXVYIeI?t=1535 they are 33 people now. They've just setup their office in Haywards Heath, north of Bristol.