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Great Sky is a technology startup rebuilding AI from first principles through neuroscience-inspired hardware and algorithms. The company is seeking a Hardware Platform Software Engineer to design and build the software infrastructure that operates their novel hardware systems.
You will own two critical components: a hardware abstraction layer (HAL) that translates high-level model behaviors into concrete operations on analog hardware, and an experiment framework enabling scientists and engineers to define and execute measurements on chips with minimal overhead. This role is ideal for someone with substantial experience building hardware-facing software stacks for quantum computers, analog accelerators, photonic processors, or large scientific systems.
Key responsibilities include:
- Building an enhanced HAL that translates calls from AI frameworks to driver-level operations, enabling model execution, capability discovery, versioning across hardware generations, and parameter-to-physical mapping.
- Developing a robust experiment framework for intuitive, elegantly-declared measurement routines.
- Creating analysis pipelines to extract maximum value from inference and measurement data.
- Presenting a unified API for both simulated and physical backends, interfacing with existing simulation frameworks for verification and parity testing.
- Defining and maintaining middleware between driver layer and AI frameworks, introducing telemetry, diagnostics, and regression testing to ensure platform trustworthiness across hardware revisions.
Success in the first year means: a production v1 HAL through which AI frameworks execute models exclusively on real hardware; clear, documented contracts at layer boundaries validated by automated tests; and engineers efficiently leveraging your framework for key measurement routines.
You will begin as the sole owner of this critical software layer, with rare technical ownership over infrastructure. As hardware scales to multi-chip systems and the platform matures, this role will expand substantially, with opportunities to define the platform roadmap, set engineering standards, mentor engineers, and build and lead a dedicated platform software team.
The company culture is onsite by default (founded by scientists accustomed to lab work) with flexibility for hybrid arrangements; remote work considered for the right candidate.
QUALIFICATIONS
Required:
- Bachelor's or Master's degree in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Physics, or related field (or equivalent experience).
- 5+ years of professional software engineering for control of real physical hardware (quantum control stacks, novel accelerators, photonic systems, scientific instrumentation, embedded systems, or comparable platforms).
- Demonstrated ownership of an API or abstraction layer used by other engineers: designing interfaces, defending boundaries, and evolving them.
- Superior proficiency in Python and working proficiency in at least one systems language (C, C++, or Rust).
- Hands-on experience orchestrating lab instrumentation in software (SCPI instruments, DAQs, AWGs, cameras, motion stages, cryogenic systems).
- Strong testing instincts: unit, integration, regression testing, hardware-in-the-loop test design, and simulation/hardware parity testing.
- Excellent technical writing and communication: high-quality architecture and interface documentation, ability to negotiate contracts across disciplines.
Preferred:
- Experience with runtime or compiler-adjacent layers for novel accelerators.
- Familiarity with superconducting electronics, photonics, or cryogenic systems.
- Experience with streaming or high-throughput data systems (video, RF, DAQ).
- Familiarity with neural networks and ML frameworks (PyTorch, JAX).
