Senior Research Scientist, Superconducting Digital Electronics, Quantum AI

$174K - $252K Remote Senior Research Scientist

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About This Role

AI job market dashboard showing open roles by category

The application window will be open until at least October 16, 2026. This opportunity will remain online based on business needs which may be before or after the specified date.

Applicants in San Francisco: Qualified applications with arrest or conviction records will be considered for employment in accordance with the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance for Employers and the California Fair Chance Act.

In accordance with Washington state law, we are highlighting our comprehensive benefits package, which is available to all eligible US based employees.

Benefits for this role include:

  • Health, dental, vision, life, disability insurance
  • Retirement Benefits: 401(k) with company match
  • Paid Time Off: 20 days of vacation per year, accruing at a rate of 6.15 hours per pay period for the first five years of employment
  • Sick Time: 40 hours/year (increased to 69 hours/year for Seattle) including 5 discretionary sick days per instance
  • Maternity Leave (Short-Term Disability + Baby Bonding): 28-30 weeks
  • Baby Bonding Leave: 18 weeks
  • Holidays: 13 paid days per year

Note: By applying to this position you will have an opportunity to share your preferred working location from the following:

In-office locations: Goleta, CA, USA; Cambridge, MA, USA; Mountain View, CA, USA; Seattle, WA, USA; San Francisco, CA, USA; Washington D.C., DC, USA.

Remote location(s): United States.

Minimum qualifications:

  • Master's degree in Electrical Engineering, Physics, related engineering discipline, or equivalent practical experience.
  • Experience in superconductor logic families (e.g., RSFQ, ERSFQ, RQL, HFQ, AQFP).
  • Experience performing tape-out of a superconducting IC chip.
  • One or more published research paper or presentation at a relevant scientific conference.

Preferred qualifications:

  • PhD in physics, electrical engineering, or a related engineering discipline.
  • 7 years of research/industry experience in the design and simulation of superconductor digital logic circuits with 3 years of experience leading an Research and Development (R&D) group towards tape-out and demonstration of superconducting IC chips.
  • Experience with full digital design flow including RTL, synthesis, verification, timing closure, place-and-route, and post-fabrication validation.
  • Experience with low-temperature measurements of superconductor digital logic circuits.
  • Experience with superconducting qubits.
  • Proficiency with computer-aided design tools and electromagnetic simulation tools.

About the job

As a Research Scientist, your primary focus will be designing and simulating superconductor digital logic circuits (such as single flux quantum (SFQ) logic and adiabatic quantum flux parametron (AQFP) logic) for qubit control and readout. You will engage in co-design loops with qubit designers and superconducting digital circuit designers, utilizing advanced IC design tools, numerical circuit simulation techniques and 3D electromagnetic modeling to optimize signal integrity, minimize crosstalk, manage thermal budgets, and aim performance metrics required for coherent control of qubits. You will also interface with fabrication engineers to help define and establish IC design standards that are compatible for both the sensitive superconducting qubits and the co-located cryogenic control electronics. This work is critical to building a fully integrated, modular chip stack that combines superconducting qubits with their control electronics directly within the cryogenic environment, accelerating the path toward large-scale, error-corrected quantum computer.

This work is critical to building a fully integrated, modular chip stack that combines superconducting qubits with their control electronics directly within the cryogenic environment, accelerating the path toward large-scale, error-corrected quantum computers. The full potential of quantum computing will be unlocked with a large-scale computer capable of complex, error-corrected computations. Google Quantum AI's mission is to build this computer and unlock solutions to classically intractable problems. Our roadmap is focused on advancing the capabilities of quantum computing and enabling meaningful applications.

Individual pay is determined by factors including job-related skills, experience, and relevant education or training.

US: $174000 - $252000 (USD) + 15% bonus target + equity + benefits

Learn more about benefits at Google.Responsibilities

  • Design and simulate superconductor digital logic circuits (such as single flux quantum (SFQ) logic, adiabatic quantum flux parametron (AQFP) logic, and other emerging superconductor logic families) for generating waveforms tailored to qubit control and readout.
  • Develop superconductor digital logic systems enabling multiplexed qubit control and readout.
  • Address issues in the integration of superconductor digital electronics such as multi-layer cell design, full-chip clock synchronization, flux trapping, and signal integrity.
  • Collaborate with teams focused on design, fabrication, and measurement to validate fully integrated quantum processors.
  • Publish research papers and present at leading scientific conferences to advance and enhance publicity.

Google is proud to be an equal opportunity workplace and is an affirmative action employer. We are committed to equal employment opportunity regardless of race, color, ancestry, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, age, citizenship, marital status, disability, gender identity or Veteran status. We also consider qualified applicants regardless of criminal histories, consistent with legal requirements. See also Google's EEO Policy and EEO is the Law. If you have a disability or special need that requires accommodation, please let us know by completing our Accommodations for Applicants form.

Salary Context

This $174K-$252K range is above the median for Research Scientist roles in our dataset (median: $197K across 82 roles with salary data).

Role Details

Company Google
Title Senior Research Scientist, Superconducting Digital Electronics, Quantum AI
Location Remote, US
Category Research Scientist
Experience Senior
Salary $174K - $252K
Remote Yes

About This Role

Research Scientists push the boundaries of what AI can do. They design experiments, develop novel architectures, publish papers, and translate research breakthroughs into production capabilities. This is where the fundamental advances happen, from attention mechanisms to diffusion models to reasoning chains.

The work is intellectually demanding and often ambiguous. You might spend months on an approach that doesn't pan out. The best research scientists combine deep mathematical intuition with engineering pragmatism. They know when to go deep on theory and when to run experiments. They read papers voraciously and can spot incremental contributions from genuine breakthroughs.

Across the 9,653 AI roles we're tracking, Research Scientist positions make up 2% of the market. At Google, this role fits into their broader AI and engineering organization.

Research Scientist roles are concentrated at major AI labs (OpenAI, Anthropic, Google DeepMind, Meta FAIR) and well-funded AI startups. The competition is intense. PhD is effectively required for most positions, and publication track record matters. Compensation is among the highest in AI, reflecting both the scarcity of talent and the strategic importance of research breakthroughs.

What the Work Looks Like

A typical week includes: reading and discussing recent papers with your team, designing and running experiments on multi-GPU clusters, analyzing results and iterating on hypotheses, writing up findings for internal review or publication, and collaborating with engineering teams to productionize promising results. The ratio of thinking to coding is higher than in engineering roles.

Research Scientist roles are concentrated at major AI labs (OpenAI, Anthropic, Google DeepMind, Meta FAIR) and well-funded AI startups. The competition is intense. PhD is effectively required for most positions, and publication track record matters. Compensation is among the highest in AI, reflecting both the scarcity of talent and the strategic importance of research breakthroughs.

Skills in Demand for This Role

Python (17% of roles) Aws (9% of roles) Azure (8% of roles) Rag (7% of roles) Gcp (5% of roles) Pytorch (5% of roles) Kubernetes (4% of roles) Claude (4% of roles)

PhD strongly preferred for most roles. Deep expertise in a specific area (NLP, computer vision, reinforcement learning, multimodal) is expected. PyTorch is the standard. Publication track record matters. Strong mathematical foundations in linear algebra, probability, optimization, and information theory are assumed.

Beyond the fundamentals, companies value experience with large-scale distributed training, novel architecture design, and the ability to bridge theory and practice. Understanding of current frontier topics (reasoning, multimodal, long-context, alignment) is essential. Code quality matters more than many researchers expect. Labs want researchers who can implement their ideas cleanly.

Strong research postings specify the research area, mention the team you'd join, and describe the problems they're working on. They often list recent publications from the team. Vague 'AI research' postings without specifics usually mean the company wants to sound impressive but doesn't have a real research agenda.

Compensation Benchmarks

Research Scientist roles pay a median of $222,200 based on 708 positions with disclosed compensation. Senior-level AI roles across all categories have a median of $228,700. Disclosed range: $174K to $252K.

Across all AI roles, the market median is $213,400. Top-quartile compensation starts at $264,230. The 90th percentile reaches $319,400. For comparison, the highest-paying categories include AI Safety ($253,100) and Research Engineer ($252,000). By seniority level: Entry: $110,408; Mid: $193,200; Senior: $228,700; Director: $272,275; VP: $235,000.

Google AI Hiring

Google has 161 open AI roles right now. They're hiring across AI/ML Engineer, AI Product Manager, AI Software Engineer, Data Scientist. Positions span Sunnyvale, CA, New York, NY, Sunnyvale, CA, US. Compensation range: $157K - $427K.

Remote Work Context

Remote AI roles pay a median of $185,906 across 2,124 positions. About 6% of all AI roles offer remote work.

Career Path

Common paths into Research Scientist roles include PhD Student, Research Engineer, Postdoc.

From here, career progression typically leads toward Research Lead, Distinguished Scientist, VP of Research.

The PhD is the entry point for most paths. Choose your advisor and research area carefully since they'll define your first industry position. Publish consistently, contribute to open-source projects in your area, and build relationships at conferences. Industry research offers better compensation and compute resources than academia, but the pressure to show product impact is real.

What to Expect in Interviews

Research interviews are multi-stage: a research talk (present your best paper), technical deep-dives on your methodology, and often a 'research proposal' exercise where you design an experiment to test a hypothesis. Coding rounds test implementation ability alongside theoretical knowledge. Be prepared to implement a paper from scratch and discuss the design choices the authors made. Strong candidates can critique papers constructively and identify gaps in experimental methodology.

When evaluating opportunities: Strong research postings specify the research area, mention the team you'd join, and describe the problems they're working on. They often list recent publications from the team. Vague 'AI research' postings without specifics usually mean the company wants to sound impressive but doesn't have a real research agenda.

AI Hiring Overview

The AI job market has 9,653 open positions tracked in our dataset. By seniority: 193 entry-level, 4,500 mid-level, 3,455 senior, and 1,505 leadership roles (Director, VP, C-Level). Remote roles make up 6% of the market (568 positions). The remaining 9,010 roles require on-site or hybrid attendance.

The market median for AI roles is $213,400. Top-quartile compensation starts at $264,230. The 90th percentile reaches $319,400. Highest-paying categories: AI Safety ($253,100 median, 57 roles); Research Engineer ($252,000 median, 419 roles); AI Engineering Manager ($251,622 median, 51 roles).

Research Scientist roles are concentrated at major AI labs (OpenAI, Anthropic, Google DeepMind, Meta FAIR) and well-funded AI startups. The competition is intense. PhD is effectively required for most positions, and publication track record matters. Compensation is among the highest in AI, reflecting both the scarcity of talent and the strategic importance of research breakthroughs.

The AI Job Market Today

The AI job market spans 9,653 open positions across 16 role categories. The largest categories by volume: AI/ML Engineer (7,301), Data Scientist (441), AI Software Engineer (438). These three account for the majority of open positions, though smaller categories often have higher per-role compensation because of specialized skill requirements.

The seniority mix tells a story about where AI teams are in their maturity. Entry-level roles (193) are outnumbered by mid-level (4,500) and senior (3,455) positions, reflecting that most companies are past the 'build a team from scratch' phase and need experienced engineers who can ship production systems. Leadership roles (Director, VP, C-Level) total 1,505 positions, representing the bottleneck between technical execution and organizational strategy.

Remote work availability sits at 6% of all AI roles (568 positions), with 9,010 requiring on-site or hybrid attendance. The remote share has stabilized after the post-pandemic correction. Senior and specialized roles (Research Scientist, ML Architect) are more likely to be remote-eligible than entry-level positions, partly because experienced hires have more negotiating power and partly because these roles require less hands-on mentorship.

AI compensation is structured in clear tiers. The market median sits at $213,400. Top-quartile roles start at $264,230, and the 90th percentile reaches $319,400. These figures include base salary with disclosed compensation. Total compensation (including equity, bonuses, and sign-on) runs 20-40% higher at companies that offer those components.

Category matters for compensation. AI Safety roles lead at $253,100 median, while Prompt Engineer roles sit at $141,440. The spread between highest and lowest-paying categories reflects the premium on specialized technical skills versus broader analytical roles.

The most in-demand skills across all AI postings: Python (1,605 postings), Aws (916 postings), Azure (724 postings), Rag (634 postings), Gcp (522 postings), Pytorch (495 postings), Kubernetes (384 postings), Claude (383 postings). Python dominates, appearing in the vast majority of role descriptions regardless of category. Cloud platform experience (AWS, GCP, Azure) is the second most common requirement. The newer entrants to the top skills list (RAG, vector databases, LLM APIs) reflect the shift from traditional ML toward generative AI applications.

Frequently Asked Questions

Based on 708 roles with disclosed compensation, the median salary for Research Scientist positions is $222,200. Actual compensation varies by seniority, location, and company stage.
PhD strongly preferred for most roles. Deep expertise in a specific area (NLP, computer vision, reinforcement learning, multimodal) is expected. PyTorch is the standard. Publication track record matters. Strong mathematical foundations in linear algebra, probability, optimization, and information theory are assumed.
About 6% of the 9,653 AI roles we track offer remote work. Remote availability varies by company and seniority level, with senior and leadership roles more likely to offer location flexibility.
Google is among the companies actively hiring for AI and ML talent. Check our company profiles for detailed breakdowns of open roles, salary ranges, and hiring trends.
Common next steps from Research Scientist positions include Research Lead, Distinguished Scientist, VP of Research. Progression depends on whether you lean toward technical depth, people management, or product strategy.

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