Quantum Science & Technology

The physics of the very small and the new industry it is creating: quantum computers, quantum sensors, and unbreakable communication.

Top pay: highest pay, longest training

• Quantum Physicist: Studies the strange rules of the tiniest particles, where things can be in two places at once. Typical pay $160k.
• Quantum Computing Hardware Engineer: Builds and improves the qubits, the fragile building blocks of quantum computers. Typical pay $170k.
• Trapped-Ion / Atomic Physics Scientist: Uses lasers to trap individual atoms and turn them into qubits or ultra-precise sensors. Typical pay $160k.
• Quantum Algorithm Researcher: Invents the step-by-step methods quantum computers will use to solve problems ordinary computers can't. Typical pay $165k.
• Quantum Error Correction Scientist: Figures out how to protect quantum computers from their own errors, the biggest hurdle to making them useful. Typical pay $175k.
• Quantum Software Engineer: Writes the software, compilers, and tools that let people program quantum computers. Typical pay $140k.
• Quantum Sensing Scientist: Builds sensors that use quantum effects to measure gravity, magnetism, or time more precisely than ever. Typical pay $145k.
• Quantum-Safe Cryptographer: Protects data from future quantum computers that could crack today's encryption. Typical pay $160k.
• Condensed Matter Physicist: Studies how huge numbers of atoms team up to create superconductors, magnets, and new quantum materials. Typical pay $155k.
• Quantum Control Engineer: Designs the electronics and microwave or laser pulses that tell qubits what to do. Typical pay $150k.
• Quantum Technology Product Manager: Decides what a quantum company builds next and helps customers figure out what quantum computers can do for them. Typical pay $160k.
• Quantum Networking Engineer: Builds networks that send fragile quantum states of light between distant quantum computers or sensors. Typical pay $150k.

Mid pay: solid pay, degree or apprenticeship

• Cryogenics / Dilution Refrigerator Technician: Keeps the giant chandelier-like refrigerators that cool quantum computers near absolute zero running. Typical pay $72k.
• Quantum Device Fabrication Engineer: Makes quantum chips in a cleanroom, layer by microscopic layer. Typical pay $108k.
• Quantum Lab Research Associate: Helps scientists build and run quantum experiments, often right out of college. Typical pay $68k.
• Quantum Education & Outreach Specialist: Teaches students, teachers, and the public what quantum technology is and how to get into it. Typical pay $72k.
• Quantum Hardware Test Technician: Runs test equipment that checks whether quantum chips work after they are cooled close to absolute zero. Typical pay $70k.

Starter: fastest way in

• Cleanroom Fabrication Technician: Runs the equipment in ultra-clean labs where computer and quantum chips are made. Typical pay $49k.
• Quantum Hardware Assembly Technician: Hand-builds the wiring, filters and cable bundles that go inside the giant gold "chandelier" refrigerators of quantum computers. Typical pay $48k.

Career Universe is an early version. Pay, training and AI-risk figures are estimates to start your own research, not verified facts. The research was written with AI research assistants, checked by validation scripts and spot-checked by hand. Check anything important with schools, employers and official sources. How the numbers work.