A physicist does not need another postdoc before applying to a quantum company. In our November 14, 2026 snapshot, employers mention a PhD in 366 of 805 technical listings. They mention postdoctoral experience in 38.
We counted words in listing text. A mention may be a requirement, a preference, or one route among several. Apply when your research and engineering experience match the duties and the stated qualifications of a listing.
Where listings mention a PhD
We searched the text of every technical listing for a doctorate. We left out sentences in which an employer describes its own staff. The share differs by role family. The table has the eight largest research and engineering families.
| Role family | Listings | Mention a PhD | Mention publications |
|---|---|---|---|
| Research scientists, physicists, and algorithms | 80 | 69 | 49 |
| Error correction and architecture | 66 | 57 | 28 |
| Quantum engineering, calibration, and operations | 78 | 54 | 24 |
| Laser, optics, and photonics engineering | 121 | 68 | 9 |
| Processor development, fabrication, and process engineering | 40 | 24 | 3 |
| Software and infrastructure engineering | 147 | 46 | 12 |
| Electrical, RF, and control electronics | 87 | 22 | 1 |
| Mechanical, vacuum, and cryogenic engineering | 59 | 12 | 0 |
The eight families have 678 of the 805 technical listings and 352 of the 366 PhD mentions. Most of the other 127 listings are manufacturing, systems integration, and technician roles.
Employers mention a PhD most often in the first three families, in 180 of 224 listings. In 74 of the 366 listings, employers name a lower degree or equivalent experience in the same sentence as the PhD. Our search misses an alternative that an employer puts in a separate bullet, so the true number is higher. Candidates without a doctorate can read quantum careers without a PhD.
Employers mention publications mainly in the research family. An experimental physicist who built and ran an apparatus can apply for quantum engineering roles with a short publication list.
Academic stages and industry levels
We class 175 of the 366 PhD listings as mid-level, 97 as senior, and 77 as lead or principal. Ten are director roles. Six are entry-level roles, three of them postdoctoral fellowships, and one is a co-op placement.
| Level on the board | PhD listings | Example titles | Experience to demonstrate |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mid-level | 175 | Quantum Scientist (QuEra); Quantum Physicist (Infleqtion); Quantum Engineer, Gates (IQM) | Independent research or engineering work in the relevant area |
| Senior | 97 | Senior Quantum Physicist (Infleqtion); Sr. Quantum Scientist (QuEra) | Ownership of a substantial experiment, subsystem, or research program, with evidence of mentoring and reliable delivery |
| Lead or principal | 77 | Staff Quantum Physicist, Hardware Systems (Infleqtion); Staff Scientist – Quantum Applications (IonQ) | Technical direction across several projects or teams |
The last column is our guidance. Academic rank and company level do not map one to one. Each employer sets its own levels. In 28 listings, employers state the years of experience they want after the PhD. Check that line before you choose which level to apply for.
A recruiter can tell you which level the hiring manager has in mind, so ask in the first call.
What changes in the work
The company sets the deadlines. Employers mention roadmaps, milestones, or deliverables in 103 of the 366 PhD listings. A team commits to a date, and other teams plan around it. A physicist who enjoys finishing a measurement that someone else needs is well suited to this way of working.
The team is wider. Employers mention cross-functional work in 90 of the listings. An industry physicist works every week with electrical engineers, software engineers, and technicians. Write clear handovers so those colleagues can use your results.
Some scientists work with customers. Employers mention customers in 120 of the 366 listings. Scientists in applications and field roles explain results to people who are not physicists.
Companies file patents as well as publish papers. Employers mention patents or intellectual property in 51 listings. A company may review a paper before submission, and it may keep some results unpublished. Ask in the interview how many papers the team published in the last year.
Rewriting an academic CV
For most engineering applications, lead with a concise résumé tailored to the listing. For research roles, follow the format the employer asks for. Add a selected publication list or a research statement where the listing asks for one. Make four changes to an academic CV.
- Lead with what you built and measured. State the apparatus, your part in it, and the result with its number. Give gate fidelities, coherence times, or uptime, and say whether a qubit count is physical or logical.
- Name the tools. List the lasers, cryostats, control systems, programming languages, and simulation packages you used. Recruiters look for those words.
- Show work with other people. State how many students you supervised, what you were responsible for, and what the group delivered. Name the collaborations you coordinated and any shared equipment you ran.
- Cut the lists. Keep the three to five most relevant papers and link to the full list. Keep talks and teaching where they show relevant expertise, mentoring, or communication.
Match your wording to the listing where it is true. We explain how employers phrase requirements in decoding quantum job descriptions.
Industry postdocs
Two companies have three fixed-term postdoctoral listings on the board. QuEra lists two Quantum Innovation Postdoctoral Fellow positions in Boston, one in error correction and one in applications, at US$110,000–120,000 a year. Sygaldry Technologies lists a two-year Quantum-AI Postdoctoral Fellow in San Francisco or Ann Arbor at US$125,000–145,000.
A physicist who wants to test company work before committing can use an industry postdoc for that. Ask how long the appointment lasts and whether the company can extend it or convert it to a permanent role. Ask whether fellows publish. Where a program has run for some years, ask how many earlier fellows the company hired afterward.
Posted salary ranges
Seventeen employers posted the 172 annual US dollar ranges we found on the PhD listings.
| Level | Ranges | Median posted range | Median midpoint |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mid-level | 67 | US$135,000–181,000 | US$158,000 |
| Senior | 48 | US$150,000–198,000 | US$177,500 |
| Lead or principal | 50 | US$180,000–231,500 | US$205,000 |
We set the levels ourselves from each title. We left out four director listings and the three postdoctoral fellowships. Each row describes a different set of listings, so do not read the difference between two rows as a promotion raise.
The median posted range pairs the median minimum with the median maximum. The median midpoint is the median of each listing’s own midpoint, so it need not fall halfway between the two. Employers describe most of these ranges as base salary, and a range is not an offer.
We have no physics postdoc pay scale to set beside these figures. One limited reference point is the stipend the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) sets for its own training awards, which starts at US$63,480 for fiscal year 2026. Physics postdoc pay varies by institution and funder. The industry ranges cover different jobs, places, and experience levels, so we cannot measure the raise from leaving a postdoc with these two figures.
The American Institute of Physics surveyed the physics PhD classes of 2021 and 2022. Half of those who trained in the United States and stayed there held a postdoc a year after the degree.
Base salary is one part of an offer. We explain bonuses, equity, and negotiation in how quantum employers benchmark pay.
Before you apply
Check three things separately: permission to work, access to export-controlled technology, and security clearance. Employers state a US-person or citizenship requirement in 174 of the 648 US listings. Two employers post 166 of them. For those terms, see visas, relocation, and security clearances.
Choose the hardware you know. Candidates can find the employers for each in the guides to superconducting and neutral-atom roles.
Before you accept an offer, ask what you will own, how the team measures progress, who sets research priorities, and how the company decides what to publish. You will learn more about the fit from those answers than from the job title.
Browse the open roles on Quantum Careers.
