Location: Stuttgart or Munich, Germany Type: Full-time, hybrid (max. 1-2 days remote work per week)

The future of AI computing builds on light. Q.ANT is building photonic processing systems that compute with light - delivering a scalable, energy-efficient alternative to transistor-based architectures for next-generation AI and HPC applications.

As Senior****Software Engineer - Photonic Ecosystem (f/m/d), you will own Q.ANT’s presence and credibility in the open source software ecosystem. Your mission is to make photonic computing accessible out of the box - ensuring that default installations of frameworks like PyTorch, JAX and vllm can leverage Q.ANT’s photonic hardware without friction. You will drive the photonic enablement of base libraries and AI frameworks from design through upstream acceptance and long-term maintenance, and serve as Q.ANT's trusted focal point in open source development communities. In this role, you will bridge internal teams - algorithms, compiler, device control, infrastructure, and system architecture - with the requirements of the external ecosystem.

What You Will Do

• Own the photonic enablement of the open-source software ecosystem - drive integration of Q.ANT’s hardware capabilities into base libraries (OpenBLAS, Eigen, numpy) and AI frameworks (PyTorch, JAX, TensorFlow, llama.cpp, vllm)

• Get code accepted into upstream repositories and package managers so that default installations support Q.ANT hardware out of the box - and maintain it long-term

• Serve as Q.ANT’s focal point for open-source software projects - build trust, demonstrate reliability, and represent Q.ANT professionally in development communities such as the PyTorch community

• Guide ecosystem partners of Q.ANT on design, development, upstreaming, and maintenance of their code and packages; deliver technical briefings and training to partners and internal teams

• Enhance the common native photonic standard library, ensuring frictionless, vendor-agnostic use across the software ecosystem

• Align closely with internal teams - algorithms, compiler, device control, infrastructure, system architecture - and bridge external community requirements back into Q.ANT’s development roadmap

• Proven experience in open-source software development (5+ years) with a demonstrable track record - contributions, maintainership, and sustained community engagement; verifiable via GitHub profile

• Strong experience developing AI or compute frameworks (2+ years) – significant contributions to projects such as PyTorch, TensorFlow, JAX, llama.cpp or vllm, ideally across multiple AI open-source projects

• Strong Python skills for framework development, integration, and ecosystem tooling - non-negotiable

• Deep knowledge of AI algorithms - neural network operations, linear algebra operations, and their implementation in compute frameworks

• Solid understanding of hardware acceleration architectures (such as GPUs) and performance optimisation - foundational for enabling photonic hardware in software frameworks

• Solid grounding in open-source development processes and tooling - GitHub, CI/CD pipelines, software test frameworks, package distribution frameworks

• Strong ownership, communication, and commitment - you drive ecosystem enablement end-to-end, represent Q.ANT externally with clarity and professionalism, and sustain effort through long upstream contribution cycles

• Pro