Quantum Center Director

Director
Center for Quantum Architecture
& Software Development

Virginia Tech Innovation Campus

Virginia Tech is creating a bold, new vision for graduate education in computer science and engineering. Located adjacent to the nation’s capital in Alexandria, Virginia, the Innovation Campus will unite industry, government, and academia in dynamic project-based learning and research to shape how emerging technologies influence society, driving a new era for the greater Washington D.C., metro area’s tech ecosystem. The Innovation Campus – both a place and a culture – will unlock the power of diverse people and ideas to solve the world’s most pressing problems via technology. Plans for the Innovation Campus were announced in November 2018 as part of the Commonwealth of Virginia’s successful bid to attract Amazon’s HQ2 to the area. Construction has begun on the 11-story first academic building for the Innovation Campus, set to open in 2024. Read more in the Strategic Plan. 

Virginia Tech opened its Innovation Campus headquarters at 3000 Potomac Avenue, Alexandria, Virginia, in 2021. This new space, adjacent to the future campus location in North Potomac Yard, houses the campus executive offices. The Innovation Campus will eventually make its home on 3.5 acres in the first phase of a new development and innovation district near the future Potomac Yard Metrorail Station. Plans for the first academic building – a 300,000 square-foot structure currently under construction – earned outstanding reviews and unanimous approval from the Alexandria City Council. Campus plans call for Virginia Tech to build two additional buildings, each about 150,000 square feet, as the campus grows. At its full build-out, the Innovation Campus will host approximately 750 master’s and 200 doctoral students and graduate 550 master’s and 50 doctoral candidates annually.

Center for Quantum Architecture & Software Development

With leading global aerospace and defense company Northrop Grumman as a key strategic partner of the Innovation Campus, supporting research and teaching in quantum information science and engineering, the company’s commitment will dramatically enhance the university’s work in the field, with the profound potential to reshape industries and alter the dynamics of national security.

doctoral and master’s candidates, with a focus on diversity; and build programs to connect Northrop Grumman experts with Virginia Tech quantum information science and engineering faculty based both at the Innovation Campus as well as the Blacksburg campus.

The Virginia Tech Innovation Campus plans to invest an additional $15.8 million to establish the leading center in the nation for quantum architecture and software development, bringing the total support for the initiative to $28.3 million. Per Kathy Warden, CEO of Northrop Grumman and Innovation Campus advisory board member: the “…partnership with Virginia Tech will help support [the] vision to solve the world’s most pressing problems with ground-breaking technologies.â€

The Virginia Tech – Northrop Grumman Partnership

Virginia Tech has a longstanding relationship with Northrop Grumman, which employs dozens of directors and eight vice presidents who are Virginia Tech graduates, and over 700 of the university’s alumni work at the company. Northrop Grumman recently sponsored a graduate degree cohort with 25 employees taking Virginia Tech courses, and the company engaged 60 students from the university as interns this past summer. For more than a decade, Virginia Tech and Northrop Grumman scientists and engineers have closely collaborated on cutting-edge

Position Summary

The Virginia Tech Innovation Campus is seeking a true builder, to be the founding leader of its Center for Quantum Architecture and Software Development. With a following in the quantum technology community, the primary hire for this Quantum Center will be charged with delineating and implementing the driving strategy for the center, as well as building its team, capabilities and prestige, by spearheading the hiring of five additional faculty scientists. Through mentorship, scholastic rigor, advanced research, and robust development of compelling value propositions for fundraising and strategic partnerships, they will raise the profile and reputation of Virginia Tech to one of the leading institutions in the nation in quantum technology.

While the majority of administrative and operational upkeep for the center will be managed directly by the central office of the Innovation Campus, the role of the Director will be especially dynamic, with a dual academic-operational mandate, as responsibility for both successful research and development initiatives, as well as achieving the successful growth and prowess of the Quantum Center itself will fall to this position. With a primary focus higher in the stack, on the computer science, information theory, software development, and algorithm end of the spectrum, the Director will need to take into consideration suitability of efforts for near-to-midterm application that may appeal to strategic industry partners, such as aerospace & defense, cybersecurity, and so on.

Most importantly, the Director will be tasked with establishing a world-class culture for the center and its personnel, in line with the strong collaborative values of the Innovation Campus and Virginia Tech, such that it is both internally and externally reputed as a leading institution for Quantum R&D as well as a milieu conducive to excellence and attracting top talent in the field.

Reporting Relationships

The Center Director will hold a tenured appointment and occupy an endowed chair position, reporting to Lance Collins, Executive Director of the Innovations Campus, who reports to the President of the University. As the Quantum Center launches and develops, the Center Director will have the opportunity to hire five additional faculty colleagues, plus identify further growth opportunities for talent acquisition, and will therefore oversee a team of 5+ total staff, with possibilities to expand as opportunities emerge.

Opportunities & Challenges

The Virginia Tech Blacksburg campus has established the Center for Quantum Information Science and Engineering (VTQ) with leadership in the college of science. We anticipate that VTQ will work closely with the Center for Quantum Architecture and Software Development in ways that augment, complement and reinforce VTQ. The long-term goal is to raise the stature of the collective effort to be among the best in the nation. This may be achieved in various ways: through notable research, novel discoveries and subsequent eminent and highly-cited peer-reviewed publications; through attracting top academic talent; and through establishing strong collaborations that unite efforts across faculty at the two centers and with our industry partners.

Academic Building One will be outfitted with laboratories that can accommodate frontier research in computer science and computer engineering; however, the campus does not contain ventilation systems for the most demanding wet chemistry and materials research. That work would have to be done on the main campus in Blacksburg or through partnerships with industry or government laboratories in the area. As such, the Director will be expected to develop creative plans, as needed, to meet the requirements of the program they envision.

The Center Director is getting in on the ground floor. The potential for growth in all aspects, including infrastructure, will largely turn on the leader’s own capabilities, which will garner the full support and backing of the university and its partners.

Position Responsibilities

• Establish and develop a world-class quantum program with a view to seeing it surface as one of the top and most coveted quantum programs in the nation, uniting industry, government, and academia in broad-view, dynamic, projectbased learning and purpose-driven research to shape how emerging quantum technology influences society.
• Set/articulate the unified strategy, culture, and overarching long-term vision for the Quantum Center, including planning, budgeting, hiring, and formulating directives for such a vision to be realized in efficacious, timely, and inclusive fashion, such that building consensus/attaining buy-in across all stakeholder groups is embedded into the process of realizing the above.
• Assemble an impeccable team for the Quantum Center, with an additional five faculty members, and ensure active and robust research and publishing efforts emanate from the Quantum Center, establishing sensible productivity measures and other suitable metrics to foster a high-performance culture. Hiring should be consistent with the campus goal to be the most diverse graduate tech program in the country, in terms of both women and minorities that are underrepresented.
• Design and shape the cutting-edge research and instructional programs to be offered at the Innovation Campus, in connection with other major external partners and the Virginia Tech Center for Quantum Information Science and Engineering (VTQ) at the Blacksburg campus.
• Position the Innovation Campus, its affiliated colleges, and Virginia Tech as a whole, to be a national and international leader in quantum technology, via interdisciplinary and collaborative research and education.
• Lead and shepherd the themes of the Innovation Campus vision (see https://vt.edu/innovationcampus/about.html), in particular use-inspired research, building pathways for a diverse graduate student cohort, and creating partnerships with industry.
• Oversee grad students and postdocs, participate in development of quantum curriculum, and bring a level of acclaim to the university, such that students are attracted to the Innovation Campus’s quantum program due to its strong reputation.
• Establish extramural funding from the vast funding pools currently available in the form of federal government grants, federal agency grants, commercial industry contracts, etc. Lead the effort to attract investment and generate growth for the Quantum Center.
• Work extensively to build bridges with complementary groups, including the VTQ Center in Blacksburg, the Bradley school of Electrical and Computer Engineering, the College of Science, the Department of Physics, the Sanghani Center for Artificial Intelligence and Data Analytics, the “Wireless @ Virginia Tech†research group, Arlington Research Center, National Security Institute, VT-ARC (501c3 Applied Research Corporation), the Commonwealth Cyber Initiative, and so on, taking a lead as chief ‘integrator’ for all quantum-related efforts/academics, inspire connections, and foster
  collaborative frameworks.
• Strive to make the Innovation Campus a landmark destination in Quantum, including through the establishment and development of a world-class quantum program, and through ensuring a significant number of graduates achieve successful pathways toward postdoctoral positions as well as into industry and academic positions.
• Initiate and develop independent research that is internationally recognized for excellence, conscientiously mentor research-oriented graduate students, teach effectively at graduate level, serve the university and its professional communities.

Skills & Experience Requirements

• Considerable experience cultivating a strong record of research, advising, teaching, or rendering services commensurate with a distinguished level of active scholarship. Entrepreneurial spirit suited to building/creating growth.
• Commitment to interdisciplinary research/instruction, willingness to expand disciplinary boundaries to address complex technical/societal challenges.
• A record of research that is primarily higher in the stack (e.g., algorithms, computer architecture, simulators, optimization, machine learning, error correction, theory, or other related areas), yet with a definitive appreciation for hardware, so as to correctly identify areas where quantum advantage is possible, and be able to advance the relationship with Northrop Grumman.
• Fundamental quantum information expertise, openness to explore applied aspects of quantum technologies, and translating quantum expertise into a diverse set of current and future application domains.
• Established stature and credibility in the quantum information community, bringing visibility to the Innovation Campus, with leadership skills to recruit and retain top talent and build a world-class quantum center.
• Highly collaborative with the breadth of experience required to drive trends, rather than simply responding to them, and to contribute to the educational mission of the Innovation Campus.
• Proven success in working with non-academic industry and governmental partners on joint research and development, and a recognition of research excellence, demonstrated by awards, as well as other metrics.
• Understanding of quantum landscape, ability to attract top quantum talent, whilst simultaneously accounting for Diversity, Equity & Inclusion, and past evidence of acting as a champion of DE&I (e.g. working with HBCUs, etc.).
• Distinguished career, with strong publication record, international visibility, distinction in the quantum community, as well as record of robust funding stream, awards, recognition, leadership at professional societies, etc.
• Servant leadership. Experience running collaborative programs/proposals, ability to bring people together across disciplines.
• Strong understanding of and familiarity with the interplay between academia, government, and commercial industry, including developing partnerships with fabrication laboratories, and established networks / relationships with them.
• Creative, innovative and original approach to quantum research in a way that connects dots that may not necessarily be apparent from other perspectives, ability to devise and develop whitespace projects apt for quantum research.

Education & Certifications

Doctoral degree (PhD) in Computer Science, Electrical or Computer Engineering, Physics, or closely related field, and a rank-appropriate record of scholarship and service in quantum research, required.

Presence & Travel

Occasional travel required to attend conferences, develop collaboration off-site, etc.
Remote flexibility available, yet this role requires consistent on-site presence.

Eligibility

U.S. citizen preferred but not required. Foreign nationals from countries not subject to pervasive export controls or ITAR restrictions, such as NATO / “pre-NATO†states are eligible for consideration. Applicants from signatory nations to MoU’s with the U.S. government for collaboration in quantum are also welcome for consideration. (Candidates requiring extensive use of industry partner facilities: TS/SCI clearance may be required, and could therefore be limited to U.S. citizens in such instances.)

Compensation

Highly competitive for academic sector, competitive in relation to commercial sector.

Procedure for Confidential Candidacy

Submit resumes, with assurance of confidentiality, to PSIRCH: [email protected]

Commitment to Diversity

Virginia Tech and PSIRCH are committed to a process of diversity and inclusion.
We welcome all qualified candidates for consideration.