Senior Research Engineer

at  Vodafone

WHO YOU ARE

1.Required technical expertise:

• Foundation in quantum computing.
• Know-how regarding quantum communication incl. quantum key distribution and modern pre-shared symmetric key solutions
• Knowledge of the quantum safety challenge and the purpose of Post Quantum Cryptography
• Fundamentals of machine learning
• Fluency in Python, use of Jupyter
• Fluency in linear algebra, in fundamentals of statistics and probability theory
• At least some basic experience with one of: Google Cloud Platform, AWS, Microsoft Azure, or IBM cloud.
• Experience in rapid prototyping and software engineering.

2.Desired technical expertise and references:

• Knowledge of and hands-on experience with Qiskit or PennyLane
• High-level knowledge of important quantum algorithms
• Understanding of basics in quantum information theory
• Understanding of quantum annealing
• Understanding of principles in data science and machine learning
• Cloud computing, Linux OS, DevOps and software development tools (git, GitHub)
• Understanding of mobile networks (4G, 5G)
• Reference projects on GitHub or own contributions to open-source software.

3.Excellent communication, facilitation and interpersonal skills, good writing skills evidenced by reports, publications, blog posts or articles. Ability and strong desire to communicate goals, visions, strategies, approaches, and results in written & verbal form to audiences of experts and senior stakeholders alike. Ability to proactively initiate and drive projects, identify stakeholders, successfully engage them, build trust, unlock and secure resources, ability to convince, synergize, create momentum and stakeholder buy-in. Adaptive in style of communication, demonstrating persistence and flexibility in approach. Experience with project management.
4.Naturally drawn to a fast-paced innovation environment with interest in a mix of innovation activities, technical strategy development, use case and business development, research of new technologies, system architecting, hands-on prototyping & evaluation. Ability to initiate and nurture teamwork, to effectively collaborate, to adapt to changing circumstances and priorities including switching focus between technical domains. Demonstrating team spirit combined with self-reliance and resourcefulness. Patience, positive mindset and growth attitude, strong desire to seek and nurture organisational excellence and to overcome non-technical challenges.
5.‘Share and get feedback’ attitude: Desire to proactively share knowledge, expertise, and progress of work in written form with team members and to seek feedback. Goal-oriented. Effectiveness in collaborating, synergizing, working as a team member towards shared goals, in building and leveraging personal networks and trusted relationships inside and outside the company. Strong interest in and evidence for continuous learning including from feedback, ability to learn and improve self and others.

MUST HAVE TECHNICAL / PROFESSIONAL QUALIFICATIONS:

• MSc or Ph.D. in one of: Quantum Computing, Computer Science, Data Science, Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence, Cloud Computing, Maths, Physics.
• Additionally welcomed: professional training related to the relevant fields mentioned.

• Outreach to other Vodafone units from different domains (from networks to service platforms to consumer devices) for identifying, informing, briefing, and activating suitable stakeholders & support, for promoting new technical concepts, challenging status-quo and existing approaches, for identifying promising candidate problem domains to tackle, for developing collaboration opportunities using advances in quantum technology fields like quantum computing, quantum communications, quantum sensing).
• Initiating, leading, managing, executing, contributing to, and reviewing innovation projects (inhouse, or with partners), taking on roles as required from technical project manager to researcher exploring areas of priority to the company in quantum technologies incl. quantum computing, quantum communications, quantum safety and related business transformation. Documentation and proactive sharing / marketing of project results in ways suitable for relevant stakeholder groups. Developing of intellectual property, patents, and new solutions. Specifying and negotiating collaboration projects and creating statements of work for project partners.
• Driving assessment and evaluation of new technologies, approaches, methods, and frameworks (incl. their refinement and adaptation), of tech companies and industry ecosystems in several areas, foremost related to quantum technologies including but not limited to quantum computing, quantum communications, and to some extent quantum safety. Developing technical strategies, technical guidance, company positions and recommendations. Documenting and proactively sharing findings with relevant stakeholders and in-house & external communities through different channels (meetings, written reports, webinars, video recordings, online articles, peer-reviewed conference papers, other publications).
• Testing new technologies and prototyping new solutions, applying best-practice software engineering, and leveraging in-house compute, networking, cloud resources and partners. Defining and conducting research experiments, documenting results in technical reports, publications, presentations, and webinars, providing written analyses and recommendations.
• Engaging with and convincing other domain experts and senior business stakeholders to achieve buy-in for project proposals, to receive project support, for unlocking of information and data, for supporting budget requests, for supporting and approving technical strategies and partnering approaches.