Co-Founder, Cryogenic Data Links
Build the data links that let cryogenic systems scale.
The opportunity
Quantum computers, cryogenic sensors, and large detector arrays operate near absolute zero and rely on dense bundles of electrical wiring between room temperature and the cold stage. Every additional connection takes up space and brings in heat that the refrigeration system must remove. As these systems grow, that wiring becomes a system-level constraint, and quantum computers, which will need hundreds of thousands to millions of qubits, feel it first.
A national laboratory research team has developed components that carry signals across that boundary with far less heat and space than electrical wiring. Early devices have shown a large gain in energy efficiency over the best components available today.
The company sells complete data links, from the cold stage to room-temperature electronics, to every team building cryogenic systems, starting with quantum computing and extending to cryogenic sensing, detector readout, and other applications where channel counts keep rising.
The company you'll build
You will build a hardware company that supplies data-link modules for cryogenic systems, starting with quantum computers.
The company will work closely with one or more early system builders to define specifications, qualify the first integrated module, and choose the strongest commercial entry point.
Because the product serves every cryogenic platform, the company does not depend on any one quantum architecture winning.
What you'll do in the first year
- Work with the research team to define the first product and the performance specifications that matter to potential customers.
- Execute the technology-license and company-formation process.
- Identify and engage quantum hardware teams and other cryogenic-system builders as prospective design partners.
- Turn the existing device demonstration into a product-development roadmap for an integrated and packaged module.
- Establish the manufacturing and packaging strategy required to move from laboratory devices toward repeatable modules.
- Build the founding hardware and systems team.
- Raise the initial capital required to reach customer-relevant device milestones.
Who you are
- An operator, founder, or senior engineering leader from quantum hardware, photonics, optical communications, semiconductor devices, cryogenic systems, or adjacent markets.
- You understand how complex hardware gets designed into a larger system and how component suppliers earn customer qualification.
- Comfortable building a company around technology that still requires meaningful integration and product-development work.
- Able to work across scientists, systems engineers, customers, investors, and manufacturing partners.
- Excited to build the infrastructure an emerging industry runs on.
We want to hear from executives and repeat founders who have built in these markets, and from first-time founders who know the field deeply.
How COMPASS builds alongside you
COMPASS gives you a technology and a research team to start from. How the company takes shape is up to you.
You will work with the research team, COMPASS, industry advisors, and investors in the COMPASS network to validate the first market, define the product roadmap, and build the company around it.
What happens after you apply
We read every application and reply within a week. Applications are reviewed on a rolling basis until the founding team is in place. The process starts with an introductory conversation with the COMPASS team. If there is mutual interest, we go into the technology, the laboratory, and the research team in more detail. A technical review with the research team follows, along with interviews with COMPASS, the laboratory's technology transfer office, and one of our venture advisors. References are checked only with your consent, after both sides agree to proceed. When both sides are ready to commit, you join the founding team and begin building the company.
To arrange a conversation before applying, please reach out to Alex Lin, the COMPASS partner for this venture.
Questions about equity, pay, or relocation are answered in the founder FAQ.
The terms
You would join the founding team before the company is incorporated. COMPASS supports the company but does not employ its founders.
- Commitment
- Full-time or part-time during the program, which runs about six months.
- Ownership
- The founding team owns 100% of the company at incorporation. COMPASS takes no equity, and the technology license is negotiated separately with the lab.
- Funding
- A $35,000 non-dilutive award to the company once it incorporates. When the company is ready to raise, COMPASS introduces it to the investor network.
- Pay
- COMPASS does not pay founders directly. Once the company incorporates, its $35,000 award can cover founder salaries.
- Location
- San Francisco Bay Area, with regular time on site with the research team.
Apply for this role
Co-Founder, Cryogenic Data Links
Send your resume and a short note on your background and how you would approach the first year. We read the note closely. We welcome applicants of every background, including those whose path here is unconventional.
You will need your resume as a PDF or Word file.
Contact
For questions about this venture, or to arrange a conversation before applying, please reach out.
