Senior Pre-Sales Engineer – Applied ML / HPC

About ORCA

ORCA Computing, headquartered in London, UK, and with an office in the United States, is a developer of full-stack photonic quantum computing systems. The company provides robust, high-performance, data centre-ready solutions designed for machine learning, generative AI, and optimisation workloads, and has already delivered eleven on-premises quantum computers to customers globally. ORCA’s multidisciplinary team focuses on applying advanced computing to real-world challenges. By combining photonic quantum hardware with proprietary software, the company is developing practical high-performance computing approaches that integrate with existing AI and data centre infrastructure. Its hybrid quantum-classical systems are already being used in industrial settings to improve performance, efficiency, and scalability, while a longer-term roadmap continues toward fault-tolerant quantum capabilities.

Designed for seamless integration, ORCA’s technology can be deployed within existing workflows, enabling organisations to explore quantum-enhanced computing without significant infrastructure change. By embedding quantum capabilities into generative AI pipelines, ORCA is enabling improvements in model performance alongside reductions in energy demand – an increasingly important factor as AI adoption scales – while creating a clearer, commercially viable path for quantum technologies.

The impact you’ll make:

As a Senior Pre-Sales Engineer at ORCA, you will operate at the front line of commercialising quantum computing, working directly with partners and customers to translate ORCA capabilities and benchmarks into real-world partner and customer value. You will help the sales team advance opportunities through the funnel, taking the lead on technical proposals. You will contribute to design and implementation of internal, partner and customer quantum-classical integration projects. This involves combining machine learning and optimisation workflows, high-performance computing environments, and ORCA quantum computing products into coherent, testable solutions. The challenge is not only technical, but interpretative: identifying where quantum-enhanced approaches provide real advantage and communicating value and risk clearly and responsibly to technical and commercial audiences. Your work will directly shape ORCA’s ability to convert interest into deployed systems, credible proof points, and successful partner and customer programmes.

What you’ll do:

• Deliver partner- and customer-facing content: You will work with colleagues in the ORCA Applications team to design and build technical content (including live demonstrations) that showcase ORCA’s capabilities in hybrid quantum-classical applications. You will own and deliver customer-ready demos running in HPC environments, running these live with customers (remote and onsite) and adapting them dynamically to technical discussions.
• Define solution architectures and technical blueprints: You will own end-to-end solution architectures for customer and partner use cases, working across internal and external teams, covering data pipelines, model workflows, compute environments and integration with ORCA systems.
• Shape and qualify customer opportunities: You will work with commercial teams to translate customer problems into structured technical approaches, defining feasibility, success criteria and resource requirements before projects move into delivery.
• Define and structure proof-of-concept engagements: You will design PoC approaches that test real customer value, balancing speed, technical rigour and commercial relevance, and ensuring alignment between customer expectations and ORCA capabilities.
• Contribute to technical marketing and GTM: You will support the creation of technically credible content by translating real architectures, demos and results into material usable by marketing, analysts and sales teams.
• Act as a bridge between teams: You will work across product, applications, marketing and commercial teams to ensure that partner- and customer-facing solutions are both technically valid and commercially impactful, and providing feedback from your partner and customer projects into the ORCA product roadmap.

What you’ll bring:

Required skills:

• Pre-sales experience (deep-tech or high-tech)
• Experience working directly with enterprise and industry customers to deliver complex technology solutions
• Exposure to industrial applications in one or more of: chemistry, materials science, pharmaceuticals, energy, telecommunications, transportation, logistics, finance and defence
• Ability to design and communicate solution architectures and system diagrams clearly
• Proven ability to build and operate technical demos, prototypes or PoCs, including presenting them to technical stakeholders
• Experience with AI/ML, HPC, distributed systems, or scientific computing environments, including an understanding of performance, scaling and system architecture
• Strong programming skills in Python, with familiarity with ML frameworks and development workflows
• Experience with MLOps or production-oriented workflows, including environment management, reproducibility and deployment considerations

Nice to have:

• Experience training or optimizing ML systems
• Experience solving optimisation / MILP problems
• Exposure to quantum computing
• Experience working for or with deep-tech startups

Who we’re looking for:

You have strong commercial acumen, understanding customer and partner commercial drivers and how technical decisions affect timelines, business outcomes and deal progression. You are comfortable working at the boundary between technical depth and customer/partner engagement, able to move between detailed discussions with engineers and high-level problem framing. You can translate complex technical systems into clear, structured explanations without oversimplifying or losing credibility. You operate effectively in ambiguous, fast-moving environments, making progress without complete information. You take ownership end-to-end, from initial problem definition through to demo delivery and customer validation.

What the job will look like:

After 2-4 weeks: You will have a basic understanding ORCA’s strategy and differentiation for commercialization of quantum computing. You will have a basic understanding of ORCA’s PT-series systems, application workflows, and current demo environments. You will begin contributing to technical content (including demos) and learning how they are used in customer conversations.

After 2-3 months: You will be contributing to solution architectures for active opportunities. You will be participating in early-stage customer discussions. You will be running demos independently. You will most likely have travelled to visit at least one customer.

After 6 months: You will lead technical scoping for selected customer opportunities. You will play a key role in shaping how ORCA presents its ML/HPC/quantum capabilities externally, and feed back insights into the ORCA product roadmap. You will own key demo assets and technical narratives for specific use cases. You will have travelled to visit several customers.

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion

As we continue to grow, ORCA offers the opportunity to work at the forefront of photonic quantum computing and quantum-accelerated AI, alongside a highly skilled and collaborative team. Our people come from a range of disciplines – from engineering to commercial – and bring deep expertise, curiosity, and a shared focus on solving complex problems. It’s a fast-moving environment where ideas are shared openly and everyone has the opportunity to shape what we’re building. We value curiosity, initiative, and collaboration, and we give people the space to learn, grow, and take ownership while working on genuinely complex technical challenges. This is a place where your work has visible impact, contributing directly to technologies that connect cutting-edge research with real-world application, and helping to define an emerging area of computing as it evolves. ORCA is an equal opportunities employer, committed to building a diverse and inclusive workplace where everyone can thrive.