How ‘quantum software developer’ became a job that actually exists

Quantum computers, which promise to revolutionise everything from chemistry to cancer research, aren’t quite ready for the mainstream yet – but that hasn’t prevented the emergence of a new breed of quantum software developers.

“Writing a program for a quantum computer used to mean getting a PhD,” says Lov Grover. He would know – his Grover’s algorithm, created in 1996 for searching a database with a quantum computer, was one of the first pieces of quantum software. At that time, there were no quantum computers that could actually run it, and the work…