Next Frontier Quantum Associate

About the Role and Team

EY is committed to empowering your career growth within a globally connected and diverse environment focused on innovation. The Next Frontier division specializes in cutting-edge technologies such as Quantum Computing, Physical AI, and next-generation AI, transforming advanced tech into practical solutions that enhance decision-making and resilience for clients. The Quantum team concentrates on practical quantum technologies that provide measurable value to enterprises, led by EY's global innovation leaders.

Primary Responsibilities

• Lead and assist in building, demonstrating, and showcasing solutions in quantum cybersecurity and quantum computing.
• Drive quantum safety initiatives including post-quantum cryptography risk assessments, migration planning, and improving cryptographic agility.
• Design and test quantum algorithms for optimization, machine learning, and simulation scenarios.
• Develop software libraries and tools, design system architectures, benchmark performance, and apply best software engineering methods.
• Create insightful leadership presentations, technical assessments, standards documents, and executive reports.
• Collaborate with multidisciplinary teams such as security engineers, AI/ML experts, platform developers, and product teams.

Quantum Specialization Duties

• Evaluate and mitigate quantum cybersecurity risks including threats like harvest-now-decrypt-later.
• Prototype and benchmark post-quantum cryptographic algorithms (e.g., Kyber, Dilithium).
• Maintain and analyze indices of PQ safe and hybrid cryptographic algorithms to recommend migration strategies.
• Support tools to inventory cryptographic dependencies and identify legacy systems.
• Implement and test hybrid key exchange methods assessing impacts on performance metrics.
• Contribute to the design of crypto-agility frameworks and key lifecycle management processes.
• Help develop internal guidelines and runbooks for PQC migration.
• Develop quantum computing accelerators with NISQ-appropriate algorithms and industry SDKs.
• Conduct thorough testing to evaluate quantum utility and support roadmap planning.
• Build domain-specific quantum and quantum-AI prototype applications addressing optimization and simulations.
• Estimate quantum resource needs and analyze classical-quantum computational tradeoffs.
• Maintain reproducible experimentation pipelines using Python, Jupyter notebooks, containerization technologies, and continuous integration workflows.

Required Knowledge and Skills

• Fundamental understanding of quantum computing: qubits, quantum gates, noise limitations, and error correction.
• Working knowledge of post-quantum cryptographic protocols, including key encapsulation mechanisms and signature schemes.
• Familiarity with security infrastructure such as PKI, TLS 1.3, certificate lifecycle, and key exchanges.
• Experience programming with quantum SDKs such as Qiskit, Cirq, PennyLane, AWS Braket, or Azure Quantum/QDK.
• Proficient in Python including numerical and scientific libraries like NumPy, SciPy, and pandas.
• Understanding of classical mathematical concepts: optimization techniques, linear algebra, and probability theories.
• Experience with version control systems like Git, containerization tools (Docker), and CI/CD pipelines; knowledge of languages like C++, Rust, or equivalents.
• Excellent communication skills to effectively convey complex concepts to varied audiences.
• Strong analytical skills employing hypothesis-driven problem-solving approaches.

Education and Experience

• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Physics, Computer Science, Cybersecurity, Electrical Engineering, Applied Mathematics, or a related discipline, or equivalent practical experience.
• 2 to 3+ years of hands-on experience in one or more areas such as post-quantum cryptography, applied cryptography, security engineering, or quantum algorithm development.
• Prior exposure to quantum technology, cryptography or computational security fields is a plus.
• Publications, open-source participation, hackathon involvement, or research contributions in quantum or applied security domains are highly regarded.
• Familiarity with cybersecurity principles including public-key cryptosystems, KEMs/signatures, TLS, and PKI is expected.
• Ability to design experiments, analyze findings, and produce clear technical documentation.

What We Offer

EY fosters an inclusive, diverse workplace offering flexible work policies that balance professional and personal life. Benefits include wellness incentives, extended flexible leave options, and family-friendly policies such as gender-neutral parental leave. Compensation levels are competitive and adjustable based on skills and experience. EY demonstrates commitment to equity and diversity, encouraging applications from all qualified candidates and providing support for accessibility and accommodation during recruitment.

Acknowledgements

EY honors traditional owners and custodians of lands where offices are located and embraces reconciliation efforts. The company is dedicated to building a better working world through trust, innovation, and supporting clients globally across assurance, consulting, tax, strategy, and transaction services in more than 150 countries.