The tech industry is facing a talent shortage, and quantum computing is no exception. Startups are trying to attract quantum computing talent by focusing on innovating cutting-edge and deep tech, Laura Thomas, advisor at QuSecure and chief of staff and strategic initiatives at ColdQuanta, told SDxCentral.

Prior to joining the quantum computing space, Thomas served as a Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) case officer and chief of base, who built and led sensitive programs at CIA Headquarters and abroad in multiple international assignments.

“I worked as a case officer there in the Directorate of Operations, and just generally, part of my job was being aware of technology trends, and just understanding what might be out on the horizon and thinking deeply about how that impacted CIA operations,” she said. “Quantum in general became quite interesting to me while I was there, and it was a topic that I would say I went down a rabbit hole learning more about, and it was so compelling as a technology that really has the potential to be a paradigm shift in the world.”

As a quantum expert now, Thomas shared her insights on the quantum talent war:

SDxCentral: Tech giants like IBM, Microsoft, Google, and Amazon participated in some of the recent post-quantum cryptography (PQC) development. Does that involvement give them a head start to ensure that they are PQC-ready to help customers manage the transition to PQC?

Thomas: Certainly it could. Obviously, these are extremely large companies, and PQC is certainly a very small fraction of what they do. I mean, a very, very small fraction. So, in almost all cases, most true innovation happens at companies like QuSecure, very small companies, where there's just an unrelenting day-in and day-out focus on one thing, and in this case, post-quantum cryptography. So, I anticipate that larger companies will adopt and use the technology that is originally innovated at the smaller companies like QuSecure, and then, iterate upon this and start delivering it to a wider or larger customer base.

SDxCentral: How can those companies’ quantum computing hardware developments apply to their quantum security side of business?

Thomas: Yes, many of these companies do have their own business units. Again, the fraction of the companies that focus on quantum is very small. But nonetheless, yes, they do have a number of people focused on quantum at those entities. And I think on the hardware side, again, it goes back to the smaller the company, the more the company is able to focus and be nimble and flexible.

And even the big companies like Amazon, AWS, they have obviously achieved a lot, and they're excellent at many things. But as you grow and get bigger, it becomes harder and harder to really do cutting-edge, deep-tech technology because the longer you're in play, the more systems you have, the more processes you have. And that's just a natural evolution of the way companies work. And you try to sustain that with mergers and acquisitions or sometimes you spin off certain units, you try to create incentives to create that spark and that magic going in many of these companies. But nonetheless, it's still very difficult.

Whereas when you're at a smaller company, a startup, or something that's really at the cutting edge, very close to the technology, you have to work very hard in many other ways, but not in the way of innovation, because that comes naturally because you're so close to it and you're so young. That's what you just eat, breathe, and sleep. Whereas at a bigger company, there's a lot more bureaucracy that you're trying to handle. And I think that just naturally inclines a smaller company to be the most innovative and the one that's going to get there first.

Assuming you can attract the capital and the talent that you need, and I think in the quantum realm, or I know in the quantum realm, our biggest challenge is people and the workforce and talent development, and workforce development is incredibly important. And the bigger companies out there are doing a good job at it. But the fact is a number of people who are coming out of Ph.D. programs, and it's not just the technical side, but the business side too, they're really clamoring for the cutting-edge, the deep-tech space. And I think they're attracted to come work for companies like QuSecure, like ColdQuanta, sometimes over some of the bigger companies.

We have to really leverage that interest and really double down on thinking about how we go out and acquire the best talent. Quantum is a global challenge, and it's going to require a global talent base. And despite being a very small company, we have to do everything we can in order to be able to tap that talent base all over the world.

SDxCentral: You mentioned some quantum computing talent choose a relatively smaller company over tech giants like IBM and Google. Is it because those startups have a specific focus, and they're more interested in this specific field of quantum computing?

Thomas: Yeah, I think on the technical side, for a company like ColdQuanta for example, we focus on neutral-atom architecture. So our quantum computer is based on a modality called neutral-atom. We also design quantum sensors around the same technology. So if you have a Ph.D. who's done their work in atomic physics or an AMO (atomic, molecular, and optical) physicist, and they've worked on neutral-atom systems, and it makes a lot of sense for them to want to go to a neutral-atom company over a company like Google, who, for example, is building a different type of quantum computer.

So that's pretty standard. As far as focus, yes, I think there's excitement about building something new and being in a small company building something new. And I think when you talk to the people at QuSecure, or you talk to the people at ColdQuanta, there's a palpable feeling [that] we're doing something that's never been done, but yet we know that it can be accomplished and we have a roadmap for accomplishing it.

And when you feel that level of excitement when you walk in every day, there's value in that. And knowing that you could be building the next big global company that really makes a difference in helping secure people's data or creating the new wave of technology that helps us tackle the climate crisis, I mean, there's a lot of motivation that can come from that. And it's not to say those big companies don't have that to some degree, but they work across everything. We just have one unrelenting focus, and there's a beauty in that.

This interview was edited for length and clarity.

Photo: Laura Thomas. Source: ColdQuanta