Jake Lishman
Quantum Software Research Developer at IBM
Leeds, England, United Kingdom
Summary
🤩
Rockstar🎓
Top SchoolJake Lishman is a quantum software research developer with 11 years’ engineering experience, currently maintaining Qiskit at IBM and shaping the OpenQASM 3 language as a design-team member and former chair of its type-system working group. He holds a PhD in trapped-ion quantum computing from Imperial College London and blends deep quantum-physics expertise with production-grade backend engineering in Python, Rust, C and F#. Jake drives core Qiskit Terra design—especially dynamic circuits and swap-mapping optimisations—while owning CI/CD and DevOps for the project. His open-source contributions include substantial refactors and parser work for OpenQASM and performance and correctness improvements across Qiskit Aer and QuTiP, influencing widely used quantum simulation tooling. He has a track record of translating mathematical insight into efficient numerical implementations, having led QuTiP redesigns and a NumFOCUS Google Summer of Code project that became foundational for QuTiP 5.0. Based in Leeds, he pairs academic teaching awards and mentorship experience with pragmatic software architecture and automation skills that scale complex quantum-classical systems.
10 years of coding experience
1 year of employment as a software developer
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Quantum Physics, Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Quantum Physics at Imperial College LondonMaster of Physics (BSc MPhys), Physics, 1st, Master of Physics (BSc MPhys), Physics, 1st at University of Warwick
English, German, Polish
Stackoverflow
917reputation
12kreached
15answers
1question
Github Skills (42)
algorithm10
circuit10
algorithms10
github-ci10
sparse-array10
transcode10
python10
simulator10
sphinx10
testing10
matrix-multiplication10
sparse-matrix10
bash10
sparse-file10
data-structure10
Programming languages (14)
Github contributions (5)
openqasm/openqasm
Jul 2021 - Jan 2023
Quantum assembly language for extended quantum circuits
Role in this project:
Back-end Developer
Back-end DeveloperContributions:207 reviews, 135 commits, 92 PRs in 1 year 5 months
Contributions summary:Jake's commits focused on enhancing the OpenQASM language specification, particularly regarding the addition of new features and corrections to existing syntax. This included refactoring the grammar structure for better readability and maintainability, modifying existing language elements like operators, and integrating new features such as array declarations and annotations. The user was responsible for updating the AST parser to reflect these grammar changes and adding tests for the implemented features.
assembly-languagequantum-circuitsquantum-computingcircuitsextended
Qiskit/qiskit
Jul 2021 - Jan 2023
Qiskit is an open-source SDK for working with quantum computers at the level of extended quantum circuits, operators, and primitives.
Role in this project:Back-end Developer & Software Architect
Back-end Developer & Software ArchitectContributions:5175 reviews, 173 commits, 1475 PRs in 1 year 6 months
Contributions summary:Jake's contributions primarily involved enhancing the core functionality of the Qiskit library, particularly in the areas of transpilation and circuit construction. They made significant improvements to the underlying architecture and internal components, such as the handling of OpenQASM 3 import and the structure of quantum circuit data. The contributions also encompassed performance optimization, addressing issues like infinite loops in the SabreSwap routing algorithm, and improving various code paths within the core algorithms and data structures.
pythonquantum-circuitsquantum-computingcircuitsquantum-circuit
Find and Hire Top DevelopersWe’ve analyzed the programming source code of over 60 million software developers on GitHub and scored them by 50,000 skills. Sign-up on Prog,AI to search for software developers.