Cillian Smith
Dublin, Ireland
Quantum Researcher

Cillian Smith

Quantum researcher at Citi Dublin, working on portfolio optimisation. In my spare time I build simulators, compilers and GPU renderers in Rust.

Download CV cillian.smith.ie@gmail.com LinkedIn ↗ Pocket Tools →
01 //Projects
01 ↗

qsim-rs

State-vector quantum circuit simulator written from scratch in Rust.

Rust · state-vector · quantum
02 ↗

qasm3c

QASM3-to-QIR compiler in Rust with a lexer, parser, semantic analysis and codegen.

Rust · compilers · QIR
03 ↗

crt-renderer

Green-phosphor CRT renderer with a physical P1 decay model. Plays Bad Apple and works as a terminal emulator.

Rust · graphics · shaders
04 ↗

particle-sim

GPU particle simulator in Rust (wgpu/winit).

Rust · wgpu · winit
02 //Experience
Quantum Researcher , Citi Dublin
Sep 2025 – present
  • Lead research on portfolio optimisation using distributed QAOA in a hybrid quantum-classical system.
  • Worked with Oxford Quantum Circuits and the NQCC (SparQ programme) on quantum-compressed physics-informed neural networks for derivative pricing. Built the Black-Scholes validation model.
  • Founded Citi’s internal Quantum Community of Practice, now 300+ members.
  • Opened Citi Quantum Week (~300 attendees) and ran a workshop on statevector vs MPS simulation.
  • Presented to Citi senior leadership during an executive visit to Ireland.
  • Spoke at World Quantum Day (Quantum Ireland / IDA) and other Quantum Ireland events.
Software Engineer, Inventory Orchestration , Citi Dublin
Sep 2024 – Sep 2025
  • Built the integration and end-to-end test suite for a Java microservices platform that automates VM and hardware provisioning.
  • Rebuilt a neglected CLI tool to match the platform UI, so other engineers could script against it.
  • Started quantum optimisation research part-time in Jan 2025.
Quantum Computing Researcher , Trinity College Dublin
May – Aug 2024
  • Developed encodings to map optimisation problems onto D-Wave’s quantum annealer, and benchmarked the results against classical methods.
03 //Education
M.A.I. Computer & Electronic Engineering , Trinity College Dublin
2019–2024
  • First Class Honours. Collen Award for Best Thesis. Stream Prize for Best Overall Result.
  • Thesis: Quantum Optimization for Energy Efficient Railway Trajectory Design
Erasmus+ exchange , KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm
2023 (Grade I)
04 //Stack
Languages Rust, Python, Java, C/C++, VHDL
Quantum Qiskit, PennyLane, D-Wave Ocean, QAOA, quantum annealing
Other Spring Boot, wgpu, Linux, Git