About IonQ:
IonQ, Inc. [NYSE: IONQ] is the world’s leading quantum platform and merchant supplier - delivering integrated quantum solutions across computing, networking, sensing, and security. IonQ’s newest generation of quantum computers, the IonQ Tempo, is the latest in a line of cutting-edge systems that have been helping customers and partners including Amazon Web Services, and AstraZeneca achieve 20x performance results and accelerate innovation in drug discovery, materials science, financial modeling, logistics, cybersecurity, and defense. In 2025, the company achieved 99.99% two-qubit gate fidelity, setting a world record in quantum computing performance.
Headquartered in College Park, Maryland, IonQ has operations in California, Colorado, Massachusetts, Tennessee, Washington, Italy, South Korea, Sweden, Switzerland, Canada, and the United Kingdom. Our quantum computing services are available through all major cloud providers, while we also meet the needs of networking and sensing customers across land, sea, air, and space. IonQ is making quantum platforms more accessible and impactful than ever before.
Location: Oxford, UK
Office commitment: Hybrid
The Role:
Quantum is now, and it's built here. Oxford Ionics, now part of IonQ, is pioneering the next generation of quantum computing. Using our world-leading trapped-ion technology, we're building the most powerful, accurate and reliable quantum systems to tackle problems that today's supercomputers cannot solve.
We're looking for an enthusiastic and highly technical Senior Software Engineer for our non-realtime controllers team who will thrive in our dynamic cross-disciplinary environment. You will be working closely with our skilled software engineers, our systems teams who operate the physical quantum computers, and our world-leading quantum scientists to build and operate the software that controls the hardware surrounding our quantum computers. Previous exposure to quantum systems is not required.
You will own areas of the hardware control surface end to end, from the device protocol up to a service running reliably across our fleet. This is a hands-on engineering role and stays that way as you grow.
A working quantum computer is far more than the ion trap and its real-time control electronics. It depends on a fleet of supporting hardware, including cryogenic compressors, vacuum pumps, power supplies, lasers, temperature controllers, wavemeters and cameras, that has to be kept observable, controllable and reliable. The timing-critical operations such as gate waveforms and ion transport run on dedicated real-time FPGA systems, while this team owns everything that does not need hard timing guarantees. These services run on general-purpose Linux hardware and must be rock-solid, because a failed compressor or an un-noticed pressure drift takes a whole machine offline.
Responsibilities:
This is a hands-on engineering role, balancing delivery of your own areas with support for the teams and scientists who depend on them.
Key responsibilities include:
- Own a group of device controllers end to end, covering API design, implementation, rollout and ongoing operational health.
- Make services robust against the ways real instruments fail.
- Bring devices onto our current framework, and roll the result out across the fleet without disrupting running experiments.
- Improve the shared framework where a problem turns out to be common to many controllers rather than specific to one.
- Work closely with the systems teams and scientists who depend on these services, and strengthen observability, health checking and alerting.
- Raise the standard of the code around you through review, and bring less experienced engineers on by working alongside them.
Requirements:
To be successful, you will need experience working with Linux based systems and interfacing with hardware, and a track record of making software behave well against unreliable external dependencies. We're looking for someone who can own a problem area with little supervision and judge where robustness is worth the effort.
You’d be a great fit with:
- Strong systems engineering skills. Our controllers are written in Rust, so either solid Rust experience or deep proficiency in another systems language and the appetite to work in a Rust codebase, including async programming.
- Experience designing and operating networked services such as gRPC or REST, with a real grasp of error handling, observability and failure modes.
- Experience of hardware and instrument protocols and interfaces such as SCPI, Modbus, serial and Ethernet.
- Comfortable owning the production behaviour of what you build, not just its correctness in test.
- Excellent communication skills both within software and across disciplines, and an interest in helping other engineers get better at the craft without wanting to stop building yourself.
Benefits
Be part of a team that’s shaping the future of quantum. We offer more than just a role, you’ll join a world class community of scientists, engineers and innovators working to unlock the full potential of quantum computing.
We offer a range of benefits, including opportunities to further your career alongside industry leaders, a competitive salary with IonQ stock options, an annual performance bonus, generous annual leave, flexible hybrid working, private medical and dental insurance for you and your family, and much more.
Join us and be part of the future of quantum computing.
We’re proud to be an equal opportunity employer and welcome applicants from all backgrounds.
Compensation will vary based on individual factors such as education, qualifications, and experience of the final candidate(s), specific office location, and calibration against relevant market data and internal team equity. Posted base salary figures are subject to change as new market data becomes available. Our benefits include comprehensive medical, dental, and vision plans, matching 401(k), unlimited PTO and paid holidays, parental/adoption leave, legal insurance, and a home technology stipend. Details of participation in these benefit plans will be provided when a candidate receives an offer of employment.
At IonQ, we believe in fair treatment, access, opportunity, and advancement for all while striving to identify and eliminate barriers. We empower employees to thrive by fostering a culture of autonomy, productivity, and respect. We are dedicated to creating an environment where individuals can feel welcomed, respected, supported, and valued.
We are committed to equity and justice. We welcome different voices and viewpoints and do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, ancestry, physical and/or mental disability, medical condition, genetic information, marital status, sex, gender, gender identity, gender expression, transgender status, age, sexual orientation, military or veteran status, or any other basis protected by law. We are proud to be an Equal Employment Opportunity employer.
US Technical Jobs. The position you are applying for will require access to technology that is subject to U.S. export control and government contract restrictions. Employment with IonQ is contingent on either verifying “U.S. Person” (e.g., U.S. citizen, U.S. national, U.S. permanent resident, or lawfully admitted into the U.S. as a refugee or granted asylum) status for export controls and government contracts work, obtaining any necessary license, and/or confirming the availability of a license exception under U.S. export controls. Please note that in the absence of confirming you are a U.S. Person for export control and government contracts work purposes, IonQ may choose not to apply for a license or decline to use a license exception (if available) for you to access export-controlled technology that may require authorization, and similarly, you may not qualify for government contracts work that requires U.S. Persons, and IonQ may decline to proceed with your application on those bases alone. Accordingly, we will have some additional questions regarding your immigration status that will be used for export control and compliance purposes, and the answers will be reviewed by compliance personnel to ensure compliance with federal law.
US Non-Technical Jobs. Due to applicable export control laws and regulations, candidates must be a U.S. citizen or national, U.S. permanent resident (i.e., current Green Card holder), or lawfully admitted into the U.S. as a refugee or granted asylum. Accordingly, we will have some additional questions regarding your immigration status that will be used for export control and compliance purposes, and the answers will be reviewed by compliance personnel to ensure compliance with federal law.
If you are interested in being a part of our team and mission, we encourage you to apply!
Skills Required
- Experience working with Linux-based systems
- Experience interfacing with hardware
- Track record of making software robust against unreliable external dependencies
- Strong systems engineering skills
- Solid Rust experience or deep proficiency in another systems programming language with willingness to learn Rust
- Experience with asynchronous programming
- Experience designing and operating networked services such as gRPC or REST
- Understanding of error handling, observability, and failure modes
- Experience with hardware and instrument protocols such as SCPI, Modbus, serial, and Ethernet
- Experience owning production behavior and operational reliability of software
- Excellent communication skills across software and other disciplines
- Interest in mentoring and helping other engineers improve
IonQ Compensation & Benefits Highlights
The following summarizes recurring compensation and benefits themes identified from responses generated by popular LLMs to common candidate questions about IonQ and has not been reviewed or approved by IonQ.
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Healthcare Strength — Health coverage is described as comprehensive, including medical, dental, and vision insurance, HSA options, and no-cost mental-health support. Company materials also cite strong premium coverage levels for employees and dependents in recent years.
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Parental & Family Support — Paid maternity, paternity, and bonding leave are presented as fully paid for eligible employees. This breadth of family support is emphasized across company and job materials.
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Retirement Support — A 401(k) with company match up to 5% is part of the package, with materials noting a relatively short vesting schedule. Retirement support is positioned as a core element of total rewards.
IonQ Insights
What We Do
Quantum computers are a revolutionizing technology — they have the potential to transform business, society, and the planet for the better, and IonQ is at the forefront of this revolution. After over 25 years of academic research, IonQ was founded in 2015 by Chris Monroe and Jungsang Kim with $2 million in seed funding from New Enterprise Associates, a license to core technology from the University of Maryland and Duke University, and the goal of taking trapped ion quantum computing out of the lab and into the market. In the following three years, we raised an additional $20 million from GV, Amazon Web Services, and NEA, and built two of the world’s most accurate quantum computers. In 2019, we raised another $55 million in a round led by Samsung and Mubadala, and announced partnerships with Microsoft and Amazon Web Services to make our quantum computers available via the cloud. In 2020 and 2021, we built additional generations of high performance quantum hardware, added Google Cloud Marketplace to our cloud partner roster and announced a series of collaborations and business partnerships with leading academic and commercial institutions. On October 1st, 2021, IonQ began trading as IONQ on the New York Stock Exchange, making it the world's first public pure-play quantum computing company. We remain hard at work realizing the world-changing potential of quantum computing.
Why Work With Us
We’re growing a passionate, diverse team of collaborative, creative people. We believe in pursuing innovative, challenging work with integrity, alongside team members we can learn from and grow with.
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