Senior Quantum Field Engineer - Federal Department of War

IonQ

16h•Remote

About The Position

IonQ, Inc. [NYSE: IONQ] is the world’s leading quantum platform and merchant supplier, delivering integrated quantum solutions across computing, networking, sensing, and security. Their newest generation of quantum computers, the IonQ Tempo, has helped customers and partners like Amazon Web Services and AstraZeneca achieve significant performance results and accelerate innovation in various fields. In 2025, IonQ achieved a world record in quantum computing performance with 99.99% two-qubit gate fidelity. Headquartered in College Park, Maryland, IonQ has global operations and offers quantum computing services through major cloud providers, also serving networking and sensing customers across diverse environments. IonQ aims to make quantum platforms more accessible and impactful. The company is seeking a Senior Quantum Field Engineer to join a team dedicated to building the world’s best quantum solutions and solving complex problems. This role is at the intersection of customers, markets, products, algorithms, applications, innovation, and strategy, where ideas are applied and have impact. The team is nimble, comprising scientists, engineers, salespeople, marketers, business developers, and product managers, driving a new quantum computing business. They are looking for versatile engineers and architects skilled in technical sales, technical demos, and customer interactions, who are energized to deliver IonQ’s quantum computing products and applications.

Requirements

10+ years of professional experience or an equivalent combination of education and experience
5+ years of experience in technical customer-facing roles or equivalent capacity. The ability to communicate (at the various context-appropriate levels of depth) and persuade clearly, have strong EQ, and other customer-facing skills are critical.
US Citizen, with Top Secret (TS) / Sensitive Compartmented Information (SCI) clearance or have the ability to complete one if required.
5+ years of focused experience with technology companies that support US DoD missions.
Bachelor’s degree or above in Computer Science, Machine Learning, Data Science, or other STEM field, such as Chemistry, Physics or Engineering
Motivated learner with a strong interest in quantum computing.
Mission-oriented person - driven to help the US Federal Government Department of War

Nice To Haves

Master's or PhD in a STEM field, perhaps adjacent to quantum computing.
Time on the customer side in various verticals included leadership roles - this provides customer empathy.
Hands-on experience with Qiskit, Cirq or other quantum computing SDK.
Proficient in Python and Jupyter Notebooks.
Expert architecture skills across various technologies (“full stack skills”).
Experience leading technical events.

Responsibilities

Inspire and co-engineer solutions with the US Department of Defense by explaining IonQ’s strategy, portfolio and answering technical questions about quantum portfolio (compute, network, security, sensing and space) and quantum applications.
Lead and shepherd client discussions, inspiring them to see how quantum applications can be implemented in their business domain.
Working through business needs and mapping Quantum Algorithms (financial services, bioscience, chemistry and materials, optimization, generative AI, and other domains) into application code and executing Proof-of-Concepts together with the IonQ Application team.
Share insights from clients with the IonQ Product Management and Engineering teams such that client feedback is incorporated into our products.
Navigate competitive objection handling.
Translate business needs expressed by our clients into technical work projects in collaboration with other team members.
Create assets to explain features of our quantum applications and other IonQ quantum products.
Move dialogs from initial ideation to focused exploration domain through to proof-of-concept and ultimately into production workflows.
Lead client discovery sessions for business-oriented use cases that uncover potential overlap with the development of useful quantum algorithms, together with the IonQ Application team.
Partner with marketing, developer relations and business development to grow awareness of IonQ in the world at large.
Attend industry conferences, as needed, to talk to client and support our booth activities.
Some travel expected in the US (20%) but opportunities for global travel are available as well for client meeting and IonQ conference activities.