Senior Process Technician, Packaging

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, helps 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’s College Park packaging cleanroom builds the quantum processing units (QPUs) at the heart of our systems, plus a steady stream of quick-turn packaging hardware for teams across IonQ.

About the Role

We are looking for a hands-on technician to become one of the small group of people trusted to build this hardware end-to-end. Over your first six months, we will train and qualify you on our full packaging workflow—roughly 7–8 critical processes spanning precision cleaning, epoxy and assembly work, die bonding, wire bonding, reflow, plasma cleaning, inspection, and test. Once qualified, you will run these processes on real products: small, delicate, high-value components where a single dropped part can be the difference between delivering hardware and starting over.

Responsibilities

• Execute released procedures to clean, assemble, bond, inspect, and test packaged ion traps and related quick-turn hardware.
• Personally operate complex packaging equipment.
• Handle small, fragile, expensive components under a microscope with steady hands and deliberate care.
• Perform incoming inspection, record results, and complete travelers, work orders, and discrepancy reports accurately.
• Collect process and test data and provide first-pass interpretation, flagging trends and anomalies to the engineering team.
• Stop and escalate when reality deviates from the procedure. Draft recipe or program adjustments within engineer-defined limits.
• Support daily cleanroom operations: 5S, cleaning hardware and workspaces, restocking consumables, preparing parts for work orders.

Requirements

• Roughly 2+ years of hands-on experience in a high-tech manufacturing, lab, or precision-assembly environment—semiconductor, photonics, RF, medical device, aerospace, or adjacent fields.
• Demonstrated fine motor skill with small components. Professional microscope work, microelectronics rework, or comparable precision handcraft (skilled miniature assembly counts).
• The ability to read and precisely follow blueprints, specifications, and operating procedures—and the judgment to stop when the procedure and reality disagree.
• Comfort spending roughly 80% of your day in the cleanroom, fully gowned, doing physical and sometimes repetitious work.
• Reliability: your teammates and hardware schedules depend on you being present and focused.
• Clear written and verbal communication, and basic proficiency with Google Workspace or MS Office.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience personally operating and troubleshooting automated equipment such as wire bonders, die-attach/pick-and-place machines, reflow ovens, epoxy dispense systems, or metrology tools.
• Experience in an ISO Class 6 (or cleaner) gowned cleanroom.
• A 2-year technical degree or higher.
• Experience with ERP, PLM, or MES systems (we use NetSuite, Duro, and Jira).
• Experience with cryogenic or ultra-high-vacuum hardware.

Schedule

Standard weekday schedule, five days per week onsite. Overtime as needed but minimal.

Physical Requirements

• Extended cleanroom gowning.
• Standing and microscope work for long periods.
• Lifting up to 50 lbs.
• Regular handling of solvents and epoxies with appropriate PPE.

Travel

Less than 5%.

Location

College Park, MD—a five-minute walk from the Metro.

Pay

$59,527—$78,725 USD. 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.

Benefits

• Comprehensive medical, dental, and vision plans.
• Matching 401(k).
• Unlimited PTO and paid holidays.
• Parental/adoption leave.
• Legal insurance.
• Home technology stipend.

Employment with IonQ is contingent on verifying "U.S. Person" status (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) for export controls and government contracts work.