Senior Software Engineer - Release

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.

This role is based out of our College Park, Boulder, CO, or Bothell, WA offices with a hybrid work model, allowing for remote work a few days per week. Travel may be up to 10%, domestic or international.

About the role

We are looking for a Senior Software Engineer to join our Release Engineering team. In this role, you will define and automate the end-to-end software release process for our quantum computing systems, including how individually built software and firmware components come together into an integrated, deployable release. You will establish standards and interfaces for component teams, build foundational release infrastructure, and support multiple generations of our quantum operating system across product lines. The ideal candidate is a systems-minded engineer who thrives on bringing clarity and rigor to complex multi-team release processes.

Responsibilities

• Define and automate the end-to-end release process: assembling individually built software and firmware components into a versioned, integrated release, and promoting it through defined release stages with explicit entry criteria at each stage.
• Define and publish the standards that govern how component teams version, package, and qualify their artifacts for inclusion in the integrated release.
• Evolve the software release process from its current semi-automated state into a push-button workflow, reducing release time to improve developer efficiency.
• Establish a comprehensive release manifest mechanism to ensure that system components and versions are authoritatively documented and queryable.
• Design and implement the underlying release infrastructure that supports multiple generations of our quantum operating system across product lines.
• Partner with component teams to bring their artifacts into a coherent, auditable, end-to-end release model.
• Support customer system builds through automated release deployment and ongoing troubleshooting support.

Requirements

• 8+ years of professional experience in release engineering, build engineering, or a closely related field, or an equivalent combination of education and experience.
• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, or a related field, or equivalent practical experience.
• Demonstrated hands-on ownership of release automation, artifact management, and version control strategy in a multi-team environment.
• Experience with artifact repositories and promotion workflows (Artifactory, GitHub Packages, or equivalent).
• Strong CI/CD experience and comfort designing, building, and maintaining release pipelines.
• Demonstrated ability to define standards and drive their adoption across multiple component teams.
• Excellent written communication skills; this role involves significant documentation and cross-team alignment on what "release" means.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience releasing software for specialized hardware platforms or scientific instruments.
• Experience supporting multiple product variants or product generations from a shared codebase or shared release infrastructure.
• Familiarity with FPGA firmware versioning as a first-class element of a broader software release.
• Background working with private artifact repositories and the establishment of new publishing workflows.

Pay

$145,920—$209,241 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.

This position requires access to technology subject to U.S. export control and government contract restrictions. Employment 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. Candidates must be a U.S. citizen, national, permanent resident, or lawfully admitted refugee/asylee.