Senior Staff Technical Program Manager - Compute Platform

IonQ, Inc. is the world’s leading quantum platform and merchant supplier, delivering integrated quantum solutions across computing, networking, sensing, and security. The role is based onsite in Bothell, WA, with travel as needed. Job ID: 1859.

About the role

The Compute Platform turns quantum capability into quantum utility by building the APIs, cloud infrastructure, developer tools, and application layer that connect IonQ's QPUs to users. As a Senior Staff Technical Program Manager, you will lead cross‑functional programs across the application platform, developer tooling, and compiler stack, reporting directly to the VP of the department. This high‑visibility position owns some of the company’s highest‑priority initiatives and interacts regularly with senior technical leadership and key partners.

Responsibilities

• Own the end‑to‑end delivery of IonQ's application platform, developer tools, and compiler roadmap, spanning numerous cross‑functional development threads.
• Partner with engineering leadership to turn technical vision into incremental milestones that ship, identifying risks and mitigations before they become schedule problems.
• Build and run the timelines, tracking, and reporting that teams actually use, where the measure of success is adoption; leverage cutting‑edge AI tools as a force multiplier.
• Keep the systems of record honest by reconciling PRDs, trackers, and Jira, and automate the checking to prevent drift.
• Make invisible work visible: on‑call burden, sustaining load, and technical debt tracked as rigorously as feature delivery.
• Dive into long‑pole problems; when a program stalls, work directly with the team in the weeds.
• Surface unresolved risks early, even if incomplete, to ensure timely communication.
• Manage dependencies across internal and external, technical and non‑technical teams.
• Write and present concise, data‑driven status updates to senior leadership.
• Help engineers turn off‑roadmap ideas into formal proposals for potential prioritization.

Requirements

• 8+ years managing technical programs and delivering against aggressive timelines.
• Proven track record leading technical teams through genuine ambiguity.
• Experience in developer tools, SDKs, compilers, or adjacent platform software.
• Ability to turn diffuse problems into specific, minimal, assignable asks.
• Technical fluency to engage engineering leads on scoping and trade‑offs, and comfort reading and reasoning about code.
• Willingness to re‑baseline against reality rather than defend outdated dates.
• Experience building or automating reconciliation between planning documents and ticket systems, treating drift as a defect.
• Fluency moving between fast‑cycle delivery and longer‑horizon program building as needed.
• Use of AI as a core part of work, including building agent‑driven workflows for program management.
• Experience in customer‑facing technical roles.
• Highly effective written and verbal communication skills.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience standing up program tracking and reporting infrastructure from scratch, designing a team’s operating cadence with stakeholder input.
• Customer‑facing technical experience.
• Capacity and staffing modeling from conflicting inputs, with discipline to label unknowns as unknown.
• Demonstrated ability to earn technical stakeholders’ trust through consistency and results.
• Enthusiasm for reading and writing PRDs and ERDs.
• Working knowledge of quantum computing (training will be provided).

Benefits

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

Pay

The total compensation package includes base salary, bonus, equity, and a range of benefit options. Specific salary figures are subject to change based on market data, location, education, qualifications, and experience.