Senior Research Software Engineer

IonQ, Inc. [NYSE: IONQ] is the world's leading quantum platform and merchant supplier delivering integrated solutions across computing, networking, sensing, and security. The company’s newest generation of quantum computers, the IonQ Tempo, has set a world record of 99.99% two‑qubit gate fidelity in 2025, powering accelerated innovation for partners such as Amazon Web Services and AstraZeneca.

Location: Boston, MA (option to work a few days a week in office)

Travel: Up to 10% domestic

Job : 1605

Senior Software Engineer – part of a cross‑functional team leading IonQ’s mission to build the world’s best quantum computers. You will build and maintain scalable, reliable, researcher‑friendly software that empowers scientists to accelerate their research in quantum networking, computing, and sensing. Your contributions will shape our software architecture, drive SDLC best practices, improve system stability and observability, and mentor a talented team of engineers.

• Develop, maintain, and support R&D software used by scientists, ensuring stability, performance, and day‑to‑day reliability.
• Own the full software development lifecycle for R&D codebases, including triaging bugs, addressing regressions, and improving long‑term code health.
• Improve observability across the R&D stack (logging, metrics, tracing, alerting).
• Contribute to design, implementation, and management of backend and frontend for R&D data acquisition.
• Design, build, and maintain CI/CD pipelines for fast, reliable deployments.
• Design and implement robust systems for automated calibration and bring‑up of lab equipment.
• Review scientist‑contributed code, providing constructive feedback on cleanliness, architecture, and best practices.
• Interface with other IonQ software teams to ensure alignment and integration.
• Proactively identify opportunities to make R&D software more accessible, scalable, and self‑service for scientists.

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or related field, or equivalent experience.
• 5+ years professional software engineering experience, including complex cross‑functional systems.
• Strong proficiency in Python and comfort working below it when needed.
• Experience owning the full SDLC for production software, including debugging, incident response, and maintenance.
• Experience designing, building, and maintaining CI/CD pipelines.
• Experience writing clear, concise, comprehensive user‑facing documentation (tutorials, API reference, internal knowledge base).

• 8+ years of professional software experience, ideally in scientific or R&D environments supporting research teams.
• Experience developing software for hardware control, automation, or data acquisition.
• Demonstrated experience mentoring and providing technical leadership.
• Experience with cloud infrastructure (AWS, GCP, or Azure) and modern Dev Ops practices.
• Experience with database design and management.

• First few months: onboard across R&D codebases, ship fixes, review contributions, identify stability and observability gaps.
• Act as trusted partner to scientists, help them write and structure code, provide tooling and documentation support, conduct quality code reviews.
• First six months: own SDLC health of at least one major codebase, with measurable improvements in observability and faster production issue diagnosis.
• First year: recognized technical leader, drive cross‑cutting initiatives improving stability or contributor experience, mentor other engineers or scientist contributors.

Approximate base salary range: $145,920 – $191,047. Total compensation includes base, bonus, equity, and a range of benefit options available on our career site.

Benefits: Comprehensive medical, dental, and vision plans; 401(k) matching; unlimited PTO and paid holidays; parental/adoption leave; legal insurance; home technology stipend.

We are committed to equity and justice. We welcome different voices and viewpoints and do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, ancestry, disability, medical condition, genetic information, marital status, sex, gender identity, gender expression, transgender status, age, sexual orientation, military or veteran status, or any other basis protected by law. We are a proud Equal Employment Opportunity employer.

The position requires access to technology subject to U.S. export control and government contract restrictions. Employment contingent on verifying U.S. Person status and meeting all export control requirements.

Due to applicable export control laws and regulations, candidates must be a U.S. citizen or national, U.S. permanent resident, or lawfully admitted refugee or asylum seeker.

If you are interested in joining our team and mission, we encourage you to apply!