Staff Scientist, Quantum Algorithms

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, is the latest in a line of cutting-edge systems that have been helping 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 is making quantum platforms more accessible and impactful than ever before.

This role is based at our Bothell, WA office, operating in a hybrid working model.

Up to 5%

1757

IonQ, Inc. [NYSE: IONQ] is the world's leading quantum company delivering solutions to solve the world's most complex problems. IonQ's newest generation quantum computers, IonQ Tempo and IonQ Forte Enterprise, are the latest in cutting‑edge systems that have been helping customers and partners such as Amazon Web Services, AstraZeneca, and NVIDIA achieve 20x performance results. The company achieved 99.99% two---qubit gate fidelity, setting a world record in quantum computing performance in 2025.

The company is accelerating its technology roadmap and intends to deliver the world's most powerful quantum computers with 2 million qubits by 2030 to accelerate innovation in drug discovery, materials science, financial modeling, logistics, cybersecurity, and defense. IonQ's advancements in quantum networking position the company as a leader in building the quantum internet.

We are looking for a Staff Scientist, Quantum Algorithms and Applications to join the Computational Sciences team s is a group within Applications R&D focused on the application of quantum algorithms to problems in condensed matter physics and high energy physics. You will bring dedicated quantum algorithms expertise as well as condensed matter and high energy physics capability into the team, applied through quantum computation on IonQ's trapped‑ion systems.

The work sits at the meeting point of traditional classical theory and simulation and fault‑tolerant quantum computing, and the role demands real capability in both. You will bring judgement about where each approach earns its place, working independently against goals and helping shape how IonQ tackles real scientific problems as the company moves towards fault‑tolerant applications.

In this position you will lead scientific work on the design and application of quantum algorithms to condensed matter and high energy physics problems. On the condensed matter side this covers model Hamiltonians such as the Heisenberg models for strongly correlated magnetic systems and Fermi‑Hubbard models for high temperature superconductivity. On the high energy physics side it covers lattice QCD and lattice gauge theory.

You will be responsible for the design and implementation of near‑term fault tolerant quantum algorithms such as Trotter‑Suzuki methods, as well as novel error mitigation and Quantum Error Detection (QED) methods on IonQ's trapped‑ion hardware. You will also conduct research into the design and application of fault tolerant…