Software Engineering Director, Cloud Services

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.  

IonQ is seeking a strategic and visionary Software Engineering Director to lead the development and operation of the core services provided by the IonQ Quantum Cloud platform (try it out yourself: https://cloud.ionq.com). This role is pivotal in delivering access to our advanced quantum computers and simulators via our APIs in the cloud and on-prem. The Director will drive the technical direction of the IonQ Quantum Cloud API platform, ensuring it aligns with IonQ's overall business objectives and market opportunities in the rapidly evolving quantum computing landscape.

The ideal candidate will have experience leading or contributing to multiple simultaneous initiatives, balancing multiple activities with a keen eye for prioritizing for the biggest impact. You’ll be able to balance technical expertise and savvy with strong business judgment to make great technology choices with lasting impact. You’ll strive for simplicity and demonstrate significant creativity and incisive judgment. You'll enjoy learning technical topics, working across multiple business streams, and be uniquely positioned to help us reach the next horizon in secure quantum computing.

• →12+ years of progressive technical leadership experience, including significant experience in managing and developing large-scale cloud platforms
• →7+ years experience designing and operating cloud APIs and services at scale
• →Demonstrated ability to develop and execute strategic plans, working cross-functionally to align technology initiatives with business objectives
• →Experience in building and leading high-performing distributed teams, fostering a culture of innovation and excellence across multiple timezones
• →Sufficient technical proficiency to engage thoughtfully with engineers about architecture and product design, offering valuable insights when necessary
• →Experiencing shipping and operating business-critical distributed systems
• →Experience managing teams using AI agents for engineering tasks
• →Prior experience as a software engineer and team lead
• →Strong written and verbal communication skills for different audiences (your staff, users, the company as a whole)

• 18+ years of senior technical leadership experience, including experience at the director level or above (e.g., 30+ engineers organized in multiple layers)
• 10+ years experience designing and scaling APIs, with a proven track record of shipping interfaces developers love to use
• Experience owning a multi-tenant cloud API product end-to-end—from API design through deployment and operations—at scale
• Strong product and design sense
• Experience in driving organizational change and transformation in a rapidly evolving technology environment
• Experience recruiting and managing teams distributed across multiple continents
• Experience developing sustainable, in-house framework and abstraction layers
• Strong business acumen and experience in developing and managing the engineering platform for a significant business unit
• Experience managing rigorous incident response processes, on-call rotations, and retrospectives
• Personal experience writing software with AI agents
• Prior experience with building/scaling platform-as-a-service offerings
• Prior experience with quantum computing

If you are interested in being a part of our team and mission, we encourage you to apply!