Senior Manager, Compute Infrastructure Engineering

Bothell, Washington, United States;
Boulder, Colorado, United States;
College Park, Maryland, United States

IonQ is developing the world's most powerful full‑stack quantum computer based on trapped‑ion technology. We are pushing past the limits of classical physics and current supercomputing technology to unlock a new era of computing. Quantum computing has the potential to impact every area of human society for the better. IonQ’s computers will soon redefine industries like medicine, materials science, finance, artificial intelligence, machine learning, cryptography, and more.

IonQ is at the forefront of this technological revolution.

IonQ is defining the future of computing. We are seeking a seasoned Senior Manager, Compute Infrastructure Engineering to own the global compute platform that powers the world’s most powerful trapped‑ion quantum computers.

In this role, you will hold the architectural vision and operational mandate for our compute services, powering our development environments and hosting software that operates our quantum systems. You will lead the team responsible for a complex hybrid environment, orchestrating workloads across on‑premise quantum control systems and commercial clouds.

This is a leadership role grounded in deep technical reality. We are looking for a manager who has "been there and done that"; someone who understands Kubernetes internals and distributed systems well enough to challenge assumptions, guide architectural strategy, and mentor senior engineers, without needing to generate code yourself. You will focus on building the team, the roadmap, and the culture required to push past the limits of classical physics.

• Own the architectural strategy and operational excellence of IonQ’s global compute platform, optimizing virtual machines, Kubernetes clusters, and bare‑metal resources for scale and reliability.
• Lead, mentor, and grow a diverse team of infrastructure engineers. Establish clear career paths, foster a culture of "One Team," and scale the organization effectively over the next 6‑12 months.
• Design and manage a complex hybrid environment that seamlessly integrates on‑premise systems with cloud resources.
• Define SLIs/SLOs and oversee incident management. Serve as the escalation point for high‑severity incidents, ensuring our "customer mindset" translates into high availability and security. Integrate the Compute platform with developer tooling to promote resilient engineering practices.
• Manage the global compute budget and lead high‑stakes negotiations with vendors and partners to ensure our capacity meets the demands of our roadmap.
• Collaborate with quantum physicists, SREs, and software engineers to ensure our infrastructure supports the unique development environment necessary to build the world’s best quantum computers.

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science or equivalent practical experience (untraditional backgrounds are encouraged to apply)
• 10+ years of engineering experience in compute infrastructure (containerized workloads, VMs, Kubernetes), with a deep focus on distributed systems
• 5+ years of engineering management, with a proven history of balancing technical leadership with people management. You have grown teams, managed performance, and mentored engineers
• Expert‑level knowledge of Kubernetes (or other containerized control plane platforms) internals and container technologies. You don't just use K8s (or analogous control plane compute platform); you understand cloud‑based scheduler, networking, and storage primitives
• Extensive experience with at least one major cloud provider (AWS EC2/EKS, Azure AKS, or GCP GKE) and a solid grasp of hybrid networking.

• 10+ years of engineering management experience
• 5+ years experience supporting 24/7 production environments across multiple continents
• Past experience owning vendor relationships and a $2 MM+ budget
• Past experience working within compliance frameworks such as NIST 800‑171 or FedRAMP, or within govcloud

This is a hybrid role based at our office in College Park, MD or Bothell, Washington or Boulder, Colorado.

Up to 15%

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