Program Manager

IQM Quantum Computers Plc

United Kingdom

Hybrid

GBP 90,000 - 130,000

Full time

6 days ago

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Benefits offered by this job

Hybrid work options

Learning & development budget

Direct access to leadership

Job summary

IQM is seeking a seasoned Program Manager to own milestone delivery across hardware-plus-software programs, coordinating engineers, physicists and external partners. You’ll maintain schedules, budgets and evidence for reviews and audits, ensuring alignment with IQM’s strategic roadmap.

You’ll work with legal, IP, commercial and finance teams, manage subcontractors and academic partners, and steer funded work to successful outcomes while balancing technical and commercial constraints.

Qualifications

8+ years running complex technical programs with hardware and software.
Experience delivering contracts with external funders or customers.
Ability to read quantum computing system architecture and challenge estimates.

Responsibilities

Run milestone delivery end to end with schedule, cost, and acceptance criteria.
Manage risk register with owners and live mitigations.
Coordinate with legal, IP, commercial and finance, subcontractors and academic partners.
Link funded work to IQM’s product roadmap and track progress per milestone.
Prepare options for leadership when commitments conflict and propose a path forward.

Skills

Program management

Stakeholder management

Risk management

Budget & cost control

Milestone planning

Reading system architecture

Education

Physical sciences or engineering degree

Tools

PM software

AI tools

Job description

At IQM, we build world-leading quantum computers for the well-being of humankind. We design systems to tackle computational challenges beyond the practical limits of classical machines. Our work sits at the edge of science and engineering. It's complex, demanding, and deeply collaborative. We turn deep research into reliable, full-stack systems that drive discoveries in fields like medicine, energy, and technology, reshaping how the world computes.

Join the team that gives quantum a heartbeat.

The work

IQM’s work is built on funded contracts, and each one comes with milestones, evidence reviews, claims and auditors. At the same time, our engineers are building toward IQM’s own product roadmap and serving customers. These three sets of commitments draw on the same people and the same hardware, and they don’t always point the same way.

As Program Manager, you hold the single view of all of it: what we’ve committed to, to whom, by when, and at what cost. You keep that picture consistent with our strategic, commercial and technology roadmaps, and you’re the person who sees a collision coming months before it lands.

You won’t have direct reports. You deliver through workstream leads, engineers and physicists in other functions, and you set day-to-day priorities within the capacity we’ve committed. Your influence comes from the quality of your plan and the credibility you build, not from a reporting line. You’ll work closely with legal, IP, commercial and finance, with our subcontractors and academic partners, and with the exec team.

What you’ll actually do

Run milestone delivery end to end. You own the contracted schedule, the success criteria and the baseline cost behind each milestone. Each quarter you assemble the technical and commercial evidence, present it for review, secure sign-off and trigger the claim. Payment depends on that evidence holding up, so it has to be right the first time.
Keep the critical path honest. On a hardware-plus-software program, physical build, long-lead procurement and integration set the schedule. You track procurement and manage subcontractors and academic partners against defined deliverables and resource commitments. When an estimate looks optimistic, you challenge it.
Make the risk register a working tool. Every risk has a named owner and a live mitigation. When commitments conflict, you bring the exec team options and a recommendation, not just the problem.
Connect funded work to the product roadmap. You bring contract results, constraints and customer signals into IQM’s development planning. You flag early when funded scope and the company roadmap start to drift apart, and you track whether scientific, technical, industrial and commercial progress stay in balance at each milestone.
Protect what we build and find what comes next. With legal, IP and commercial, you shape IP, freedom-to-operate and licensing strategy. You also drive the follow-on funding, continuation funding, customer contracts and investment that grow out of the program.

What we’re looking for

8+ years running complex technical programs where hardware and software come together, including at least one of £5m or more with reporting obligations to an external funder or customer. You know milestone-based contracts from the inside: defining milestones, building acceptance evidence, controlling cost and schedule, and managing subcontractors and academic partners where IP is sensitive.
Familiarity with the UK funding system and what assessors and auditors expect to see.
Enough technical depth to read a quantum computing system architecture and challenge an estimate. A physical sciences or engineering degree, or equivalent working depth.
Equal credibility with physicists and with funders, auditors and executives. You stay calm under scrutiny, your written reports survive assessor review, and you use PM software and AI tools to automate the routine parts of the job.
Bonus: Delivery experience with Innovate UK, SBRI, Contracts for Innovation, or DSIT, NQCC, STFC or DSTL programs, especially if you’ve helped win a staged public sector competition.
Bonus: A background in quantum technologies, superconducting systems, cryogenics, large-scale scientific instrumentation or HPC/data centres, ideally including taking a research-stage system into an operated service with uptime and support obligations.

Why IQM?

Full-stack quantum computing: From quantum hardware to software layers and beyond, we build across the full-stack.
High-performance playground: We aim high, and we know sustainable performance only works when life outside work does too—hybrid setups, flexible hours.
Never the smartest: You won’t always be the smartest person in the room. Neither will we. Expect to learn constantly - from each other and beyond with IQM’s Learning Hub, LinkedIn Learning, and a team-based L&D budget.
Approachable leadership: Flat hierarchy, direct access. Feel free to approach any leaders. They're friendlier than they look!
The sweet spot: Big enough to matter. Small enough to move fast. Growing between a startup and a corporation. We’re in the phase where top performers get noticed.
Bigger than IQM: Our people build know-how for the entire quantum ecosystem. We publish papers, run hackathons, and help shape a market that's still being defined.