R&D Manager - Software -914

Quantinuum; Cambridge; Hybrid; GBP 110,000 - 170,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Flexible work

Annual leave 28 days

Pension 4%

Life Insurance

Private medical

Dental Insurance

Income protection

Parental leave

Cycle to work

Eye care

Employee support

Job summary

Quantinuum is seeking an R&D Manager - Software in Cambridge to lead the team delivering programming-language and compiler tools such as Guppy, HUGR and TKET. The role combines technical leadership with people management and requires collaboration with UK and US teams to align interfaces and production-ready releases.

You will guide architectural decisions, drive the roadmap and maintain a scalable, maintainable software ecosystem while staying technically engaged through design and code

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree or higher in Computer Science, Physics, Electrical Engineering or a related field.
• Minimum five years of combined relevant experience in software engineering, compiler or programming-language development, or closely related technical R&D.
• Demonstrated leadership of technical projects or teams, including shaping technical direction, mentoring engineers and coordinating delivery.
• Experience making and communicating architectural decisions for production software, with attention to testing, documentation and long-term maintainability.
• Strong planning and communication skills, with the ability to work effectively across technical disciplines.

Responsibilities

• Lead, mentor and develop a high-performing team of software engineers, setting clear expectations and supporting career development at every level.
• Define and deliver the team's roadmap jointly with software leadership and senior individual contributors, allocating capacity, tracking progress, and managing priorities, risks, dependencies and cross-team handoffs.
• Provide technical leadership across the language, compiler and developer-tooling stack.
• Guide software through the full development lifecycle, from research and prototyping to tested, documented and production-ready releases.
• Partner with research, applications, product, hardware and other software teams in the UK and US to align interfaces and ensure the software stack supports Quantinuum's quantum processors and priority use cases, with occasional travel to Quantinuum's US sites.
• Recruit, onboard and retain excellent engineers, and continuously improve the team's engineering and delivery practices.

Skills

Leadership

Project leadership

Architectural decisions

Planning

Communication

Distributed teams

Open source

Rust

Python

Education

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Physics, Electrical Engineering or related field

Tools

Rust

Python

Job description

We are seeking an R&D Manager - Software to lead the team developing Quantinuum's programming-language and compiler tools, including Guppy, HUGR and TKET. These tools form a core part of our quantum software stack, enabling developers and internal teams to translate high-level quantum programs into robust, executable systems.

This role combines technical leadership and people management in roughly equal parts. Working with software leadership and senior engineers, you will define and execute the technical roadmap, guide architectural decisions, and ensure that our language and compiler ecosystem is scalable, maintainable and ready for production use. You will remain technically engaged through design, code review, problem-solving and implementation.

Prior quantum-computing experience is valued but not required; demonstrated leadership
and strong, relevant software-engineering experience are essential.

This is a hybrid position based in our Cambridge office, with an expectation of working on site some days each week.

Key Responsibilities:

• Lead, mentor and develop a high-performing team of software engineers, setting clear expectations and supporting career development at every level.
• Define and deliver the team's roadmap jointly with software leadership and senior individual contributors, allocating capacity, tracking progress, and managing priorities, risks, dependencies and cross-team handoffs.
• Provide technical leadership across the language, compiler and developer-tooling stack.
• Guide software through the full development lifecycle, from research and prototyping to tested, documented and production-ready releases.
• Partner with research, applications, product, hardware and other software teams in the UK and US to align interfaces and ensure the software stack supports Quantinuum's quantum processors and priority use cases, with occasional travel toQuantinuum's US sites.
• Recruit, onboard and retain excellent engineers, and continuously improve the team's engineering and delivery practices.

YOU MUST HAVE:

• A bachelor's degree or higher in Computer Science, Physics, Electrical Engineering or a related field.
• Minimum five years of combined relevant experience in software engineering, compiler or programming-language development, or closely related technical R&D. Relevant postgraduate research, including master's and PhD study, may count towards this total.
• Demonstrated leadership of technical projects or teams, including shaping technical direction, mentoring engineers and coordinating delivery.
• Experience making and communicating architectural decisions for production software, with attention to testing, documentation and long-term maintainability.
• Strong planning and communication skills, with the ability to work effectively across technical disciplines.

WE VALUE:

• Experience developing quantum software, particularly quantum programming languages, compilers, intermediate representations, runtime systems or execution tooling.
• An understanding of quantum programming models, hardware-software co-design and the interaction between classical and quantum computation.
• Direct experience designing or implementing programming languages, type systems, compiler passes or intermediate representations.
• Experience developing production-quality software in Rust or Python.
• Previous experience as a line manager or team lead, including coaching, recruiting, onboarding and supporting engineers' career development.
• Experience leading or collaborating with geographically distributed technical teams.
• Experience contributing to or maintaining open-source software and working with developer communities.
• A track record of maturing research ideas and prototypes into software used by customers or other engineering teams.

Quantinuum is a leading quantum computing company delivering a full stack platform designed to make quantum computing deployable in real-world environments. With active engagements spanning pharmaceuticals, material science, financial services, government, industrial sectors, and leading academic and research institutions worldwide, we are helping organizations unlock the transformative potential of quantum computing.

Our global team of more than 800 employees includes many of the world's leading scientists, engineers, and researchers, with more than 70% of our technology team holdingadvanced degrees at the Master's or PhD level. Headquartered in Broomfield, Colorado, Quantinuum operatesacross the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, Japan, and Singapore.

By joining Quantinuum, you’ll help shape the future of quantum computing, pushing the limits of technology, and making the impossible possible.

Visit our news pages to learn more about Quantinuum and our scientific breakthroughs and achievements: https://www.quantinuum.com/news

Quantinuum Intro Video: The Future of Quantum Computing

What’s in it for you?

We believe our people are our greatest strength and offer a comprehensive rewards package that supports your professional growth, well-being, and long-term success.

• Competitive compensation and the opportunity to work on groundbreaking technology
• Flexible work arrangements that support work-life balance
• 28 days of annual leave plus bank holidays
• 4% employer pension contributions
• Life Insurance
• Private medical insurance through Bupa
• Dental Insurance through Bupa
• Income Protection
• Paid Parental Leave
• Cycle to work scheme
• Contribution to eye care
• Employee Assistance Programme

Equal Opportunity Employer

Quantinuum is proud to be an equal opportunity employer. We are committed to building an inclusive workplace where all employees and applicants are treated with respect and provided equal opportunities regardless of race, colour, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, national origin, age, disability, veteran status, ancestry, marital status, or any other characteristic protected by applicable law. Know Your Rights: Workplace discrimination is illegal. For more information about Quantinuum, please visit our website.

We are committed to making our recruitment process accessible to all. If you require any reasonable adjustments at any stage of the application or interview process, please let us know use the Lets talk contact form.

Applications will be accepted on an ongoing basis, there is no application deadline for this position.

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