R&D Site Lead

Entangled Future; City of Edinburgh; Hybrid; GBP 150,000 - 210,000; Full time

Job summary

IQM Quantum Computers is establishing an R&D site in Edinburgh, the UK, and seeks a site lead to build and run the Engineering program from the ground up. You will recruit, set up facilities, and establish the culture that shapes the team’s way of working as the first hires join.

You will lead the technical integration of IQM systems with HPC environments, drive real-time decoding and control-stack strategies, and manage collaborations with the UK HPC centre and QEC partner to align on

Qualifications

• 5+ years of leading R&D teams, including building from scratch and scaling.
• Strong quantum computing background with depth in quantum error correction and/or quantum hardware and control systems.
• Experience on collaborative R&D projects including budgets, milestone reporting, cost compliance and resource planning.
• PhD in physics, electrical engineering, computer science or related field, or equivalent depth.
• Ability to explain complex work clearly to technical partners, funding bodies, IQM leadership, and the quantum community.

Responsibilities

• Build the site from zero: set up ways of working, tools, facilities, IT, compute and partner access.
• Recruit and line-manage first engineers and scientists, then team leads; establish site culture.
• Lead the technical work, integrate IQM systems with HPC environments, and set technical direction.
• Run the partnership day-to-day with the HPC centre and QEC partner; manage IP and data agreements.

Skills

R&D leadership

Quantum computing

HPC integration

Real-time decoding

Budget planning

Cross-organisation collaboration

Technical problem solving

Education

PhD in physics/EE/CS

Job description

R&D Site Lead at IQM Quantum Computers, Edinburgh, GB. A lead-level full time position in the Engineering team, listed under research.

IQM is opening an R&D site in Edinburgh, UK, and this is the first hire. There’s no team, no lab routine and no local playbook yet. You’ll build all of it while the work is already underway. The site anchors a collaborative R&D program with a UK HPC centre and a quantum error correction partner. The technical focus is where IQM quantum systems meet classical HPC: hybrid quantum-classical workflows, real-time decoding and control-stack integration. Getting this interface right is central to running error-corrected quantum workloads alongside classical supercomputers. In the early phase, you’ll work hands-on in the technical work alongside your first hires. As the site grows, you move into a team-of-teams role, leading team leads rather than individual contributors. You’ll report to a VP in our Quantum Systems organisation and act as IQM’s technical and organisational lead in the UK partnership.

What you’ll actually do

• Build the site from zero. You set up ways of working, tools, facilities, IT, compute and partner access, together with our internal support functions and partners. You recruit and line-manage the first engineers and scientists, then the team leads who follow, and set the culture the site grows from.
• Lead the technical work. You work hands-on on integrating IQM systems with HPC environments, from hybrid workflows to real-time decoding and control-stack integration, and you set the technical direction for the team.
• Run the partnership day to day. You own the R&D relationship with the HPC centre and the QEC partner, which covers:
• joint work plans and regular technical meetings
• integration, testing and benchmarking
• clear agreements on IP and data

With our IP team, you make sure publications and know-how transfer follow the collaboration agreements.

• Own the program’s delivery With the program’s project manager and Finance, you own the site budget and forecasts and keep costs aligned with the collaboration’s commitments.

Requirements

• 5+ years leading R&D teams, including building one from scratch and scaling it. You’ve hired, onboarded, line-managed and developed people, not only led projects.
• A strong quantum computing background, with depth in quantum error correction and/or quantum hardware and control systems, from industry or academia. You also understand HPC environments and what hybrid quantum-classical computing demands: software integration, scheduling and low-latency classical processing.
• Experience on collaborative R&D projects, including budgets, milestone reporting, cost compliance and resource planning across organisations.
• A PhD in physics, electrical engineering, computer science or a related field, or equivalent research depth.
• You solve problems before they’re handed to you, and you explain complex work clearly to technical partners, funding bodies, IQM leadership and the wider quantum community.
• Bonus: An existing network in the UK quantum and HPC ecosystem.
• Bonus: Hands-on experience with real-time decoding, control-stack integration or hybrid workflows on HPC systems.