Staff Technical Programme Manager, Systems Software

Academic Key; Oxford; Hybrid; GBP 110,000 - 160,000; Full time

Job summary

IonQ, based in Oxford, is hiring a Staff Technical Programme Manager for Systems Software to lead end-to-end delivery across several software teams. You will coordinate with engineering leadership and cross‑functional stakeholders to align milestones, dependencies, and risk management, ensuring timely delivery of the runtime, orchestration, and related software components.

The role emphasizes ownership of the plan and transparent communication with programme directors and senior leadership,

Qualifications

• Significant experience running technical programmes across several software teams.

Responsibilities

• Own end-to-end delivery of the Systems Software roadmap across multiple programmes.
• Partner with engineering leadership to set direction and milestones.
• Identify risks and blockers early and drive resolution.
• Run intake and triage to route requests to the right teams.
• Keep the systems of record accurate and up-to-date.
• Write concise status updates for directors and senior leadership.

Skills

Technical programme management

Software team coordination

Stakeholder management

Job description

Staff Technical Programme Manager, Systems Software

Abroad

About IonQ: 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.

Role: System Software builds the software that runs IonQ's quantum computers: the runtime, orchestration, quantum tools, controllers and transport software that sit between the Quantum Operating System and the hardware. It is where a next‑generation system either comes together or doesn't. We're hiring a Staff Technical Programme Manager to lead delivery across this stack. You'll report to the Group Program Manager, Software in our Programme Management Office and be matrixed to the VP, Software for day‑to‑day work. You'll work across five engineering teams (runtime, orchestration, quantum tools, controllers and transport) and the interfaces between them and their cross‑functional stakeholders, serving several next‑generation system programmes at once, with hardware being co‑developed alongside the software and teams in both Oxford and the US. Those programmes draw on the same engineers, so the central problem of this role is making sure that capacity is spent by decision, not by default. We run a centralised PMO model. This role will not own engineering headcount or define product but it will make the programme around those things run. It carries real ownership of delivery: the plan, the trade‑offs put in front of decision‑makers, and the honesty of the status. In this role you will interface with everyone from technical software engineers to a wide range of the most senior stakeholders. You will also coordinate with your fellow programme managers, across Science, Infrastructure and broader Software teams, making sure all plans are shared and coordinated, rather than operating in silos. Turning a research‑grade quantum system into a dependable product is a problem nobody has finished solving, and the delivery standard you'll work within is being built now. If writing the first version of the plan sounds like the interesting part, we should talk.

ionq · Oxford

Responsibilities

• In this role you will own the end‑to‑end delivery of the Systems Software roadmap across several concurrent programmes including managing dependencies between hardware, science and systems integration teams.
• You will partner closely with engineering leadership, the engineering teams run the day‑to‑day planning and boards, you will provide the direction that creates incremental milestones that ship.
• You will identify risks and blockers early and work with the teams to resolve them.
• You will also run intake and triage, so requests reach the right team with the right priority and engineers can stay focused on planned work.
• Make contention visible: when two programmes need the same team in the same quarter, bring it to the right decision‑maker with the options and a recommendation before it becomes a slip.
• Keep the systems of record honest.
• Requirements, plans, schedules and Jira drift apart; you'll close the gap and automate the checking.
• Make invisible work visible: on‑call load, sustaining work and technical debt tracked as rigorously as feature delivery.
• Surface risks early, before you have a full solution or complete alignment.
• We'd rather hear it messy and on time.
• Run intake and triage so requests reach the right team, with priority set by the people who own it, and engineers stay on planned work.
• Work hand in hand with the Quantum Systems Infrastructure and Science TPMs in Oxford and the Software TPMs in the US: shared processes where teams meet, and no duplicated ceremonies, boards or reports.
• Write concise, plain‑English status on progress, risks and decisions for programme directors, engineering leaders and senior leadership.
• Help shape how IonQ runs software delivery across sites, working with the Group Program Manager, Software on the shared delivery standard.

Requirements

• You will have significant experience running technical programmes across several software teams, ideall

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