Project Manager, Quantum Computing Systems

Jobtailor; Chicago (IL); On-site; USD 110,000 - 160,000; Full time

Job summary

Jobtailor in Chicago, IL seeks an experienced project management professional to own and maintain the integrated project plan for complex hardware and R&D initiatives, aligning engineering with contractual requirements.

You will lead cross-functional teams, manage schedules, budgets, risks, and stakeholder communications, and ensure on-time, on-budget delivery while coordinating site readiness and commissioning.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent professional experience.
• Typically 4+ years leading technical or complex R&D projects.
• Experience owning schedules, budgets, risks, and stakeholder communications.
• Ability to coordinate multidisciplinary teams.
• Understanding complex technical work to identify dependencies.
• PMP certification or comparable project-management training.
• Willingness to travel periodically.

Responsibilities

• Own and maintain the integrated project plan with milestones, schedules, and budgets.
• Translate business requirements into actionable tasks with owners and deadlines.
• Identify critical paths and help deliver on time and budget.
• Coordinate execution across multiple internal and external teams.
• Lead communications, provide status reports, and escalate issues.
• Coordinate site readiness, procurement, installation, and commissioning.
• Maintain traceability between requirements, work, and evidence of completion.
• Identify process gaps and drive practical improvements.

Skills

Project coordination

Stakeholder communication

Facilitation

Multidisciplinary coordination

Risk management

Schedule management

Education

Bachelor’s degree in physics, engineering, or related field

Tools

Jira

Confluence

Microsoft Project

Job description

Responsibilities

• Own and maintain the integrated project plan, including milestones, schedules, dependencies, risks, actions, budgets, and deliverables.
• Partner with technical leads to align engineering plans with contractual and business requirements, translating them into clear actions, owners, deadlines, and completion criteria.
• Work with the technical team to identify critical paths and help deliver on time and on budget.
• Coordinate execution across technical, operations, supply chain, IT, facilities, finance, legal, commercial, vendor, and customer teams.
• Lead project communications and meetings, provide clear status reporting, follow up on commitments, and elevate issues as needed.
• Coordinate site readiness, procurement, equipment delivery, installation, commissioning, acceptance, and supporting documentation.
• Maintain traceability between requirements, project work, and evidence of completion.
• Identify process gaps and help drive practical improvements through resolution.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in physics, engineering, or a related field, or equivalent professional experience.
• Typically 4+ years managing technical, engineering, hardware, infrastructure, or complex R&D projects.
• Experience owning schedules, budgets, risks, and stakeholder communications.
• Demonstrated ability to coordinate multidisciplinary teams.
• Ability to understand complex technical work well enough to identify dependencies, ask effective questions, and communicate project impacts.
• Strong written, verbal, organizational, and facilitation skills.
• Experience with project-management tools such as Jira, Confluence, Microsoft Project, or similar systems.
• Ability to travel periodically.
• Experience delivering or commissioning complex scientific or industrial equipment.
• Experience in quantum technology, scientific instrumentation, aerospace, semiconductor equipment, or another complex hardware environment.
• Experience working with universities, government organizations, research institutions, or public-sector customers.
• Familiarity with facility readiness, equipment transport and delivery, IT infrastructure, procurement, and supplier management.
• Experience with contractual deliverables, acceptance criteria, change control, and customer reporting.
• Experience with inventory management.
• PMP certification or comparable project-management training.