Senior Manager, Resilience Engineering & Operations

NightDragon Acquisition Corp.; Bothell (WA); On-site; USD 180,000 - 240,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Equity

Medical/Dental/Vision

401(k) matching

Job summary

IonQ is seeking a Senior Manager, Resilience Engineering & Operations to lead the Bothell team responsible for keeping hosted quantum computers running reliably. You will balance uptime, risk, and long-term improvements while coordinating across engineering, physics, and operations.

You will help shape follow-the-sun capabilities, build processes, and establish clear handoffs in a fast-moving, highly technical environment.

Qualifications

• Strong technical background in complex experimental, optical or physics-led systems.
• 5+ years of technical leadership and people management.
• Experience in reliability engineering or learning from incidents.
• Experience with automation, calibration, maintenance for complex technical systems.

Responsibilities

• Lead day-to-day fleet support, incident response, and operational readiness for IonQ's hosted quantum systems.
• Set direction for the team and support growth, with clear ownership and escalation.
• Collaborate with engineers, physicists, and operations to improve designs and tooling.
• Define and track performance metrics and foster a culture of technical rigor.

Skills

Technical leadership

Physics background

Reliability engineering

Incident management

Automation experience

Education

Physics degree

Tools

Automation tooling

Job description

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 Overview

Role:

We are looking for a Senior Manager, Resilience Engineering & Operations to lead our Resilience Engineering and Operations team in Bothell, Washington. In this role, you will lead the team responsible for keeping IonQ's hosted quantum computers running reliably for customers, while improving resilience, performance, throughput and operational efficiency across the fleet.

This is a technical leadership role, not a purely administrative one. You will lead a team of Operating Physicists, engage credibly with complex trapped ion systems, and use sound judgement to balance uptime, technical risk and long term improvement. You will work closely with engineering, physics and operations partners, and your team's insight will help shape how current and future systems are supported in the field.

You will also play an important part in building our follow the sun operating model alongside colleagues in Europe. The function is still maturing, so this role needs someone comfortable building process, improving handoffs and creating clarity in a fast moving environment.

Responsibilities:

In this position, you will lead day to day fleet support, incident response, operational readiness and continuous improvement for IonQ's hosted quantum systems, as well as installation and maintenance of our internal systems at the College Park office. You will set direction for the team, support individual growth, and make sure the group can respond effectively to both immediate operational issues and longer term reliability challenges.

You will work at the intersection of operations, engineering and physics, helping the team resolve complex issues, strengthen fleet performance and feed operational learning back into future designs, tooling and automation. Early on, you will put durable operating processes, metrics and prioritisation habits in place so the team runs with clear ownership and escalation.

Key responsibilities include:

• Lead, develop and grow a team of Operating Physicists who keep IonQ's commercial quantum computing fleet running reliably
• Own team strategy and execution across fleet operations, incident response, operational readiness, deployment support and continuous improvement
• Manage priorities, schedules, inventory, sparing and operational planning to support reliable system performance
• Partner closely with engineers, physicists, senior leaders, vendors and customers to resolve issues and influence future designs
• Define and track performance metrics for the team, building a culture of technical rigour, learning from incidents and strong operational judgement

Requirements:

To be successful, you will need a strong technical background in complex experimental, optical or physics led systems, alongside experience leading teams in operational or engineering environments. We are looking for someone who combines hands on technical credibility with sound people leadership, and who is comfortable creating structure where it does not yet fully exist.

You should be able to identify issues quickly, work effectively across disciplines and help a team operate with clarity in a fast moving, highly technical business. Prior quantum computing experience is not required; we care more about how you lead, how you reason about reliability and how quickly you learn. The role is based on site in Bothell, and supporting a live fleet means the working pattern includes some on call responsibility.

You’d be a great fit with:

• A degree in Physics or a related field, or equivalent experience in a similarly deep technical environment such as optics or complex experimental systems
• 5+ years of technical leadership and people management, including leading physicists, scientists, systems engineers or similar specialists
• Direct experience in reliability engineering, resilience engineering, incident management or Learning From Incidents
• Experience with automation, calibration, maintenance or operations management for complex technical systems, ideally in on call or service oriented environments
• Strong communication and judgement, with experience balancing time, cost, quality and operational risk across functions

The total compensation package includes base salary, bonus, equity, and a range of benefits available on our career site.

Compensation will vary based on individual factors such as education, qualifications, and experience of the final candidate(s), specific office location, and calibration against relevant market data and internal team equity. Posted base salary figures are subject to change as new market data becomes available. Our benefits include comprehensive medical, dental, and vision plans, matching 401(k), unlimited PTO and paid holidays, parental/adoption leave, legal insurance, and a home technology stipend. Details of participation in these benefit plans will be provided when a candidate receives an offer of employment.

At IonQ, we believe in fair treatment, access, opportunity, and advancement for all while striving to identify and eliminate barriers. We empower employees to thrive by fostering a culture of autonomy, productivity, and respect. We are dedicated to creating an environment where individuals can feel welcomed, respected, supported, and valued.

We are committed to equity and justice. We welcome different voices and viewpoints and do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, ancestry, physical and/or mental disability, medical condition, genetic information, marital status, sex, gender, gender identity, gender expression, transgender status, age, sexual orientation, military or veteran status, or any other basis protected by law. We are proud to be an Equal Employment Opportunity employer.

US Technical Jobs. The position you are applying for will require access to technology that is subject to U.S. export control and government contract restrictions. Employment with IonQ is contingent on either verifying “U.S. Person” (e.g., U.S. citizen, U.S. national, U.S. permanent resident, or lawfully admitted into the U.S. as a refugee or granted asylum) status for export controls and government contracts work, obtaining any necessary license, and/or confirming the availability of a license exception under U.S. export controls. Please note that in the absence of confirming you are a U.S. Person for export control and government contracts work purposes, IonQ may choose not to apply for a license or decline to use a license exception (if available) for you to access export-controlled technology that may require authorization, and similarly, you may not qualify for government contracts work that requires U.S. Persons, and IonQ may decline to proceed with your application on those bases alone. Accordingly, we will have some additional questions regarding your immigration status that will be used for export control and compliance purposes, and the answers will be reviewed by compliance personnel to ensure compliance with federal law.

US Non-Technical Jobs. Due to applicable export control laws and regulations, candidates must be a U.S. citizen or national, U.S. permanent resident (i.e., current Green Card holder), or lawfully admitted into the U.S. as a refugee or granted asylum. Accordingly, we will have some additional questions regarding your immigration status that will be used for export control and compliance purposes, and the answers will be reviewed by compliance personnel to ensure compliance with federal law.