Staff Backend Software Engineer, Cloud Platform

Entangled Future; Bothell (WA); On-site; USD 180,000 - 230,000; Full time

Job summary

IonQ in Bothell, Washington is seeking a Staff Backend Software Engineer to join the Cloud Platform team. You will help build a scalable, API-driven platform that connects customers to our quantum hardware and partner clouds, with emphasis on reliability and security.

You will design features, define API contracts, contribute to testing and observability, mentor engineers, and drive technical alignment across teams, while advancing the quantum developer experience with AI-enabled improvements.

Responsibilities

• Lead the design and implementation of compelling software experiences that appeal to quantum novices and experts alike.
• Define API contracts with backend teams and strengthen testing, observability and continuous delivery practices.
• Contribute to the job processing pipeline, from pre-processing and asynchronous execution to post-processing and returning results.
• Integrate AI capabilities that improve customer experiences, and use AI-assisted development tools responsibly.
• Mentor engineers, drive technical alignment across teams, and take part in on-call rotations and incident reviews.

Job description

Staff Backend Software Engineer, Cloud Platform at IonQ, Bothell, Washington, United States. A lead-level full time position in the Compute - Engineering team, listed under software engineering.

Role

We don't just build the world's best quantum computers: we want them to be usable by everyone, everywhere. We are looking for a Staff Backend Software Engineer to join the cross-functional team building the IonQ Cloud Platform, which connects our customers to our quantum computers through APIs, tools and partner clouds such as AWS, GCP and Azure. You will help build key components of the platform with our product, applications and systems teams and our scientists, to create the best quantum developer experience for our customers and partners.

The platform takes a customer's quantum job, breaks it down, compiles it, queues it, runs it on our hardware and returns the results, so without it the quantum job flow does not work. The team works at pace, closer to a small company than a large one, with requirements that change as the hardware, the compiler and the jobs themselves evolve. You do not need a quantum background, but you will need curiosity, humility and a willingness to ask questions while you learn the language of quantum.

Responsibilities

Reporting to the Senior Manager of Cloud Engineering, you will work closely with the Infrastructure Engineering, Application Development and Operations teams to provide highly available, fault-tolerant cloud services. You will be a key contributor to the job processing pipeline that handles large, complex jobs asynchronously, and you will define API contracts with backend teams and take them from design through implementation to release.

Alongside new feature development for next year's roadmap, you will share responsibility for keeping the platform healthy: strengthening testing, observability and continuous delivery, improving stability and security, and taking part in on-call rotations and incident reviews. You will also integrate AI capabilities that improve the customer experience, use AI-assisted development tools responsibly, mentor engineers and drive technical alignment across teams.

Responsibilities

• Lead the design and implementation of compelling software experiences that appeal to quantum novices and experts alike.
• Define API contracts with backend teams and strengthen testing, observability and continuous delivery practices.
• Contribute to the job processing pipeline, from pre-processing and asynchronous execution to post-processing and returning results.
• Integrate AI capabilities that improve customer experiences, and use AI-assisted development tools responsibly.
• Mentor engineers, drive technical alignment across teams, and take part in on-call rotations and incident reviews.