Staff Technical Programme Manager, Systems Software

Staff Technical Programme Manager, Systems Software at IonQ, Oxford, England, United Kingdom. A lead-level full time position in the Compute - PMO team, listed under software engineering.

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.

Responsibilities

• 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.