Staff Scientist - Quantum Applications
Confirmed live in the last 24 hours
IonQ
Job Description
About IonQ:
IonQ, Inc. [NYSE: IONQ] is the world’s leading quantum company delivering solutions to solve the world’s most complex problems. IonQ’s newest generation quantum computers, IonQ Tempo and IonQ Forte Enterprise, are the latest in cutting-edge systems that have been helping customers and partners such as Amazon Web Services, AstraZeneca, and NVIDIA achieve 20x performance results. The company achieved 99.99% two-qubit gate fidelity, setting a world record in quantum computing performance in 2025.
The company is accelerating its technology roadmap and intends to deliver the world’s most powerful quantum computers with 2 million qubits by 2030 to accelerate innovation in drug discovery, materials science, financial modeling, logistics, cybersecurity, and defense. IonQ’s advancements in quantum networking position the company as a leader in building the quantum internet.
Location: This position can work onsite or hybrid from one of our offices or fully remote in the US.
Travel: 10% domestic and international
Job ID: 1489
The Role:
We are looking for a Staff Scientist – Quantum Applications to lead the technical development in utilizing IonQ’s quantum computers to create highly differentiated quantum solutions that will bring value to society. As a Staff Scientist – Quantum Applications, you’ll be part of a cross-functional team whose mission is to lead IonQ on a multi-generational journey to solve the world’s most complex problems using the world’s best quantum computers built at IonQ.
As a technical leader in quantum algorithms, you will help discover the next generation of quantum applications that are poised to deliver results exceeding state-of-the-art classical methods. You will play a key role in developing core IP, computational resource models, long-term roadmaps and end-to-end workflows that have the potential to disrupt the field of computing. You will also work closely with product, engineering, marketing, sales, operations, and external customers/partners to brainstorm new ideas, propose complex, multi-year initiatives and represent IonQ at high-visibility technical conferences (often all in a single day)!
Responsibilities:
- Develop impactful hybrid quantum applications that accelerate commercial advantage in practice and at scale. Be part of a client-facing team that finds, defines, and solves problems of real-world interest using IonQ trapped-ion quantum computers.
- Develop and integrate first-of-a-kind quantum algorithms into end-to-end workflows for real-world applications in materials science and combinatorial optimization, including, but not limited to, interfacing with leading commercial and scientific tools such as Synopsys QuantumATK, Quantum ESPRESSO, VASP (materials science and semiconductor applications), Synopsys LS-DYNA, HFSS, Fluent, Sentaurus, Gurobi, CPLEX, Pyomo (optimization applications); translate practical use cases into quantum-native formulations, connect classical simulation outputs to quantum models such as Fermi–Hubbard and Heisenberg Hamiltonians, and map quantum-computing results back into domain workflows for actionable use in production-relevant applications.
- Perform hands-on development of fault-tolerant quantum algorithms and collaborate with the Fault Tolerant Quantum Computing (FTQC) algorithms team at IonQ to create a large scientific and commercial impact across a wide range of industry verticals. Contribute deep expertise in classical and quantum algorithms to evaluate and benchmark approaches (FTQC, NISQ, and HPC), clearly communicating state-of-the-art performance, scaling behavior, trade-offs, and cross-over points to stakeholders while driving adoption of standardized benchmarking metrics and tools.
- Collaborate with quantum compiler, cloud and hardware engineering teams to develop highly optimized hybrid workflows for trapped-ion quantum computers.
- Develop portfolio of foundational IP and high-impact-factor peer-reviewed publications; represent IonQ externally with customer/clients and at conferences.
Requirements:
- Doctorate degree in Physics, Computer Science, Mathematics or another STEM domain, or equivalent work experience plus 5+ years of professional work experience in the qua
