Research Software Engineer

Job Description

Job Title: Senior Research Software Engineer. Location: Boston, Massachusetts, USA (Hybrid, a few days per week in office)

Responsibilities:

• Develop, maintain, and support research and development software used by scientists, ensuring reliability, stability, and performance.
• Own the software development lifecycle (SDLC) for R&D codebases, including debugging, bug fixes, regression resolution, and long-term code quality improvements.
• Improve software observability through logging, metrics, tracing, monitoring, and alerting to enable faster issue detection and troubleshooting.
• Design, develop, and maintain backend and frontend systems for research data acquisition;
• Build, maintain, and optimize CI/CD pipelines for reliable software deployment and continuous integration.
• Design and implement automated calibration and laboratory equipment bring-up systems.
• Review code contributed by researchers and provide guidance on architecture, maintainability, coding standards, and best practices.
• Collaborate with software teams across IonQ to ensure seamless integration between systems.
• Improve the scalability, accessibility, and usability of R&D software tools for scientists.
• Mentor engineers and contribute technical leadership across software projects.

Qualifications:

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field, or equivalent professional experience, fellowship, or technical training.
• At least 5 years of professional software engineering experience working on complex, cross-functional systems.
• Strong proficiency in Python;
• Experience debugging across the software stack, including concurrency, asynchronous programming, networking protocols, and performance optimization.
• Experience managing the complete software development lifecycle, including debugging, incident response, and production maintenance.
• Experience designing, building, and maintaining CI/CD pipelines.
• Excellent technical writing skills, including user documentation, API documentation, tutorials, and internal knowledge base articles.

Preferred:

• 8+ years of professional software engineering experience, preferably supporting scientific research or R&D teams.
• Experience developing software for hardware control, laboratory automation, or scientific data acquisition.
• Experience mentoring software engineers and providing technical leadership;
• Experience with cloud platforms such as AWS, Google Cloud Platform, or Microsoft Azure.
• Experience with modern DevOps practices.
• Experience designing and managing databases.
• Interest in supporting quantum research. Prior quantum or physics experience is not required.

Benefits and Compensation:

• Base salary range: $145,920 to $191,047 per year.
• Performance bonus opportunities.
• Equity compensation.
• Comprehensive medical, dental, and vision insurance.
• 401(k) retirement plan with employer matching.
• Unlimited paid time off;
• Paid holidays.
• Parental and adoption leave.
• Legal insurance.
• Home technology stipend.
• Comprehensive employee benefits package based on eligibility.

Other Information:

• Work location: Boston, Massachusetts, with a hybrid work arrangement.
• Travel requirement: Up to 10% domestic travel.
• Job ID: 1605.
• Success in this role includes improving software reliability, observability, CI/CD processes, and developer experience while supporting scientists throughout the research process;
• Within the first six months, the successful candidate is expected to take ownership of a major R&D codebase and improve its stability and monitoring capabilities.
• Within the first year, the successful candidate is expected to become a technical leader by driving major software improvements and mentoring engineers and scientist contributors.
• IonQ is an equal opportunity employer committed to creating an inclusive workplace.
• Employment may require compliance with U.S. export control regulations and government contract requirements. Candidates may be required to verify work authorization or U.S. Person status where applicable.