Staff Backend Software Engineer, Cloud Platform

Role Overview

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.

Key responsibilities include:

• 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.

Requirements:

You will have a bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering or a related field, or equivalent training, fellowship or work experience, and 7+ years of professional software engineering experience. You will bring strong experience with large-scale cloud service platforms and the design of scalable, robust services, programming experience in languages such as Go, TypeScript or Python, experience with databases such as PostgreSQL, and experience in a cloud native environment (AWS, GCP or Azure, with Kubernetes or serverless).

You will be able to design and implement critical application components, including UX, APIs and services, exception handling, data access and security, and you will have experience with automated testing, production troubleshooting and observability. You will have practical experience with AI-assisted engineering tools, including validating generated code for correctness and security, a track record of leading projects in a cross-functional team, and strong written and spoken communication and collaboration skills.

You’d be a great fit with:

• 10+ years of professional full stack software development experience.
• 3+ years of working with Kubernetes, and 3+ years with NoSQL and SQL databases.
• OAuth, OpenID or SAML based authentication experience.
• Prior experience developing on Google Cloud Platform, ideally on a cloud platform team at a major provider.
• Experience building job processing pipelines for large, complex workloads such as quantum, AI or video analytics jobs.

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