Role Overview

Role:

Our Control Electronics team designs every custom electronic assembly inside an IonQ quantum computer. The work is the control electronics that sit around the trap, and it is genuinely multidisciplinary: precision analogue, RF, mixed signal DAC and ADC design, FPGA and high speed logic layout, and the signal and power integrity that decide whether any of it works at the speeds we need.

This is a board level design role, not silicon. You would split your time roughly evenly between design and simulation on one side and the bench on the other, because the team’s instinct is to build something physical and measure it rather than model it indefinitely. Some of what we are trying to make has to be better than we currently know how to measure it, which is the part most engineers find either alarming or irresistible.

Responsibilities:

You would own custom board designs from schematic capture and simulation through to a working prototype on the bench, characterising them with a wide range of test and measurement equipment, from oscilloscopes to spectrum analysers, and writing your own automated test scripts for evaluation. We do not mind which CAD tools you have used before, only that schematic capture and simulation are familiar ground.

You would also contribute to design reviews across the team’s other projects, and come up to speed quickly on how the separate assemblies fit together as one machine. The product is being built to a schedule while its requirements are still moving, so a large part of the job is responding sensibly to change rather than defending the original plan.

Key responsibilities include:

• Design custom board level assemblies covering precision analogue, RF, mixed signal DAC and ADC, FPGA and high speed logic layout, with the signal and power integrity to match.
• Take designs from schematic capture and simulation to working, measured prototypes.
• Characterise your hardware with oscilloscopes, spectrum analysers and your own automated test.
• Contribute to design reviews across the team’s projects.
• Work to a schedule while requirements are still moving.

Requirements:

You need real board level design experience with a substantial analogue component. Which corner of analogue you come from matters far less than being able to move between the time domain and the frequency domain without having to stop and think about it, because most of our harder problems live in both at once.

You need to be comfortable in the lab, using test and measurement equipment such as oscilloscopes and spectrum analysers, and automating your own measurements. A bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering or equivalent industry experience is what we are looking for. A PhD is not required for this role.

You’d be a great fit with:

• A background in scientific instrumentation, test and measurement, aerospace or defence electronics, or other demanding measurement, control or signal generation hardware.
• A master’s degree in electrical engineering or a related discipline.
• FPGA and high speed digital experience alongside the analogue core.
• Experience at a company scaling quickly, where engineers wear several hats.
• A habit of prototyping early, being straight about what failed, and fixing it.

This role is based in College Park, Maryland, with a minimum of three days a week on site.

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