Senior Photonics Test Engineer at IonQ (Boston, USA)
Job Description
IonQ is hiring a Senior Photonics Test Engineer for its Quantum Interconnect Division in Boston, to design and expand the test infrastructure used to characterise integrated photonic devices at chip and wafer scale, both at room temperature and in cryogenic setups.
At a glance
- Role: Senior Photonics Test Engineer
- Where: on-site at IonQ’s Boston, Massachusetts office
- Pay: US$126,887–166,127 base, plus bonus and equity
- Experience: 3+ years of hands-on photonic integrated circuit (PIC) characterisation; master’s or PhD
- Apply: open until filled (re-checked 11 October 2026)
About the photonics test engineer role
- Design, upgrade and expand test infrastructure for classical integrated photonic devices and components, passive and active, at chip and wafer scale
- Develop and run robust procedures for component-level characterisation
- Automate the test pipeline, from instrument setup to data acquisition and analysis, with scalable, well-tested scripts
- Characterise devices in room-temperature and cryogenic setups and give designers data-driven feedback
- Work with design, packaging and system teams to improve test features and build a library of test structures
The role sits in IonQ’s Quantum Interconnect Division, a cross-functional team working on the photonic technology that connects quantum systems. Integrated photonic chips route and control the light those systems depend on, so testing them quickly and accurately, at chip and wafer scale and down to cryogenic temperatures, directly affects how fast the hardware improves.
What IonQ is looking for
- 3+ years of hands-on PIC characterisation, or an equivalent mix of education and experience
- A master’s degree or PhD in engineering or a related field, or equivalent practical experience
- Programming in Python, Matlab or similar for test automation
- Experience with test instruments and methods for integrated photonic devices, and with room-temperature optical test setups
- Strong data processing, visualisation and organisation
Nice to have
- 5+ years designing and characterising integrated photonic devices, and 3+ years in industry
- Free-space optics and imaging systems
- Cryogenic optical test setups, laser sources and fibre components
- Git, and knowledge of PIC fabrication processes and design constraints
Pay and location
IonQ lists an approximate base salary of US$126,887–166,127 for this on-site Boston role. Total compensation also includes bonus, equity and benefits.
How to apply
Apply through the official IonQ job posting. IonQ’s posting does not give a closing date, so the role is open until filled; ResearchJobs.in will re-check this listing on 11 October 2026. Check the posting for location and work-authorisation details before you apply.
See all our quantum technology jobs, or browse more research jobs on ResearchJobs.in.
Hiring institution: IonQ
Official advertisement: job-boards.greenhouse.io
How to prepare for this application
- Loss measurements: be ready to compare cut-back, ring-resonator and interferometric methods for measuring waveguide loss.
- Wafer-scale testing: think through automated fibre alignment, grating-coupler probing and how you keep throughput high.
- Cryogenic optics: prepare for questions on alignment drift and thermal contraction at low temperature.
- Automation code: bring an example of test software you wrote, including how you tested it.
- Feedback to design: have a story where your data changed a device design.
About IonQ
IonQ, Inc. (NYSE: IONQ) builds trapped-ion quantum computers and describes itself as a quantum platform company working across computing, networking, sensing and security. It is headquartered in College Park, Maryland, with operations in several US states and in Italy, South Korea, Sweden, Switzerland, Canada and the United Kingdom.
