Senior Engineer - Firmware

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.

The Role:
We are looking for a skilled Senior Firmware Engineer to join a cross-functional team of physicists, electronics engineers, and firmware developers building next-generation quantum sensing instruments. In this role, you will design, implement, and verify embedded software for ST microcontrollers — including COTS devices and MCUs on custom ASICs — and develop the low-level control algorithms that make precision measurement possible. You will work closely with hardware engineers throughout the full product development cycle, from schematic review to board bring-up and production.

Location: This role is based on site at our office in Pleasanton, CA.

Requirements

What You'll Do:

• Provide technical leadership and architectural direction for Rust-based quantum control systems across multiple projects.
• Write production-quality code in C/C++ and establish coding standards and best practices for the team.
• Work with and mentor a cross-functional team of physicists, electronics engineers, and firmware engineers to create next-generation quantum instruments.
• Design and architect system controllers on ARM SoC. Lead development of user-space drivers, data acquisition pipelines, and robust control loops with reliable error handling.
• Define and implement control algorithms essential to operation of precision sensing instruments.
• Architect libraries and frameworks for control of quantum systems that can be reused across projects.
• Lead technical discussions with hardware engineers and drive board testing and hardware bring up strategies.
• Mentor junior and senior engineers through code reviews, pair programming, and technical guidance.
• Drive continuous improvement of our development process, tooling, and infrastructure.
• Represent the team in cross-functional technical reviews, architecture discussions, and strategic planning sessions.

What We're Looking For:

• Electrical Engineering/Computer Engineering/Computer Science Graduate, BS/MS Degree with 8+ years of related work experience, or PhD with 5+ years of experience.
• To comply with the US export control laws, Vector Atomic employees must be U.S. citizens (born or naturalized), lawful U.S. permanent residents (green card holders), and certain categories of refugees, and asylees.
• Must be comfortable working in a laboratory environment.
• Proven ability to lead technical initiatives and influence engineering decisions across teams.
• Excellent communication skills with ability to articulate complex technical concepts to diverse audiences, both written and verbal.
• Demonstrated expertise in system architecture and design of complex embedded systems.

Required Expertise:

• Extensive experience in developing production Rust systems, including async runtimes, concurrency patterns, and performance optimization.
• Deep understanding of hardware-software interfaces including TCP, UART, MMAP, and low-level system programming.
• Proven ability to architect and design complex software systems from the ground up.
• Strong debugging and troubleshooting skills using various tools including debuggers, profilers, and simulation.
• Experience mentoring and leading other engineers in technical growth.

Nice-to-have expertise:

• Experience in Rust 🦀, on bare-metal or embedded Linux.
• Experience in Python, including common scientific libraries and building developer tools.
• Expert-level understanding of control algorithms such as PID, state-space controllers, and adaptive control.
• Design training/expertise with fixed-point algorithms, DSP, and digital filters.
• Extensive experience interfacing with external devices through multiple protocols (TCP, UART, SPI, I2C, etc.).
• Experience in C/C++ and understanding of systems programming across multiple languages.
• Strong background working with SoC/FPGA devices and hardware-software co-design.
• Experience with Linux kernel development and device drivers.
• Comfortable using test and measurement equipment to confirm coding performance. This includes oscilloscopes, function generators and voltmeters.
• Experience with CI/CD pipelines, automated testing frameworks, and development infrastructure.

Benefits

Vector Atomic values teamwork, open and honest discourse, and work-life balance. We offer competitive compensation and benefits including:

Pay Range
The approximate base salary range for this position is $120,000 to $160,000 per year. The total compensation package includes base, bonus, equity and benefits. It's atypical to be hired at the top end of this range for the role, as actual pay is based on several factors, including job-related knowledge, skills, and experience level.