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Sr Technical Product Manager - QPU Platform

Boston, MA USA

About Us

We are building quantum computing systems that push the boundary of what is physically possible. Doing so requires a rare combination of scientific depth, engineering rigor, and operational maturity.

Our Quantum Control Platform sits at the heart of this effort, translating physics breakthroughs into executable engineering across hardware, software, optics, embedded systems, and automation. As we scale, we are looking for a Senior Technical Product Manager to serve as the operational backbone between our quantum physics research team and our multi-disciplinary engineering organization.

This is not a traditional software product role. You will operate at the intersection of complex hardware development and modern agile delivery, making them work together in a physics-constrained environment.

The Role

Requirements Translation & Traceability

You will work directly with quantum physicists to extract scientific intent — goals such as enabling a logical non-Clifford gate, achieving specific QPU-level performance milestones, or meeting target fidelity thresholds — and translate them into structured, executable engineering requirements.

You will:

  • Build full traceable requirement hierarchies from top-level physics goals down to subsystem specifications
  • Cover domains including control electronics, embedded systems, optics, calibration workflows, and automation
  • Define clear acceptance criteria and validation plans at every level
  • Ensure no critical requirement lives informally in someone’s head
  • Your work will create clarity where complexity currently dominates.

Documentation Discipline & Governance

You will own and elevate the requirements process, not just participate in it.

This includes:

  • Defining standardized requirement templates
  • Establishing definition-of-ready and definition-of-done criteria
  • Implementing milestone readiness frameworks
  • Institutionalizing documentation governance within Jira and Confluence
  • Ensuring proper decomposition, traceability, ownership, and auditability

You will introduce structure without bureaucracy — building systems that accelerate execution rather than slow it down.

Agile Delivery Partnership

Engineering owns delivery. You will be their strongest product partner.

You will:

  • Structure requirements so they are consumable by agile hardware and software teams
  • Decompose physics goals into Jira epics and stories while preserving validation rigor
  • Participate fluently in sprint planning, backlog grooming, and retrospectives
  • Operate effectively in hybrid delivery environments where hardware constraints meet agile cadence

You understand where agile breaks in hardware environments — and how to adapt it without becoming dogmatic or reverting to rigid sequential processes.

Stakeholder Alignment & Process Maturity

You will align scientists, hardware engineers, and software engineers around shared execution frameworks.

This role requires:

  • Translating between research language and engineering execution models in real time
  • Surfacing unstated assumptions in scientific requirements
  • Challenging habits constructively
  • Raising the overall maturity of technical product management across the organization

You lead through credibility and demonstrated value — not mandate.

What We’re Looking For

  • 8–15+ years of experience in technical product management within deep-tech, hardware-centric, multi-disciplinary environments
  • Background in industries where precision and traceability are non-negotiable, such as:
  • Photonics and optical systems (e.g., Coherent, Lumentum, II-VI)
  • Lidar and sensing (e.g., Luminar, Ouster)
  • Defense and aerospace with photonics or directed energy programs
  • Scientific instrumentation (e.g., Thorlabs, Newport)
  • Semiconductor capital equipment (e.g., ASML, Applied Materials)
  • Fusion energy, advanced aerospace, or modern defense companies (e.g., SpaceX, Anduril, Joby)

You have:

  • Personally built requirements governance frameworks, not just operated within them
  • Demonstrated end-to-end requirement traceability from high-level goals to subsystem specifications
  • Defined acceptance criteria and validation plans across complex systems
  • Deep fluency in Jira and Confluence
  • Experience with dedicated requirements management tools such as Jama or Aha
  • Strong technical grounding in physics, electrical engineering, optics, or related fields
  • The ability to engage meaningfully with PhD-level scientists and systems engineers

You are:

  • A mature, credible operator who earns trust quickly
  • Comfortable introducing process discipline in high-intellect environments
  • Comfortable working in ambiguity while building structure
  • On-site in Boston and thrive in fast, whiteboard-heavy collaboration

Nice to Have

  • Direct experience with quantum computing hardware or quantum software stacks
  • Familiarity with neutral atom systems
  • Experience with optical system integration, laser control, or free-space beam control
  • Familiarity with calibration workflows, qubit characterization, or QPU benchmarking
  • Experience building or scaling a technical product management function

What Success Looks Like in Year One

  • A fully traceable requirement hierarchy from physics goals to subsystem specifications
  • Engineering teams executing against documented requirements with clear acceptance criteria
  • Governance frameworks embedded in Jira and Confluence and operating sustainably
  • Measurable improvement in organizational requirements maturity
  • Scientists and engineers describing the requirements process as a source of clarity, not overhead

If you thrive at the intersection of frontier science and disciplined engineering execution — and want to help build quantum systems that redefine what computation can do — we would love to talk.

As QuEra scales from individual machine development to a cohesive platform, this role will ensure that requirements are clearly specified, validation protocols are established, and system builds proceed predictably. By bringing structure, visibility, and technical coherence to our process, this person will enable teams to deliver high-performance machines efficiently, collaboratively, and with minimal rework.

Salary: $170,000-250,000QuEra is committed to cultivating a diverse work environment and is proud to be an equal opportunity employer. We highly value diversity in our current and future employees and do not discriminate (including in our hiring and promotion practices) based on race, religion, color, national origin, gender, gender expression, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, disability status, or any other characteristic protected by law.

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