We are looking for a highly capable and independent Product Manager to help define the future of applications in life sciences in this new quantum era. As a member of the product organization, you’ll be part of a cross-functional team whose mission is to lead IonQ on its journey to build the world’s best quantum computing solutions to solve the world’s most complex problems. Specifically in the product team for quantum applications, you will be identifying and assessing different use cases where quantum computers fit into computational workflows in the life sciences and other industries.

Product Management in quantum computing is no different from any other field, with the exciting difference that you get to be among the first people in history ever to build it. Quantum computers and quantum applications rely on cutting-edge technologies across diverse engineering disciplines, including Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence, data analysis, and a hybrid execution model that relies on both quantum computers and classical computing resources such as High-Performance Computing. Having interest and experience in these fields will serve you well at IonQ, but we don’t expect you to be an expert in any of them.

You mostly need to demonstrate intellectual curiosity, work well with highly specialized experts, bring in your expertise in computational workflows across life sciences, and manage a coherent point of view of what’s important to our end-users and how we might build a thriving applications business. This also includes conducting market analysis, revenue opportunity estimations, channel analysis, working with customers on consulting projects and overall business planning. This is a unique opportunity to significantly impact IonQ’s market success and drive the broader quantum computing industry as it transitions from a vision into reality.

Responsibilities:

• Quantum application strategy development for life sciences and other industries that require continuous knowledge building, market intelligence, and strategic business analysis, including:
• Technology mastery: Develop and maintain a thorough understanding of IonQ’s quantum computing offering (hardware, software, and unique advantages) and its technical considerations, as well as the quantum ecosystem players
• Targeted life sciences strategy: Identify, prioritize, and articulate the short-term and long-term potential of quantum applications specifically within the life sciences (including pharma, biotech, chemicals, healthcare, etc.), factoring in your knowledge and expertise about industry-specific computational workflows.
• Objective business case development: Evaluate the attractiveness of identified quantum applications by conducting a rigorous business analysis for each opportunity including TAM/SAM, estimated bottom-up P&L analysis, key customer segments and their computational pain points, scaling channels, and alignment with IonQ’s hardware roadmap based on resource estimates in life sciences and in other industries.
• Customer engagement and consulting delivery includes direct customer interaction, technical and business validation, and translating opportunities into executable plans:
• Strategic customer consulting: Lead customer discovery workshops and deliver custom consulting projects to uncover and advance new quantum application opportunities, with a mandate to explore and pursue applications both in life sciences and across diverse sectors.
• Feasibility due diligence: Ensure the strategic and technical viability of proposed applications by collaborating with quantum applications engineering experts to synthesize and document the near-term and long-term technical feasibility levels.
• Customer quantum roadmap development: Partner with lead customers and internal engineering teams to build customer-specific application roadmaps by validating key business assumptions through primary research, including expert interviews across industry and academia. Map the problem to quantum algorithms and resource estimates, based on IonQ’s technology roadmap, and integrate resulting insights with the customer’s long-term business strategy and plans.
• Cross-functional collaboration and product advocacy to drive internal and external alignment and drive commercial success:
• Implementation leadership: Serve as a key liaison between customers/ partners and internal engineering teams to navigate implementation, technical hurdles, and advocate internally for solutions that optimize customer success and delight. This includes translating quantum application requirements to hardware and Product Requirements Documents (PRDs)
• Go-to-market input: Collaborate closely with the sales, marketing, and other business teams to inform proposals in the sales funnel (e.g., translating customer needs to quantum applications and algorithms), provide input on pricing strategy, business models, product positioning, and competitive analysis

You’d be a good fit:

• 8+ years of professional experience or an equivalent combination of education and experience
• Have experience in computing workflows across life sciences (computational chemistry, logistics optimization, imaging analysis, etc.)
• Capable of establishing fruitful relationships with existing and future customers, leading to the type of insights required for developing solutions for their current and future needs.
• Have significant experience managing complex market analysis projects (including industry landscaping) with significant ambiguity and partial information.
• Comfortable dealing with advanced technologies, even if you have clear knowledge gaps, while collaborating with a broad range of engineering experts and scientists to achieve product goals.
• Capable of organizing requirements and priorities despite ambiguity - drive results, and form plans for validating product ideas that offer clarity.
• Enjoy and have practice collaborating with multiple business, research, and engineering teams to drive concrete results.

You’d be a great fit:

• Technical degree in life sciences (e.g., chemistry, pharmaceuticals) with a focus on computational methods
• Worked in or closely with computational scientists in the pharmaceutical, chemical or biotech industries and have a very deep technical understanding of the computational tools and workflows as well as AI/ML models used in these industries.
• MBA degree with real-world experience putting your business education into practice, especially in coming up with business analysis for the purpose of investment (estimating ROI with partial information).
• Basic experience and/or understanding of quantum computing hardware and/or software (again, not a must).
• Practical experience with diverse computer science techniques and technologies such as Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence, Machine Vision, High Performance Computing, optimization algorithms, etc.
• Experience being part of an entrepreneurial team, building a new category and businesses from scratch, and making products/services successful in their marketplace.
• Experience running market sizing exercises, for example, in a platform-focused product management role, management consulting, or a venture capital role.
• Contributed to the identification and segmentation of markets for novel advanced technology where the market is nascent, and data is limited.
• Strong foundational knowledge about science in general, enough to converse and engage with scientists on a broad range of topics.

Location: This position is remote, with a preference for candidates based on the US East Coast or within Europe—specifically Sweden, the UK, or Switzerland.
Travel: Up to 25% travel between Canada, US, Sweden, UK (and other European destinations)
Job ID: 1268

The total compensation package includes base, bonus, and equity.