Full Job Description
Senior Technical Product Manager - Quantum Control Platform
Location: Boston, MA (On-site)
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:
o Photonics and optical systems (e.g., Coherent, Lumentum, II-VI)
o Lidar and sensing (e.g., Luminar, Ouster)
o Defense and aerospace with photonics or directed energy programs
o Scientific instrumentation (e.g., Thorlabs, Newport)
o Semiconductor capital equipment (e.g., ASML, Applied Materials)
o 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.
We consistently monitor external market data and update base salary ranges accordingly. We determine base compensation decisions on several factors, including as geographic placement, role-specific knowledge, skills, and/or experience. In addition to our base salary offerings, we also provide equity grants for all new hires. $150,000 to $190,000