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Agent guide: [/agents.md](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/agents.md). --- # Staff Software Engineer (SDK) - **Company:** SDK'S LLP - **Location:** Bothell, WA, United States - **Experience:** Expert - **Salary:** $174,520.0 - $228,492.0 - **Contract:** Permanent contract - **Skills:** Automation of Tests, C++ (Programming Language), Computer Programming, Continuous Integration, Corona (Software Development Kit), Programming Tools, Python (Programming Language), Open Source Technology, Software Architecture, Quantum Computing, Release Management, Software Engineering, Software Systems, Systems Integration, Strategies of Testing, High Performance Computing, Information Technology, Optimization Algorithms, Free and Open-Source Software, Virtual Agents, Api Design, Programming Languages - **Published:** July 28, 2026 - **Apply:** https://www.dice.com/job-detail/3b0ad94a-313c-4468-801a-08be6944edb6 ## About the Role * Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Physics, or a related field, or equivalent training, fellowship, or work experience. * 10+ years of professional software engineering experience, with a significant portion spent in a technical leadership or architectural role. * 7+ years of experience designing, developing, and maintaining public-facing SDKs or developer libraries with a strong emphasis on API design and developer experience. * Deep expertise in Python and experience designing large-scale, developer-facing software systems. * Demonstrated experience managing or contributing to open-source projects with external contributors, including release management, community engagement, and contribution governance. * Proven track record of driving complex, cross-functional engineering projects from concept to production delivery. * A history of mentorship and elevating the technical capabilities of a multi-level engineering team. * Familiarity with Agentic AI coding tools and techniques, and experience integrating them into modern software development workflows. * Exceptional written and verbal communication skills, with a track record of authoring impactful technical documentation, specifications, and developer guides. You'd be a great fit with: * An advanced degree (PhD or Master's) in Physics, Computer Science, or a related field with a focus on quantum computing or programming language design. * Expert-level understanding of quantum computing principles, quantum circuits, optimization techniques, and compiler fundamentals. * Deep expertise in system-level programming (C++, Rust) for high-performance computing or hardware interaction. * Significant contributions to open-source software in the quantum computing ecosystem (e.g., Qiskit, Pennylane, Cirq). * Experience with quantum computing technologies such as error mitigation, quantum error correction, quantum compilers, and circuit optimization. * Direct experience in programming language or API design, particularly around domain-specific abstractions for scientific or technical audiences. * A demonstrated ability to influence technical direction across organizational boundaries and secure buy-in for strategic initiatives ## Description As a Staff Software Engineer (SDK) on the Developer Tools team, you will own the programming paradigms, interfaces, and developer experience that IonQ exposes to the world through its quantum SDKs. Your work will define how researchers, enterprises, and the broader open-source community write, optimize, and run quantum programs on IonQ hardware. You will lead the productization and open-sourcing of IonQ's quantum developer tools, setting the standard for usability, documentation, and community engagement across our public-facing SDK ecosystem. This is a highly visible role at the boundary between IonQ's internal platform and the external developer community. You will set high-level technical standards for SDK architecture, mentor senior engineers and scientists, and provide deep expertise to solve the most challenging problems in quantum programming models, API design, and cross-platform integration. You will work across organizational boundaries, Applications, Compiler, and Engineering, to ensure that IonQ's SDKs are powerful, intuitive, and aligned with cutting-edge quantum research. Your impact will be measured by the quality and adoption of IonQ's public SDK offerings, the health of our open-source communities, and the successful delivery of cross-functional projects that make quantum computing more accessible to every developer., * Define the technical strategy and roadmap for IonQ's public-facing SDKs, including native SDKs and integrations with ecosystem frameworks (Qiskit, Cirq, Pennylane), ensuring long-term maintainability, performance, and developer adoption. * Lead the productization and open-sourcing of internal quantum developer tools, establishing release processes, licensing, packaging, and community contribution workflows. * Serve as the primary architect for the programming paradigms and abstractions IonQ exposes through its SDKs, ensuring they are expressive, ergonomic, and aligned with both current hardware capabilities and the broader quantum software ecosystem. * Drive the design and implementation of robust, well-documented SDK interfaces for quantum circuit construction, compilation, simulation, and hardware execution. * Steward IonQ's open-source presence, manage public repositories, triage community contributions, define contribution guidelines, and cultivate a healthy contributor ecosystem. * Collaborate closely with applications research and compiler teams to evaluate, prototype, and surface novel quantum capabilities (e.g., error mitigation, advanced optimization techniques) as first-class SDK features. * Oversee comprehensive documentation, examples, tutorials, and quickstart guides to ensure a world-class onboarding and developer experience. * Establish best practices and mentor engineers on API design, software architecture, testing methodologies, and open-source maintainership. * Act as a key technical resource for the Applications Engineering team, translating customer needs and partner requirements into SDK features and improvements. * Champion continuous improvement in software engineering processes, automated testing, CI/CD, and validation standards across the SDK surface area. ## Related Videos - [API Design - Getting Started](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/videos/33-api-design-getting-started) - [Guiding Agentic AI with Vue](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/videos/2033-guiding-agentic-ai-with-vue) - [Rethinking Intelligence: AI, Accessibility, and the Future of Inclusive Work - Artur Ortega](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/videos/1377-rethinking-intelligence-ai-accessibility-and-the-future-of-inclusive-work-artur-ortega) - [Quantum DevOps - Quantum Application Development](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/videos/1441-quantum-devops-quantum-application-development) - [Rest API Antipatterns](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/videos/100208-rest-api-antipatterns) - [Quantum Computing - The tiny and the big challenges](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/videos/934-quantum-computing-the-tiny-and-the-big-challenges) ## Related Articles - [Highest Paying Tech Companies for Developers](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/magazine/220-highest-paying-tech-companies-for-developers) - [How to Answer the Interview Question: “Why Do You Want to Be a Software Engineer?”](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/magazine/392-how-to-answer-the-interview-question-why-do-you-want-to-be-a-software-engineer) - [Is Software Engineering Hard?](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/magazine/448-is-software-engineering-hard) - [What is Software Engineering?](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/magazine/289-what-is-software-engineering) - [Dev Digest 121 - AI goes offline](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/magazine/456-dev-digest-121-ai-goes-offline) - [What is Agentic Programming and Why Should Developers Care?](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/magazine/625-what-is-agentic-programming-and-why-should-developers-care)