Senior Process Technician, Packaging

Our College Park packaging cleanroom builds the quantum processing units (QPUs) at the heart of our systems, plus a steady stream of quick-turn packaging hardware for teams across IonQ. We are looking for a hands-on technician to become one of the small group of people trusted to build this hardware end to end.

Over your first six months we will train and qualify you on our full packaging workflow — roughly 7–8 critical processes spanning precision cleaning, epoxy and assembly work, die bonding, wire bonding, reflow, plasma cleaning, inspection, and test. Once qualified, you will run these processes on real products: small, delicate, high-value components where a single dropped part can be the difference between delivering hardware and starting over.

What you will do

• Execute released procedures to clean, assemble, bond, inspect, and test packaged ion traps and related quick-turn hardware.
• Personally operate complex packaging equipment.
• Handle small, fragile, expensive components under a microscope with steady hands and deliberate care.
• Perform incoming inspection, record results, and complete travelers, work orders, and discrepancy reports accurately.
• Collect process and test data and provide first-pass interpretation, flagging trends and anomalies to the engineering team.
• Stop and escalate when reality deviates from the procedure.
• Draft recipe or program adjustments within engineer-defined limits.
• Support daily cleanroom operations: 5S, cleaning hardware and workspaces, restocking consumables, preparing parts for work orders.

You would be a good fit with

• Roughly 2+ years of hands-on experience in a high-tech manufacturing, lab, or precision-assembly environment — semiconductor, photonics, RF, medical device, aerospace, or adjacent fields.
• Demonstrated fine motor skill with small components. Professional microscope work, microelectronics rework, or comparable precision handcraft (we mean it — skilled miniature assembly counts) is what matters.
• The ability to read and precisely follow blueprints, specifications, and operating procedures — and the judgment to stop when the procedure and reality disagree.
• Comfort spending roughly 80% of your day in the cleanroom, fully gowned, doing physical and sometimes repetitious work.
• Reliability: your teammates and hardware schedules depend on you being present and focused.
• Clear written and verbal communication, and basic proficiency with Google Workspace or MS Office.

You would be a great fit with

• Experience personally operating and troubleshooting automated equipment such as wire bonders, die-attach/pick-and-place machines, reflow ovens, epoxy dispense systems, or metrology tools.
• Experience in an ISO Class 6 (or cleaner) gowned cleanroom.
• A 2-year technical degree or higher.
• Experience with ERP, PLM, or MES systems (we use NetSuite, Duro, and Jira).
• Experience with cryogenic or ultra-high-vacuum hardware.

Our hiring process includes an in-person, hands-on bench evaluation at our College Park facility.

Schedule: standard weekday schedule, five days per week onsite. Overtime as needed but minimal. Physical requirements: extended cleanroom owning; standing and microscope work for long periods; lifting up to 50 lbs; regular handling of solvents and epoxies with appropriate PPE. Travel: less than 5%. Location: College Park, MD — a five-minute walk from the Metro.

The total compensation package includes base, bonus, equity, and a range of benefit options found on our career site.