Staff Design Quality Engineer - NPI

Location: This role will work onsite at our office located in Bothell, WA.
Travel: Up to 10%, domestic. 
Job ID: 1730

The Role: 

We are looking for a Design Quality Engineer to join our Manufacturing & Operations team. As a Design Quality Engineer, 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 computers to solve the world’s most complex problems.

In this role, you will be responsible for introducing and maturing IonQ’s design quality discipline — building on an active NPI process already in motion and bringing structured quality methods, design standards, and cross-functional partnerships that make our hardware easier to build, validate, and scale. IonQ’s engineering and manufacturing teams work closely together through a concurrent engineering model; the ideal candidate thrives in that kind of collaborative environment, earns influence through technical credibility rather than gatekeeping, and is energized by getting upstream of problems rather than reacting to them.

Responsibilities:

• Own holistic Design for Manufacturability and Assembly (DFM/DFA) reviews across the full system, spanning all subsystems, to identify cross-cutting design quality risks, recurring failure patterns, and systemic issues before they propagate into build.
• Drive and ensure adoption and implementation of design standards within Engineering, including GD&T drawing conventions, fastener standards, component design libraries, and interface standards.
• Lead active standardization initiatives already underway, including collimator consolidation, fastener standards, and CAD configuration standards, in close partnership with the System CAD Configurator and Engineering Operations.
• Introduce structured quality planning into IonQ’s NPI programs — defining which design quality deliverables (DFMEA, DVP&R, key characteristics, measurement plans) belong at each E/V/P build stage, and working with NPI teams to weave them into the existing program rhythm without adding friction.
• Review Design Verification and Validation plans and reports (DVP&R) in step with IonQ’s iterative build cycles; work with engineering to ensure V&V plans are drafted ahead of E builds and matured through validation.
• Review engineering drawings and CAD models for correct, complete, and unambiguous GD&T per ASME Y14.5; perform and review tolerance stack-up analyses to confirm assemblies will fit and function across tolerance ranges.
• Participate in and help refine IonQ’s change control process as a quality reviewer — evaluating design changes for V&V impact and configuration consistency across E, V, and P system baselines, and flagging when a change warrants re-verification before the next build.
• Lead structured root-cause and corrective/preventive action for design-related failures from build, test, or the field; verify effectiveness before closure and feed lessons learned back into design rules, checklists, and documentation.
• Support PPAP and first-article inspection (AS9102) activities at the NPI-to-production transition; coordinate prototype and pilot build quality feedback back into the design to improve first-pass yield on future builds.
• Define, track, and report design quality metrics (DFMEA AP burn-down, V&V completion rate, design-review action closure, first-pass yield at prototype/pilot) and use data to drive continuous improvement of methods, templates, and standard work.
• Help establish IonQ’s design-control documentation practices in a way that reflects good engineering discipline and that positions the organization for future quality certifications.
• Mentor engineers in design quality methods and serve as the organization’s technical authority on design controls, risk methods, and GD&T standards; raise the design quality capability of the broader team over time.

Requirements:

• Bachelor’s degree in mechanical, systems, manufacturing, or a related engineering discipline, or equivalent practical experience.
• 5+ years of quality, design, or reliability engineering experience in a precision hardware environment, such as semiconductor, aerospace, defense, advanced instrumentation, or medical devices.
• Demonstrated experience facilitating Design FMEAs (AIAG-VDA or equivalent) and leading structured root-cause and corrective action investigations through to verified closure.
• Strong GD&T proficiency per ASME Y14.5 and hands-on experience with tolerance stack-up analysis; comfortable reviewing, interpreting, and redlining engineering drawings and CAD models.
• Experience developing and reviewing Design Verification and Validation plans (DVP&R).
• Working knowledge of a design controls QMS framework, such as ISO 9001 Clause 8.3, with the ability to apply its requirements to a fast-moving hardware development environment.
• Proven track record of driving cross-functional standards adoption, ensuring engineering teams understand, apply, and maintain them in practice.
• Excellent cross-functional communication skills with the judgment to translate quality risk into clear, actionable decisions for both engineering teams and senior leadership.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Experience with opto-mechanical, photonic, vacuum system, or cryogenic hardware — IonQ’s systems are precision opto-mechanical assemblies and this background meaningfully shortens ramp time.
• APQP/PPAP experience and familiarity with first-article inspection (AS9102) or equivalent production-readiness frameworks used at the NPI-to-production transition.
• Familiarity with AS9100 or equivalent aerospace/defense QMS frameworks, including configuration management, key characteristics, and first article requirements.
• Experience standing up or maturing a design quality function from an informal or nascent baseline.
• Comfort working within PLM and change management tooling (such as Windchill, Arena, or Teamcenter) and familiarity with formal ECO disposition workflows.
• ASQ Certified Quality Engineer (CQE) or Certified Reliability Engineer (CRE), or equivalent professional certification.
• Advanced degree (M.S. or Ph.D.) in mechanical engineering, systems engineering, or a related discipline.

The approximate base salary range for this position is $131,962 - $172,773. The total compensation package includes base, bonus, equity, and a range of benefit options found on our career site.