Quantum Datacenter Engineer

Introduction

IBM is building what comes next in computing. As we scale our quantum computers, we are bringing them to customers and partners who want to host these systems in their own datacenters. As a Quantum Datacenter Engineer, you will be the bridge between IBM's quantum systems and the facilities that house them — working hands-on with customers and partners to assess their sites, adapt our reference architectures to their constraints, and guide the installation, commissioning, and operation of quantum systems in environments we don't control. You will work across architectural, infrastructural, and manufacturing processes, embedded with external partners, to make hosting a quantum computer practical, safe, and repeatable.

Your Role And Responsibilities

We seek a senior infrastructure engineer to serve as the forward-deployed technical lead for installing complex quantum systems — high-density water-cooled electronics, cryogenic quantum hardware, and the unique mechanical, electrical, and environmental constraints they carry — into customer and partner datacenters. You will translate IBM's reference architecture into a buildable plan for each site, navigating the trade spaces created by existing power, cooling, floor space, structural, and site constraints that vary from one datacenter to the next. You will assess site readiness, define the facility requirements a customer must meet, review and guide their build, and oversee bring-up and commissioning so that some of the most sensitive computational equipment in the world can run reliably outside our own walls. You will be a trusted advisor embedded with customer and partner teams throughout planning, design, build, and operations — and the voice that carries field insight back to IBM's internal hardware, facility, and product teams.

Hands-on experience with high-reliability critical infrastructure — including chilled water plants and distribution, redundant power systems, and specialized environmental controls in datacenter, manufacturing, or research environments — is a must, as is the ability to work credibly with external technical and executive stakeholders.

What you'll do

• Assess customer and partner datacenters for their ability to host quantum systems — power, cooling, water, floor space, structural and mass-loading capacity, and site constraints — and produce clear site-readiness findings and gap analyses.
• Translate IBM's quantum datacenter reference architecture into a site-specific installation plan, adapting it to each customer's existing infrastructure rather than a greenfield ideal.
• Define the facility requirements customers must meet, and advise their engineering and construction teams on how to meet them cost-effectively and on schedule.
• Review and appraise customer and partner build plans for compliance with IBM reference architecture, applicable codes, and reliability targets.
• Oversee installation, bring-up, commissioning, and acceptance testing of mechanical, electrical, and cooling systems at customer sites, and validate readiness before quantum hardware comes online.
• Develop partner-facing playbooks, deployment guides, and runbooks so that hosting an IBM quantum system becomes repeatable across many sites.
• Serve as the customer's representative within IBM — conveying field constraints, deployment challenges, and optimization opportunities back to internal hardware, facility, and product teams.
  
  

Preferred Education

Master's Degree

Required Technical And Professional Expertise

• Bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Systems Engineering, or a related technical field, or equivalent practical experience.
• Hands-on experience with high-reliability critical infrastructure including chilled water plants and distribution, redundant power systems, and specialized environmental controls in datacenter, manufacturing, or research environments.
• Demonstrated experience working directly with engineering, vendor, and construction teams to build and commission complex systems.
• Strong communication skills across both on-the-ground implementation and executive levels, internally and with customers and partners.
• Willingness to travel to customer and partner sites [~20%].
  
  

Preferred Technical And Professional Experience

• Advanced degree in mechanical engineering, thermal sciences, fluid mechanics, systems engineering, or a related discipline.
• Professional Engineer license, Chartered Engineer status, or comparable professional certification.
• Experience deploying complex systems or unusual facility types into existing, third-party datacenters — adapting a reference design to constraints you don't control.
• Experience standing up a new or unusual facility type, or standardizing a one-off build into a repeatable, scalable deployment.
• Background in high-density or high-power-density data centers, or facilities with demanding/unusual cooling or power requirements.
• Experience in a customer-facing or partner-facing technical role (solutions architecture, field/deployment engineering, owner's representative).
• Experience in cryogenic or quantum systems is beneficial but not required.