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Salary: USD 182,400 - 262,200 / annual
IonQ is seeking a Partner Lead for the Americas to develop and manage a carefully selected portfolio of lighthouse channel and reseller partners. This role is responsible for building deep relationships with local resellers, distributors, systems integrators, and telecommunications partners positioned to pursue priority customers and support early adoption of IonQ's frontier-technology portfolio across compute, networking, security, sensing, space, and merchant services.
The Partner Lead will drive quantum opportunities with global partners within the region—such as remote access to IonQ quantum computing capacity through hyperscalers or quantum computing and quantum-safe cybersecurity pursuits with global consulting firms' local practices—in alignment with respective global alliance leads. The role operates in a matrixed structure, reporting directly to the SVP of Global Partner Ecosystem with close alignment to regional sales leads on priorities, account plans, opportunity execution, and commercial outcomes.
Key responsibilities include: prioritizing markets and lighthouse partners based on customer access, executive commitment, technical capacity, and willingness to invest in joint pursuits; building deep partner-level plans with named customers, committed resources, and first-win milestones; proactively originating and progressing quantum opportunities with local hyperscaler teams and advisory practices; personally working alongside partners through discovery, qualification, use-case selection, proposals, negotiation, and close; engaging Field Engineering, Partner Engineering, and Platform Sales Specialists to define feasible customer outcomes; supporting local procurement and complex sovereign or regulated-market pursuits; owning a disciplined regional partner forecast; building customer-approved quantum success stories and capturing practical sales, delivery, and commercial lessons; and replicating successful approaches with additional customers and selectively adding partners when evidence justifies expansion.
Success is measured by qualified partner-sourced and partner-influenced pipeline, closed revenue, conversion and forecast accuracy; lighthouse quantum engagement progress against agreed customer outcomes; depth and productivity of selected partnerships; and evidence of replication through customer-approved success stories, reusable playbooks, and repeat wins.
Within the first year, the Partner Lead should secure referenceable wins from carefully selected local and global lighthouse partners, jointly progress qualified customer engagements toward successful technical and commercial outcomes, establish an effective global–regional pursuit cadence, and document evidence, partner capability, and playbooks needed to replicate success.
Requirements:
- 8+ years in regional channel sales or strategic partner management with a record of productive reseller, SI, distributor, or telco relationships
- Strong regional market knowledge and ability to activate local teams of global partners; experience jointly managing opportunities with global alliance owners and direct Sales
- Relevant regional languages and relationships in priority markets: US and Latin America; Europe and MENA; or APJ, including Korea, Japan, and Singapore
- Proven track record of developing focused, early-stage partnerships into scalable channels that deliver sustained revenue growth
- Demonstrated commercial expertise in frontier technologies or emerging technology categories: translating uncertain capabilities, evolving roadmaps, and customer needs into credible, staged adoption plans
- Record of building a small number of deep partnerships and personally co-selling early customer engagements from discovery through close
- Experience converting early customer engagements into approved references, reusable solution patterns, and repeatable partner sales motions
- Cross-cultural communication skills, strong executive communication, commercial negotiation, and cross-functional leadership; discipline in pipeline qualification, forecasting, and investment prioritization
- Ability to travel regionally and internationally; master's degree or equivalent professional experience
Preferred Qualifications:
- Quantum experience, including quantum computing, networking, security, space, or sensing
- Relevant experience in commercialization, partnerships, customer adoption, or technical solution development
- Experience with sovereign or regulated markets, public-sector procurement, or international trade compliance relevant to advanced technology
- Ability to work closely with technical specialists, distinguish validated capabilities from future potential, and establish customer success criteria without overstating readiness
