Senior People Operations Specialist
Q-CTRL
Operations, People & HR
Los Angeles, CA, USA
USD 110k-180k / year + Equity
Posted on Sep 8, 2025
About us
Founded in 2017, Q-CTRL has grown to become the global leader in quantum. We’re using control to solve the hardest problems facing quantum technology, improving hardware performance and accelerating pathways to useful quantum computers and other technologies. As a product-led company, we bring together diverse teams such as product, design, engineering and research to help achieve our mission of making quantum technology useful. Join us to help shape the quantum future.
As one of the fastest growing companies in the quantum sector, we’ve had a number of key milestones:
- In November 2023, we announced an industry-first partnership with IBM Quantum Services, natively integrating our performance management software with all IBM quantum computers. Building off of this relationship, in September 2024 we started offering two services via IBM’s new Qiskit Functions Catalog as an inaugural partner.
- Designed and moved our Global HQ offices and lab space into the first purpose-built (and award winning) commercial and research facility for a quantum technology company in Australia.
- Continued to deliver real world outcomes across the quantum sectors, with our work with Australian Defence on software-ruggedized quantum sensing for navigation without GPS, as featured in the New York Times.
- In October 2024, we announced our record breaking expansion of our Series B funding round to USD $113M, with $59M USD of new capital.
- Grew our global presence to include Los Angeles, Berlin, and Oxford - as well as the recently announced office in San Francisco.
From educating the workforce on how quantum computing works, to building the next generation of quantum sensors, to delivering massive performance gains for end-users, it all starts with hiring the right talent. If you want to help us build the Quantum future, read on.
About the role
At Q-CTRL, our world-class workforce is the key to our success, and the People team is a global enabler focused on unblocking and unleashing growth. We approach the People function differently—we’re an operationally focused, commercially minded team that turns people strategy into operational firepower, helping the business move faster and smarter. Partnering across all teams and levels, we make work simpler and scale the company just ahead of our rapid growth.
While globally focused, this is a new position created to help support our growing team in the US. You’ll report to the People Operations Manager, and work alongside an additional People Specialist, both based in Sydney. You’ll be the sole US People Operations member and a key point of contact for our US and European based employees.
In addition to providing local support, your main responsibility is owning the employee lifecycle within your functional group, from onboarding all the way to separation, as well as driving continual improvement and streamlining of People related processes.
This role would be the perfect opportunity for an experienced business partner to continue to hone your generalist skills in a highly dynamic environment, and harness your understanding of technology, data and automation to further facilitate the growth of the business.
What you'll be doing:
- Own and improve the day to day processes and cadence of the overall People Operations team.
- Generate people metrics reporting, assisting to share actionable insights with managers and broader People Ops team.
- Improve overall people experience and staff retention in your functional group, working closely with managers and employees to drive a culture of continuous feedback and improvement, focusing on the areas of highest impact.
- Provide support and guidance across the full employee lifecycle for your client group.
- Continue to build out engaging tools to allow our staff to self-help and scale appropriately.
- Play an active role in managing staff performance for your functional group. Own our Human Resources Information System (HRIS) and employee records - leveraging it as a key tool to streamline and automate people processes.
- Act as the ‘on the ground’ People team liaison for our USA-based team, including benefits administration.
- Stay across employment legislation for your assigned jurisdiction, and assist to ensure people related processes are refined in line with changing laws.
- Assist People Operations Manager with cyclical activities such as annual and mid year performance review, compensation review, compensation benchmarking, eNPS (annual employee engagement survey), etc.
- Other duties within the Employee's skills and experience, or with reasonable training.
Ideally you'll have:
- 8+ years of progressive People experience (this is purely a rough guide to give you an understanding of the seniority we are aiming for).
- Solid track record with complex performance management and employee relations, and a deep understanding of both USA in general and California specific labor laws.
- Heavy commercial focus and a proven track record of developing and implementing People programs that support business objectives.
- Strong stakeholder management and communication skills, and the ability to influence across all levels.
- The ability to decipher between what staff want and need, and shape solutions and an approach that strikes the best balance.
- Strong knowledge of HR systems and a passion for leveraging technology to improve the efficiency of people operations.
It would be fantastic if you have these skills/experience but not essential:
- Worked within a startup and/or scaleup business environment within the technology sector. Industry experience is not essential, however a deep understanding of the opportunities and challenges that come with startup or scaleup environments will ensure you are well placed to succeed.
- Prior experience working with staff in multiple countries outside the US.
- Experience with UK and/or German labor laws would be an advantage.
We take a multidisciplinary approach to quantum computing research, bringing together experts from diverse fields. We particularly value versatile and self-motivated problem solvers. If you are passionate about making quantum computers useful, we strongly encourage you to apply, even if you do not meet all of the requirements listed above.
Salary
The base salary for this position is targeted between $110,000 - $180,000 and will ultimately be determined by specific job-related skills, experience, level, location and other contributing factors. Depending on the position offered, this role may be eligible for annual discretionary bonuses, equity and other forms of compensation outside of the targeted range. For more information on benefits at Q-CTRL, please visit our careers page at https://q-ctrl.com/careers.
Should you have any questions related to the compensation package, please speak directly with the Talent Acquisition representative.
Why Q-CTRL?
Flexibility: We embrace workplace flexibility so you worry more about your impact vs a rigid work schedule.
Attractive salary: You’ll get to have the start-up impact without the start-up wages.
Equity: We want people to have a sense of ownership in what they do and offer the potential for equity share and annual bonuses.
Cash bonus: We recognize exceptional performance and impact by offering annual discretionary cash bonuses.
Resources: We are well funded by the world’s best technology investors, letting us chase our ambitions with minimal constraints.
Parental support: We offer paid parental leave to support you and your loved ones.
Diversity: We’re an equal opportunity employer and actively support initiatives like the ‘Global Women in Quantum’ program to help expand the quantum workforce.
Unique culture: You’ll be surrounded by some of the world’s leading physicists, engineers, product, marketing and design people (to name a few!) with a strong desire to learn and transfer knowledge.
Meaningful values: You’ll work with an incredibly supportive team who work consistently to deliver our core values to be real, be trusted, be just and to be revered.
Personal development: We provide you with a personal development and wellness budget.
Make a dent: Last but not least you’ll have the unique opportunity to help set the direction for this revolutionary technology and truly make an impact that matters!
Q-CTRL aims to bring together cross-functional teams from many different backgrounds to help achieve our goals - we strongly encourage you to apply even if you do not meet all of the requirements mentioned in the job posting.
Qualified applications with arrest or conviction records will be considered for employment in accordance with the Los Angeles County Fair Chance Ordinance for Employers and the California Fair Chance Act.
Please be advised that our communications will only come from the @q-ctrl.com domain. All our active job postings are available on our company website.
To recruitment agencies, we do not accept unsolicited branded profiles and are not responsible for any fees related to unsolicited resumes.