Technical Product Owner (Intelligent Automation)

About The Role and Team

Quantum Motion is a fast-growing quantum computing scale-up based in London. We are developing quantum processors based on industrial-grade silicon chips, with the potential to radically transform computing power in areas such as materials modelling, medicine, artificial intelligence and more.

Our Company

Since 2021 our team has been listed every year in the “Top 100 Startups worth watching” in the EE Times, and our technology breakthroughs have been featured in The Telegraph, BBC and the New Statesman. Our founders are internationally renowned researchers from UCL and Oxford University who have pioneered the development of qubits and quantum computing architectures. Our chairman is the co-founder of Cadence and Synopsys, the two leading companies in the area of Electronic Design Automation. We’re backed by a team of top-tier investors including Bosch Ventures, Porsche SE, Sony Innovation Fund, Oxford Sciences Innovations, INKEF Capital and Octopus Ventures, and we have so far raised over £62 million in equity and grant funding.

We bring together the brightest quantum engineers, integrated circuit (IC) engineers, quantum computing theoreticians and software engineers to create a rare, deeply interdisciplinary environment where software directly accelerates breakthrough physics.

Our team of 60+ is based in Oxford and London, with a centre of mass in our Islington lab.

Our Team

We are looking for a pragmatic, organized Technical Product Owner to join the Intelligent Automation team. This team builds the mission critical software layer that allows our hardware experts and IC engineers to acquire data more efficiently, analyze experiments, and control quantum processors.

This role acts as the interface between the software engineering team and the internal end-users of the products they develop. You will identify needs, work with the various stakeholders to specify solutions and translate these into clearly defined tickets for engineers to work through. You will take ownership of priorities and impact how quickly and effectively our quantum hardware advances as well as providing a clear line of communication for the product team.

Please note that this is a hybrid role, typically requiring 60% on-site attendance at our Islington lab to collaborate directly with the hardware teams. This hands-on proximity to experimental work is key to the role.

Functions of the Role

• Backlog Curation: Own the team’s project board. You will ensure the backlog is balanced between short-term needs and long-term scalability, tickets are clearly defined, and the team always knows what to work on next.

• Requirements Gathering: Sit with internal end-users (researchers and hardware engineers) to understand their experimental needs and translate them into actionable technical user stories. You will develop deep domain context and become a trusted partner to world-class scientists.

• Triage & Protection: Act as the first line of defense for the software team. You will triage incoming bug reports and feature requests, protecting engineers’ focus while ensuring critical lab workflows are never blocked.

• Process Facilitation: Run light-touch Agile processes (planning, stand-ups, retrospectives) focused on efficiency and unblocking developers rather than rigid adherence to rules. You’ll help shape processes that actually work in a research-led environment.

• Release Management: Coordinate with the team to ensure software updates are deployed smoothly to the lab environments without disrupting critical experiments. Reliability here directly affects experimental velocity and research outcomes.

Experience - Essentials

• Top-tier education, minimum 2.1 in a STEM discipline or relevant experience.

• 2+ years of experience as a Product Owner, Technical Project Manager, or Business Analyst within a software team.

• Strong project management skills: You know how to configure workflows to suit a specific team's style.

• Technical Fluency: You do not need to be a developer, but you must be comfortable discussing software concepts (APIs, Python libraries, Git workflows) and understanding the software development lifecycle.

• Stakeholder Management: Experience working with technical end-users, including managing different priorities and styles. -Excellent written communication skills for creating clear ticket descriptions and documentation.
  
  

Experience - Desirable

• Experience working in a Hardware/Software environment (Robotics, IoT, Semiconductors, or Scientific Instrumentation).

• Ability to read/understand Python code and familiarity.

• Previous experience in a startup or scale-up environment where roles are fluid and autonomy is high. -Background in science or physics.

Benefits

• Be part of a creative, world-leading team

• Competitive salary and share options scheme

• Contributory pension scheme

• Choose your own laptop/kit