Quantum Is Being Built in Chicago — and You’re Invited – Elevate Experiences

Illinois Institute of Technology · Career Services

Through our partnership with the Chicago Quantum Exchange, Illinois Tech students now have a direct line to more than 800 open roles — and a free program built to get them hired.

The future Illinois Quantum and Microelectronics Park campus on Chicago's South Side, with the skyline in the background

The Opportunity

A New Job Board Built for an Emerging Industry

Quantum technology is moving out of the lab and into the economy, and the Midwest is at the center of it. The Chicago Quantum Exchange (CQE) — anchored by the University of Chicago with Argonne, Fermilab, the University of Illinois, and 60+ quantum employers — has launched the CQE Talent Portal, a free job board connecting students with open roles across the field. As Elevate deepens its partnership with regional quantum initiatives, it’s one of the most direct paths our students have into a fast-growing, high-paying industry.

800+

Open Roles Listed

60+

Quantum Employers

States Eligible for Q-Ready

Cost to Students

Source: Chicago Quantum Exchange Talent Portal, jobs.chicagoquantum.org. Made possible by a grant from The Brinson Foundation.

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Inside the Portal

What You’ll Find on the Job Board

The portal pulls live openings from across the CQE community — national labs, universities, and the companies building the industry. Filter by function, seniority, location, and salary, then join the talent network for alerts:

Internships. Paid roles from employers like Quantum Design and IonQ — software engineering, data automation, finance, and workforce research, some paying $32–$38 per hour.

Full-time roles. Engineering, software, and research positions at IonQ, Quantinuum, Infleqtion, QuEra, and SandboxAQ — many in the $130k–$280k range.

Beyond physics. The field is hiring engineers, technicians, developers, business strategists, and policy and legal professionals — not just quantum scientists.

Job alerts. Join the talent network once, tell it what you’re looking for, and let new matching roles come to you.

Search the Job Board →

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Get Q-Ready

Don’t Just Browse Jobs — Get Ready for Them

A job board opens the door; Q-Ready helps you walk through it. It’s CQE’s free professional development program for undergraduates, grad students, and postdocs in Illinois, Wisconsin, and Indiana — so Illinois Tech students are eligible. Sign up with your university email to unlock:

Students and researchers collaborating around a computer and lab equipment in a quantum laboratory

Employer spotlights — inside looks at companies and the roles they hire for.

Technical workshops — hands-on sessions in quantum tools, programming, and hardware.

Industry panels — career paths from startups, national labs, and government.

Professional development — networking and workplace skills for internships and full-time roles.

Programming is mostly virtual and optional — and you don’t need to be a physics major; STEM, business, policy, and communications students are all welcome. (Free to join; participation doesn’t guarantee employment.)

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The Bigger Picture

A Quantum Campus Rising on the South Side

These jobs aren’t abstract — they’re being built minutes from campus. The Illinois Quantum and Microelectronics Park (IQMP) is a first-of-its-kind, 128-acre campus for quantum and microelectronics innovation on a historic Lake Michigan site 12 miles from downtown Chicago. Home to the National Quantum Algorithm Center, it unites companies, national labs, universities, and government partners — from UChicago and Argonne to the City of Chicago and the CQE.

Map showing the IQMP's proximity to downtown Chicago, area airports, Argonne, and Fermilab

Illinois Tech is a proud partner of the IQMP. That means our students aren’t just watching this industry take shape — they have a seat at the table as it’s built in our own backyard.

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