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CCQO — Certified Chief Quantum Officer

The leadership credential. Certifies that its holder can manage quantum as a portfolio. That means deciding what an organization adopts, defends against, and funds, and justifying that plan to a board. Earned by capstone assessment, with no written exam.

Executive Quantum Leadership Track Capstone assessment Assessment included
CCQO — Certified Chief Quantum Officer badge

The CCQO certifies that its holder can run quantum technology as a portfolio inside an organization. That means deciding what to adopt, what to defend against, what to pilot, and what to leave alone. It also means funding and governing those decisions, and defending them to a board.

It’s the leadership credential in our catalog. Every other credential we issue certifies the ability to do a body of technical work. This one certifies the judgment needed to direct and fund that work.

What a CCQO holder can do

Assess the state of quantum computing, networking, and sensing, and tell a demonstration from an announcement. Judge which of the three matters to their organization, and on what timescale.

Evaluate a vendor claim, a pilot proposal, or an internal business case on its merits, without needing to verify the underlying physics.

Sponsor and govern a post-quantum cryptographic migration. The CISO and the security engineering team run the migration, and our PQCM, PQCA, and PQCV credentials certify the people who do that work. The CCQO holder makes sure the migration is funded and resourced, and that the funding continues across budget cycles.

Build a quantum position a board will approve, and revise it as the field changes.

How the CCQO is earned

You earn the credential by capstone assessment, with no written exam. We use a capstone because the CCQO certifies judgment exercised across a whole organization.

Candidates complete the Chief Quantum Officer Program, live online or in person. They then submit a quantum strategy and three-year roadmap for a simulated multinational that we supply. We send the brief and the marking rubric at enrollment. Nothing confidential is requested at any point, and candidates are never asked to submit material about their own employer.

Impartiality

Two assessors from the Quantum Academy board of instructors mark each submission independently against the published rubric. Neither of them taught the candidate’s cohort. If they disagree, a third assessor from outside the cohort decides the result.

We publish this arrangement because a capstone credential depends on it. An instructor who marks their own candidates is also marking their own teaching.

Results are returned within ten business days of submission. An assessor may open a clarification round to ask the candidate to expand a point in the submission. The ten days pause during that round. Candidates whose work does not pass may resubmit once.

Validity and maintenance

Valid for three years. Maintained through the standard annual fee of US$149. That one fee covers every active Quantum Academy credential you hold. You renew with 60 continuing professional education credits across the three-year cycle, with a minimum of 15 in any year. You can also renew by submitting a fresh capstone, assessed at US$599.

Verification

Every CCQO holder receives a digital badge and a verification record at ccqo.pro. Employers can also verify a credential directly by sending the holder’s full name to validation@quantumacademy.com.

The CCQO is a private professional credential issued by Quantum Academy, a trade name of Post-Quantum Institute. It is not a government-issued license, an accredited degree, or academic credit, and holding it does not guarantee employment, promotion, regulatory approval, or any other specific outcome.

Quantum Academy programs are educational and informational only, and are not legal, compliance, or engineering advice.

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