Preparation for the Certified Chief Quantum Officer Capstone
Organizations now budget for quantum technology in their operating plans. In most of them, the work is split across people who each own a piece of it. A CIO owns infrastructure, a CISO owns the migration away from RSA and elliptic curve cryptography, and a head of R&D owns whichever pilot is running. Nobody owns the portfolio. We built this program for the executive who takes that ownership, whether or not the title exists on the org chart yet.
The program covers quantum technology as a whole, with computing, networking, and sensing on the opportunity side and post-quantum cryptographic migration on the risk side. The focus is judgment across the portfolio. An executive has to decide what to fund, what to defend against, what to pilot, and what to leave alone for another three years.
This program is a level above the certification tracks. PQCM Training teaches a manager to run the cryptographic migration. CQTP Training teaches a professional to work with the technology. This program teaches the executive work above both: setting the portfolio, funding and governing it, and answering to a board for it. Assessment is an independently marked capstone project, not a written exam. You are assessed on a plan you build and defend under questioning.
Course Outline
Module 1. Reading the Field
What has been demonstrated, what has merely been announced, and how far apart those two things usually turn out to be. Physical versus logical qubits, error correction, and the difference between a roadmap and a result. Computing, networking, and sensing as three markets maturing at different rates. Building the habit of asking a vendor the question their press release was written to avoid.
Module 2. Where the Value Is, and Where It Isn’t
The problem classes quantum computing plausibly addresses and the current evidence for each. What has been shown so far on quantum advantage, compared with how it is marketed. Evaluating a vendor claim, a pilot proposal, and an internal business case without needing to check the mathematics yourself. Recognizing when a use case is real, when it’s premature, and when it is marketing presented as a business case.
Module 3. Quantum Readiness as an Operating Capability
Talent, partnerships, cloud access, and pilot design. Designing a pilot that ends in a decision. Build, buy, and wait as three defensible positions, and the conditions that make each one the right call. Building readiness so the organization can act when the technology matures, without spending ahead of it.
Module 4. The Risk Side: Post-Quantum Migration
Harvest now, decrypt later, and why data intercepted today is already at risk. The migration to ML-KEM and ML-DSA, and what the published deadlines require of your organization. What a CISO needs from an executive sponsor, and what a cryptographic inventory costs in time and money. Why the migration is a multi-year program. The sponsor’s side of the migration the Post-Quantum Certified track teaches practitioners to run.
Module 5. Governance, Funding, and the Board
Steering structures, and how to keep them funded through budget cycles. Procurement and supply chain exposure. How national strategies and export controls affect commercial planning. Presenting quantum to a board that has heard too much about it, or nothing at all. Setting a reporting cadence so the board keeps supporting the work after the first budget approval.
Module 6. Capstone Workshop
Participants present their capstone work to the cohort and the instructors and get live critique. They then refine it before submission. The final session is a working review of the capstones. You work on your capstone in the time between the fifth and sixth sessions.
Format and Delivery
This program runs as a live cohort. Current cohorts and prices are in the booking section below. Private cohorts for a single organization are available and quoted per engagement. The program is built around live critique and a cohort of peers, so there is no on-demand edition.
The program has six four-hour sessions on Saturdays, from 14:00 to 18:00 GMT, for 24 contact hours in total. GMT does not change for daylight saving time, so the start time is the same all year. We confirm each cohort’s dates and the local start times when you enroll. The session time suits participants in Europe and the eastern Americas. Participants further west should expect an early start. You can attend without taking a week away from work. We limit the number of places. In the final session, every participant presents their capstone work for live critique.
Prerequisites
- None
No prior certification is required. You need executive seniority. No technical background is required, and we do not teach the engineering. We point participants who want technical depth to the certification tracks, and you can take this program alongside one of them.
What Comes Next
Assessment is a capstone project and there’s no written exam.
You build a quantum strategy and three-year roadmap for a simulated multinational that we supply. It comes with a sector, a balance sheet, a regulatory position, an existing technology estate, and a set of internal politics that will feel familiar. You decide what it should adopt and what it should defend against. You also decide how the work is funded and governed, and how you would defend the plan to its board.
We never ask for anything confidential, including material about your own employer, and the capstone is designed to give such material no advantage.
We send the brief and the marking rubric when you enroll, so you know from the start how your work will be judged. Submissions are due two weeks after the final session.
Two assessors from our board of instructors mark each submission independently against the published rubric. Neither of them taught your cohort. Where they disagree, a third assessor settles it. We return results within ten business days of submission. An assessor can ask you to expand a point in a clarification round. The ten business days pause during that round. One resubmission is included if the work does not pass.
Passing awards the CCQO credential. It is valid for three years and is maintained under the standard Quantum Academy terms. A single fee of US$149 a year covers every credential you hold.
Pricing
| Option | Price |
|---|---|
| Live online cohort (all-inclusive) | US$8,499 |
| In-person cohort (all-inclusive) | US$9,499 |
| Private executive cohort | Custom quote |
All prices are in US dollars. The fee includes the six live sessions, the capstone assessment, and the CCQO credential. There is no separate examination or assessment fee.
Who this program is for
Executives and senior leaders who are accountable for quantum in some form. That includes CTOs and CIOs who have been handed quantum alongside everything else, and CISOs who own the migration and need to make the case to their leadership. It includes heads of strategy and innovation deciding where quantum belongs in a capital plan, and board members and general managers who must approve a budget and defend it. Senior advisors who guide boards and executive teams through those decisions are welcome too.
What you’ll be able to do afterward
- Separate demonstrated results from announced roadmaps and evaluate vendor claims without checking the mathematics yourself
- Set a quantum portfolio position across computing, networking, sensing, and security, with reasons you can defend under scrutiny
- Sponsor a post-quantum migration program, knowing what it needs from the executive layer, what it costs, and how to sequence it against the published deadlines
- Design governance and funding for quantum work that continues past the first budget cycle
- Assess organizational readiness across talent, partnerships, cloud access, and pilot design, and choose between build, buy, and wait deliberately
- Present a quantum strategy and three-year roadmap to a board and defend it under questioning
What you leave with
You receive the course handbook, with the full program and the instructor notes written out, so you can read it like a book. The program also includes copies of Quantum Ready, Quantum Systems Integration, and Quantum Sovereignty at no extra cost, and you receive the capstone brief and marking rubric at enrollment. The handbook is yours to keep.
If you pass, you hold the CCQO credential and a verifiable badge at ccqo.pro that an employer or a board can check.
Where this course fits
CCQO is the capstone of the Quantum Leadership Track and complements the certification tracks. You can enroll without a prerequisite. An executive can take this program while their team leads take PQCM or CQSI. The CISO who runs the migration day to day takes the Post-Quantum Certified track, and this program teaches the sponsor’s side of the same work. Executives who want a shorter first step can start with our executive briefings and come back when they are handed the portfolio.
Why we teach this
We built the program with practitioners who have held the roles it prepares you for. Our faculty has run security and technology practices inside the world’s largest enterprises, held CTO and CISO roles, and founded quantum technology companies. The program is vendor-independent, and much of it is about judging vendors.
Certificate of Completion
Upon completion, you receive a Quantum Academy certificate of completion. It confirms that you completed the course and is separate from Quantum Academy’s professional certifications.
About this program
Quantum Academy credentials are private professional credentials issued by Quantum Academy, a trade name of Post-Quantum Institute. They are not government-issued licenses, accredited degrees, or academic credit, and earning one 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.
