The wiring thing highlights the problem I think. He was the hardware manager but he didn't actually have control over the direction of the hardware team. That

The wiring thing highlights the problem I think. He was the hardware manager but he didn't actually have control over the direction of the hardware team. That's a terrible position to be in. Also, don't underestimate wiring in a quantum computer. I don't know the details of Google's system but Quantum computers uses analog RF pulses to interact with the Qubit system which are then later digitized. The design of a wiring system in a Quantum computer is similar to what you would see designing a high end phased array radar system with the need for everything to be phase matched, highly stable, and temperature controlled except that a quantum computer is also extremely susceptible to cross talk at the interfaces. Wiring a system of Google's scale can easily run into the $100k+ range in just material and manufacturing costs. If the other person didn't have any experimental experience like Martinis says, then he would almost certainly run into problems.