The recently proposed q-rung orthopair fuzzy set, which is characterized by a membership degree and a non-membership degree, is effective for handling uncertainty and vagueness. This paper proposes the concept of complex q-rung orthopair fuzzy sets (Cq-ROFS) and their operational laws. A multi-attribute decision making (MADM) method with complex q-rung orthopair fuzzy information is investigated. To aggregate complex q-rung orthopair fuzzy numbers, we extend the Einstein operations to Cq-ROFSs and propose a family of complex q-rung orthopair fuzzy Einstein averaging operators, such as the complex q-rung orthopair fuzzy Einstein weighted averaging operator, the complex q-rung orthopair fuzzy Einstein ordered weighted averaging operator, the generalized complex q-rung orthopair fuzzy Einstein weighted averaging operator, and the generalized complex q-rung orthopair fuzzy Einstein ordered weighted averaging operator. Desirable properties and special cases of the introduced operators are discussed. Further, we develop a novel MADM approach based on the proposed operators in a complex q-rung orthopair fuzzy context. Numerical examples are provided to demonstrate the effectiveness and superiority of the proposed method through a detailed comparison with existing methods.