Principal Debug Validation Engineer

Principal Post Silicon Validation Engineer (Bringup) Salary $241,100 - $326,100 + Phantom Equity + Benefits  Graphcore is a globally recognised leader in Artificial Intelligence computing systems. The company designs advanced semiconductors and data centre hardware that provide the specialised processing power needed to drive AI innovation, while delivering the efficiency required to support its broader adoption.   As part of the SoftBank Group, Graphcore is a member of an elite family of companies responsible for some of the world’s most transformative technologies. We are opening a new AI Engineering Campus in Austin which will play a central role in Graphcore's work building the future of AI computing.   We are looking to hire Post-Silicon Validation Engineers to join our collaborative, cross-functional development team validating cutting edge, high performance AI chips and platforms. You will play a critical role in supporting new product introductions and post-silicon validation. Working within the Post-Silicon Validation team, you will be involved with bringing first silicon to life, functionally validating it and working closely with many other teams to help it become a fully characterised and working product, reporting project status/progress to program management on a regular basis. You will have the opportunity to, and be responsible for, leading, mentoring, and providing technical guidance to other engineering team members. In this role, you can leverage your experience and industry knowledge to architect and drive implementation of continuous improvements to test infrastructure and processes.  The Post-Silicon Validation team sits within the Architecture and Validation team, we are responsible for validation of new silicon when it returns from manufacture, enabling and supporting the production SW and FW teams to bring up their software and also supporting the Silicon Characterisation team.   Responsibilities and Duties  * Plan, design, develop and debug silicon validation tests in bare metal C/C++ on FPGA/Emulator prior to first silicon  * Deploy silicon validation tests on first silicon and debugging them  * Develop automated test framework and regression test suites in Python to optimize validation efficiency  * Collaborate closely with engineers from many other disciplines on a variety of topics  * Work with Validation and Production Test engineering peers to implement best practices and continuous improvements to test methodologies  * Analyse test results, identify and debug failures/defects  * Contribute to shared test and validation infrastructure  * Provide feedback to architects  Essential skills:  * Strong experience in Bare metal / embedded C/C++  * Good knowledge of digital ASICs * Be highly motivated, a self starter, and a team player   * Ability to work across teams and programming languages to find root causes of deep and complex issues  * Experience of the post-silicon validation process applied in digital ASIC environments  * Python, Linux  * Excellent communication skills and the ability to collaborate with others to solve problems * Excellent problem-solving, analytical & diagnostic skills    Desirable skills:  * Driver level experience with one or more of the following is highly desirable:  * PCIe  * Ethernet  * Memory technologies (LPDDR, DDR, HBM, …)  * Other peripherals such as I2C, I3C, SPI, …  * Good knowledge of mixed-signal building blocks such as PLLs, high speed PHYs and IC control/communication protocols is highly desirable * Experience of Arm CPUs, System IP and debug tools * Experience of AMBA protocols * Understanding of ML applications and their workloads * Experience in Characterization, Failure Analysis, Test Development, Statistical analysis, and Customer Support  Benefits: In addition to a competitive salary, Graphcore offers a competitive benefits package. We welcome people of different backgrounds and experiences; we’re committed to building an inclusive work environment that makes Graphcore a great home for everyone. We offer an equal opportunity process and understand that there are visible and invisible differences in all of us. We can provide a flexible approach to interview and encourage you to chat to us if you require any reasonable adjustments.

ABOUT US Graphcore is one of the world’s leading innovators in Artificial Intelligence compute. It is developing hardware, software and systems infrastructure that will unlock the next generation of AI breakthroughs and power the widespread adoption of AI solutions across every industry. As part of the SoftBank Group, Graphcore is a member of an elite family of companies responsible for some of the world’s most transformative technologies. Together, they share a bold vision: to enable Artificial Super Intelligence and ensure its benefits are accessible to everyone. Graphcore’s teams are drawn from diverse backgrounds and bring a broad range of skills and perspectives. A melting pot of AI research specialists, silicon designers, software engineers and systems architects, Graphcore enjoys a culture of continuous learning and constant innovation. JOB SUMMARY Reporting to senior leadership within Architecture and Validation, the Debug Validation Lead will drive post-silicon debug and validation activities for next-generation AI compute silicon and systems. The role is responsible for leading teams focused on identifying, reproducing, analysing and resolving complex silicon, firmware and system-level issues during bring-up, characterization and product readiness. This position combines deep technical debugging expertise with strong cross-functional collaboration across multiple engineering disciplines. The role will work closely with architecture, RTL, firmware, software and systems teams to improve debug methodologies, accelerate issue resolution and strengthen validation coverage. The role will work closely with architecture, RTL, firmware, software, systems and platform teams to improve debug methodologies, accelerate issue resolution and strengthen validation coverage. THE TEAM The Post-Silicon Debug and Validation team sits within the Architecture and Validation organisation and is responsible for bring-up, debug and validation of Graphcore silicon and systems. The team works across the full product lifecycle, supporting first silicon bring-up, subsystem validation, system integration and production readiness activities. Engineers collaborate closely with hardware, firmware, software and systems teams to investigate complex failures, develop debug methodologies and improve validation infrastructure. RESPONSIBILITIES AND DUTIES * Lead post-silicon debug and validation activities for AI compute silicon and platform technologies * Contribute to debug and validation activities across multiple projects and milestones * Drive prioritisation, planning and execution of debug and validation activities across multiple projects and milestones * Investigate and resolve complex silicon, firmware, software and system-level issues during bring-up and validation * Develop structured debug methodologies and failure analysis processes to improve issue resolution efficiency * Collaborate closely with architecture, RTL, firmware, software and systems engineering teams to identify root causes and implement corrective actions * Drive debug of CPU, memory, interconnect and high-speed I/O subsystems under functional, stress and workload conditions * Develop and enhance automated debug, regression and validation infrastructure using Python and related technologies * Analyse logs, traces, telemetry and hardware data to isolate and characterize system failures and performance issues * Support development of validation tests, debug tooling and custom diagnostics to improve coverage and observability * Define validation metrics, debug workflows and reporting standards to ensure consistent and repeatable analysis * Drive continuous improvement of debug processes, validation methodologies and engineering workflows * Communicate technical risks, status and recommendations clearly to engineering leadership and cross-functional stakeholders * Support silicon readiness reviews and contribute to product quality and release decisions * Contribute to continuous improvement of debug methodologies, validation infrastructure and engineering workflows CANDIDATE PROFILE ESSENTIAL: * Strong experience in bare metal environments * Good knowledge of SoC and platform architectures * Expertise in debug infrastructure and post-silicon debug methodologies * Strong programming skills in Python, C, or debug scripting languages such as CMM * Highly motivated self-starter with a collaborative and team-oriented approach * Ability to work across teams and programming languages to identify root causes of deep and complex issues * Experience of the post-silicon validation process applied in digital ASIC environments * Strong Linux and Python experience * Exceptional communication skills and the ability to collaborate effectively to solve complex problems * Excellent problem-solving, analytical and diagnostic skills * Deep knowledge of scan, DFT, JTAG and trace infrastructure * Strong debug skills including fault tree analysis, failure isolation, fishbone methodologies and system-level debug techniques * Ability to work independently on technically complex debug and validation activities across hardware, firmware and software domains DESIRABLE * Understanding of DFT flows from insertion through post-silicon validation * Experience developing tooling for parsing and analysing debug data, including scan dump parsing * Driver-level experience with one or more of the following technologies: * PCIe * Ethernet * Memory technologies including LPDDR, DDR and HBM * Peripheral interfaces such as I2C, I3C and SPI * Experience using CoreSight and similar debug infrastructure including CTI, ETx, DStream, JLink, Lauterbach, ATB and STM * Good knowledge of mixed-signal building blocks such as PLLs, high-speed PHYs and IC control/communication protocols * Experience with Arm CPU architectures, system IP and associated debug tooling * Experience with AMBA protocols * Understanding of ML applications and associated workloads * Experience in characterization, failure analysis, test development, statistical analysis and customer support