AI SoC Validation / Bring-up Lead

Graphcore

Graphcore is a globally recognized leader in Artificial Intelligence computing systems. The company designs advanced semiconductors and datacentre hardware that provide the specialized 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. Together, we are working to enable Artificial Super Intelligence and ensure that its benefits are accessible to everyone. We are developing the next generation of AI compute, a large-scale system-on-chip (SoC) designed to power future high-performance AI systems. As the SoC Validation Lead, you will be responsible for enabling pre-production software to run reliably on new silicon quickly and efficiently, before showing that the silicon meets the highest standards of quality, reliability and functionality, ready for production deployment. You will lead a team delivering post-silicon validation across the full AI SoC, working across silicon, firmware, and platform levels. The role requires a deep technical understanding, strong hands-on debug experience, and the ability to collaborate effectively with hardware, software, and systems engineering teams. Responsibilities * Define and lead post-silicon validation strategy: Develop and refine the overall post-silicon validation approach for our AI SoCs, ensuring reliable and timely delivery of validated silicon, architectural correctness, feature robustness, and at-scale system reliability * Drive cross-domain debug and issue resolution: Lead investigation and resolution of complex issues spanning silicon, firmware, operating systems, and platform interactions. Ensure that fixes are effective and sustainable * Promote collaboration and shared understanding: Work closely with design, software, and validation teams to align on quality objectives and debug priorities. Use data-driven insights and clear communication to maintain focus and alignment across teams * Advance automation and scalable validation: Encourage the use of emulation, prototyping, and large-scale validation infrastructure to improve coverage and reduce time to debug * Support continuous improvement: Foster a culture that values learning, transparency, and improvement in validation methods, automation, and analysis * Engage with leadership and customers: Provide clear and concise updates on validation progress, risks, and quality indicators to executive teams and key partners. Contribute to product readiness assessments and roadmap decisions Essential skills * A systems thinker, comfortable working across hardware, software, and integration boundaries * A collaborative leader who builds trust and alignment across diverse teams * Skilled in technical problem solving and debugging complex post-silicon issues * A clear communicator who can simplify complexity and support sound decision-making in fast-paced environments * Committed to developing people and promoting an inclusive, high-performing team culture * Bachelor’s degree in Electronic Engineering or equivalent; Master’s preferred * 20+ years in silicon, system, or platform validation, including 10+ years in technical leadership * Proven experience leading post-silicon validation and bring-up for complex SoCs (AI, GPU, or CPU) * Strong understanding of SoC architecture, coherency protocols, power management, and interconnects * Expertise in debug tools, DFT infrastructure, and validation automation frameworks * Proficient in C/C++, Python, and Linux-based environments; experience with large-scale validation clusters is an advantage Benefits In addition to a competitive salary, Graphcore offers flexible working, a generous annual leave policy, private medical insurance and health cash plan, a dental plan, pension, life assurance and income protection. We have a generous parental leave policy and an employee assistance programme (which includes health, mental wellbeing, and bereavement support). 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.

Graphcore

ABOUT US At Graphcore, we’re building the future of AI compute. We’re a team of semiconductor, software and AI experts, with deep experience in creating the complete AI compute stack - from silicon and software to infrastructure at datacenter scale. As part of the SoftBank Group, backed by significant long-term investment, we are delivering key technology into the fast-growing SoftBank AI ecosystem. To meet the vast and exciting AI opportunity, Graphcore is expanding its teams around the world. We are bringing together the brightest minds to solve the toughest problems, in a place where everyone has the opportunity to make an impact on the company, our products and the future of artificial intelligence.   JOB SUMMARY Reporting to Senior Director of Post Silicon Validation, the Debug Validation Engineer will drive post-silicon debug and validation activities for next-generation AI compute silicon and systems. You will lead teams passionate about identifying, reproducing, analyzing, and resolving complex silicon, firmware, and system-level issues during bring-up, characterization, and product readiness. This role combines deep technical debugging expertise with strong cross-functional collaboration across multiple engineering fields.   THE TEAM The Post-Silicon Debug and Validation team manages bring-up, fault diagnosis, and validation of Graphcore silicon and systems. Our team participates throughout the entire product lifecycle, supporting initial silicon bring-up, subsystem validation, system integration, and production readiness tasks. We coordinate closely with hardware, firmware, software, and systems teams to examine complex failures, develop debug strategies, and advance validation infrastructure.   RESPONSIBILITIES AND DUTIES * Lead post-silicon debugging and validation efforts for AI compute silicon and platform technologies * Contribute to debug and validation activities across multiple projects and achievements * Analyze and address intricate silicon, firmware, software, and system-level problems during bring-up and validation * Develop structured debug methodologies and failure analysis processes to improve issue resolution efficiency * Work in close partnership with architecture, RTL, firmware, software, and systems engineering groups to determine root causes and carry out corrective measures * Drive debug of CPU, memory, interconnect, and high-speed I/O subsystems under functional, stress, and workload conditions * Develop and improve automated debug, regression, and validation infrastructure using Python and related technologies * Analyze 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 * Communicate technical risks, status, and recommendations clearly to engineering leadership and cross-functional collaborators * 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 * Strong understanding 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 or equivalent experience * Highly motivated self-starter with a collaborative and team-oriented approach * Ability to collaborate across teams and programming languages to uncover root causes of deep and complex issues * Experience of the post-silicon validation process applied in digital ASIC environments * Strong Linux and Python experience * Outstanding 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 * Capability to operate autonomously on technically intricate debug and validation tasks spanning hardware, firmware, and software areas DESIRABLE * Understanding of DFT flows from insertion through post-silicon validation * Experience developing tooling for parsing and analyzing 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 or equivalent experience * Strong understanding of mixed-signal components like 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 BENEFITS In addition to a competitive salary, Graphcore offers flexible working, a generous annual leave policy, private medical insurance and health cash plan, a dental plan, pension (matched up to 5%), life assurance and income protection. We have a generous parental leave policy and an employee assistance programme (which includes health, mental wellbeing, and bereavement support). We offer a range of healthy food and snacks at our central Bristol office and have our own barista bar! 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.

Graphcore

ABOUT GRAPHCORE 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.   The Role: 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 flexible working, a generous annual leave policy, private medical insurance and health cash plan, a dental plan, pension (matched up to 5%), life assurance and income protection. We have a generous parental leave policy and an employee assistance programme (which includes health, mental wellbeing, and bereavement support). We offer a range of healthy food and snacks at our central Bristol office and have our own barista bar! 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.