Hardware Development Engineer

Location: Bristol, UK

Department: HW Circuit Design

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.

As a hardware development engineer you will analyse system requirements and design circuit solutions, in collaboration with Graphcore’s Silicon, Architecture and Software Teams. You will generate schematics and PCB layout constraints and work closely with the PCB CAD team to realise the designs. You will define test and validation plans, run test campaigns, report results, work closely with the firmware and system architecture teams to interpret results, debug and improve performance.  

You will be expert in microprocessor system design and debug, with a deep understanding of processor power supply, reset & clocking requirements, memory, communications and control interfaces. 

The Team 

Graphcore’s Hardware Engineering Team creates both products for sale in volume production and hardware test & validation systems based on Graphcore’s IPU processor. These systems allow Graphcore’s customers to develop leading-edge machine-learning solutions for training and inference. 

What you’ll be doing 

Development of production systems and test boards for Graphcore’s family of processors which includes: 

• Circuit design, requirements analysis, functional definition, and component selection 

• PCB Layout constraint definition, and support of PCB CAD layout team 

• Circuit validation and verification 

• Design and running of tests to validate circuit performance and margin 

• Debugging and optimisation, in collaboration with the firmware team, of the correct system performance of microcontroller hardware control code 

• Prototype production support, prototype bringup, evaluation & system test, prototype validation. 

• Support of transfer to mass production. 
   

What you’ll bring 

We appreciate not everyone will meet all of the criteria. If you meet most of the requirements below and believe you can bring value to this role, we’d love to hear from you.

• Knowledge of DCDC voltage (including multi-phase) regulators, linear regulators and PCB design requirements for efficient power delivery 

• Processor system development, as STM32, with experience in processor interfaces such as Ethernet, PCIe, DDR, FLASH, USB, I2C, SPI, JTAG etc 

• Experience in SERDES (eg 112Gbps, PAM4) a benefit 

Other experience required: 

• Demonstrable experience in digital circuit development and validation 

• Extensive practical lab experience, bringing up, debugging and validating designs 

• Expertise in the use of high-speed digital oscilloscopes, logic analysers and signal generators 

• Experience in scripting (Linux, Python, Bash) of tests and Excel to analyse results 

• Knowledge of server architecture (BMC, Nic, SSD) 

• Autonomy and able to take initiative 

• Cross collaboration experience working across different disciplines and people 

Desirable: 

• Experience of document management and record keeping  

• Experience in Mentor (or similar) PCB design flow for schematic capture, design constraints, PCB layout 

• Rigorous approach to ensure designs will work correctly first time 

• Excellent communications skills with the ability to work both independently and as part of a small team, taking responsibility and willing to participate in all parts of the development cycle

What we’ll bring

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. 

Applicants for this position must hold the right to work in the UK. Unfortunately at this time, we are unable to provide visa sponsorship or support for visa applications