Principal Thermal Engineer

Location: Austin, Texas, United States

Department: Mech/Thermal Board

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. 

This position is a senior technical engineer role.  The thermal engineer will work in a project team delivering complex AI data center hardware.  Primary responsibility is to ensure the overall product functionality and meet all applicable technical thermal specifications.  The engineer will be responsible for the overall thermal solution, creation of specifications, design review and qualification, and testing and validation.  This role involves deep understanding of thermal management principles, simulation, testing, and collaboration with cross-functional teams to deliver high-performance and reliable server cooling systems. 

Responsibilities: 
Expert in your chosen field, you’ll be responsible for designing, developing, modifying and evaluating the liquid cooling solutions focusing on direct liquid cooling (DLC).  As part of the technical function, you will be responsible in working with select ODM vendors to manage the product thermal specification, development schedule, meet various deliverables, resolve technical issues, and ensure product meets specification, cost and quality goals.  You will be responsible in guiding and directing ODM vendors to deliver thermal designs, implementation, monitor testing, review cost and review technical design information to provide clear directions to ODM.  In addition, you will also be working with third party vendors and suppliers to ensure product features are being achieved.  

REQUIREMENTS

• Bachelor’s, Master’s or Ph. D degrees in mechanical engineering.  Minimum of 10 years of server thermal design experience.  Experience needs to include thermal and acoustics, as it relates to server products.  Experience in system level thermal design focusing on DLC and cold plate cooling heatsink technology as well as system level control logic
• Understanding the basic foundations of thermal fluid dynamics and heat transfer.
• Ability to lead the design and development of liquid cooling solutions. This includes conceptualization, prototyping, simulation, validation, and optimization of heat sinks, cold plates, CDU/CDM, and other liquid cooling components.
• Ability to perform thermal simulations and analyses utilizing industry-standard software (e.g., FlowTherm, ANSYS, COMSOL) to analyze thermal behavior and optimize design for performance and efficiency.
• Ability to develop and execute test plans to validate thermal solutions, ensuring compliance with industry standards and performance goals.
• Experience working closely with system architects, chip and board designers, and software/firmware engineers to integrate liquid cooling solutions into server products.
• Understanding of microprocessor architecture and thermal profiles.
• Understanding of system level thermal design focusing on fan and heatsink technology.
• Experience with system level thermal and fan control algorithm.
• Experience effectively dealing with conflict.
• Communicates well verbally, in writing, and graphically.
• Ability to establish clear goals and formulate plans to achieve them.
• Good root-cause analysis and problem-solving skills.
• Works independently and as part of a team.
• Excited about technology and has the desire to learn new tasks and technologies.

DIFFERENTIATORS

We welcome people of different backgrounds and experiences and are committed to building an inclusive work environment that makes Graphcore a great home for everyone. We are an equal opportunity employer and want to build a work environment where everyone is happy, productive and respectful so they can do their best work. If you have a disability or additional need that requires accommodation, just let us know.