Debug Validation Engineer — Multiple Levels

About the role

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.