Debug Validation Engineer — Multiple Levels

Graphcore; West of England; On-site; GBP 70,000 - 110,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Flexible working

Generous annual leave

Private medical insurance

Dental plan

Pension (matched up to 5%)

Life assurance

Income protection

Parental leave

Employee assistance programme

On-site snacks & barista

Job summary

Graphcore Bristol is seeking a Senior Debug Validation Engineer to drive post-silicon debug and validation for next‑generation AI compute silicon and systems. You will lead teams to identify, reproduce, analyze, and resolve complex silicon, firmware, and system‑level issues during bring‑up, characterization, and product readiness.

You will work across architecture, RTL, firmware, software, and systems groups to define validation metrics, develop debug methodologies, and enhance infrastructure.

Qualifications

• Strong experience with post-silicon validation and debug in digital ASIC environments.
• Deep understanding of SoC and platform architectures and debug methodologies.
• Proficiency in Python and C, with scripting for debugging tasks.
• Experience with Linux and trace/log analysis tools.

Responsibilities

• Lead post-silicon debugging and validation efforts for AI compute silicon and platform technologies.
• Collaborate with architecture, RTL, firmware, software, and systems teams to identify root causes.
• Develop structured debug workflows and metrics for repeatable analysis.
• Develop and maintain automated debug, regression, and validation tooling.

Skills

Bare metal

SoC architecture

Post-silicon debug

Python

C

Linux

Debug tooling

Team collaboration

Tools

CoreSight

JTAG

Scan data parsing

Debug infrastructure

Job description

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.