Hardware Development Engineer

Graphcore; Bristol; On-site; GBP 80,000 - 100,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading AI technology firm in Bristol seeks a hardware development engineer to design circuit solutions for cutting-edge applications. The role involves generating schematics, defining test plans, and collaborating with cross-functional teams to optimize performance. Ideal candidates should have expertise in microprocessor design and digital circuit validation, along with a solid understanding of power delivery and processor interfaces.

Benefits

Flexible working

Private medical insurance

Generous parental leave

Employee assistance programme

Qualifications

• Expert in microprocessor system design and debug.
• Demonstrable experience in digital circuit development.
• Familiar with debugging and validating designs.

Responsibilities

• Analyze system requirements and design circuit solutions.
• Generate schematics and PCB layout constraints.
• Define test and validation plans.

Skills

DCDC voltage regulators

Processor system development

Digital circuit development

Scripting (Linux, Python, Bash)

High-speed digital oscilloscopes

Tools

Mentor PCB design flow

Job description

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.

What you’ll be doing

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 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 (production systems)

• 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
• 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.

Essential experience

• 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
• Familiar with bringing up, debugging and validating designs
• Knowledge and use of high‑speed digital oscilloscopes, logic analysers and signal generators
• Experience in scripting (Linux, Python, Bash) of tests and Excel to analyse results
• Experience of document management and record keeping
• Experience in Mentor (or similar) PCB design flow for schematic capture, design constraints, PCB layout

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.