Hardware System Test Engineering Team Leader

NIF; West of England; Hybrid; GBP 90,000 - 120,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Competitive salary

Equity

Private medical

Job summary

Fractile seeks a senior system-test engineer to own the architecture and execution of system-level test strategies for AI accelerator servers. You will oversee manufacturing-grade tests across hardware, firmware, and software interfaces, ensuring scalable, reliable processes and effective diagnostics.

Lead test development for high-throughput rack deployments and field diagnostics, collaborating with hardware, OS, and platform teams to embed testability and maintainability throughout the stack.

Qualifications

• 8+ years of experience in system-level or server platform validation, test engineering, or platform QA.
• Strong understanding of server architectures, BMC/OpenBMC/Redfish, Linux-based systems, and hardware/firmware interactions.
• Experience validating or testing high-speed IO subsystems (PCIe Gen4/5/6 or comparable serial fabrics).
• Experience leading test development for manufacturing or field diagnostics in large-scale server, storage, or networking systems.
• Ability to lead teams, manage external vendors, and drive cross-functional test initiatives.
• Strong skills in system debug, log analysis, failure isolation, and multi-component testing.
• Familiarity with liquid-cooled or thermally complex server designs.

Responsibilities

• Define the system-level test strategy for an AI accelerator server platform with hundreds of PCIe Gen6 links, liquid cooling, and heterogeneous compute/management subsystems.
• Lead the design and implementation of structural, functional, stress and reliability tests executed on servers and full-rack configurations.
• Manage the deployment of system test suites in manufacturing environments, ensuring high throughput, repeatability, failure isolation, and secure automation workflows.
• Define and deliver test solutions for field diagnostics, repair, and maintenance—including remote test suites, health-check routines, failure triage, and component-level isolation.
• Collaborate with hardware, firmware, OS, and platform teams to embed system-level test and diagnostic functions and ensure testability across the server and rack.
• Drive test integration into OpenBMC, Redfish, and platform-management frameworks; validate BMC/RMC test and maintenance behaviors, telemetry, and hardware-control functions.
• Develop test automation infrastructure and tooling that spans multiple OS environments (embedded Linux on BMC/RMCs, server-class Linux on host CPUs).
• Partner with rack integration teams to define tests executed at rack-level assembly.
• Establish KPIs and dashboards for system test coverage, yield, throughput, failure rates, and field return correlation.
• Manage internal test engineering team and relevant external partners.
• Own system test documentation: test specifications, factory/field procedures, debug guides, and integration handbooks.

Skills

System validation

Server architectures

BMC/Redfish

Debug & failure analysis

Team leadership

Tools

OpenBMC

Linux

Automation tooling

Job description

About Fractile

Fractile was founded in 2022 on the bet that, eventually, the world’s most capable AI systems would be limited in their impact by the time taken to produce useful outputs. We bet everything on the logical conclusion: that the only way to truly unlock this latent value, to make speed viable at scale, was to radically re-invent the hardware that we run our frontier AI models on. Ever since, we have been building chips and systems that tackle this problem: how to efficiently generate output at thousands of tokens per second, while handling the complexity and capacity challenges of operating large models at very long contexts.

The workloads that push to the limits of the current frontier are already transformational; it is the technical and economic limits on inference speed that are constraining progress. The defining work of the 21st century will be marked by the engine of inference delivering immense and diffuse chains of intellectual inquiry, in drug discovery, in software engineering, in materials discovery, in any field where progress is driven by deep reasoning and intelligence to resolve complex problems.

Summary

Own the architecture and execution of system-level test strategies for an AI accelerator server platform, covering the manufacture of individual servers and multi-node racks, and field deployment environments. Lead the creation, automation, and integration of tests spanning hardware, firmware, OS, high-speed IO, cooling, and manageability subsystems. Ensure scalable, reliable test processes that support high-volume manufacturing, rack integration, and in-field diagnostics and repair.

Key Responsibilities

• Define the system-level test strategy for an AI accelerator server platform with hundreds of PCIe Gen6 links, liquid cooling, and heterogeneous compute/management subsystems.
• Lead the design and implementation of structural, functional, stress and reliability tests executed on servers and full-rack configurations.
• Manage the deployment of system test suites in manufacturing environments, ensuring high throughput, repeatability, failure isolation, and secure automation workflows.
• Define and deliver test solutions for field diagnostics, repair, and maintenance—including remote test suites, health-check routines, failure triage, and component-level isolation.
• Collaborate with hardware, firmware, OS, and platform teams to embed system-level test and diagnostic functions and ensure testability across the server and rack.
• Drive test integration into OpenBMC, Redfish, and platform-management frameworks; validate BMC/RMC test and maintenance behaviors, telemetry, and hardware-control functions.
• Develop test automation infrastructure and tooling that spans multiple OS environments (embedded Linux on BMC/RMCs, server-class Linux on host CPUs).
• Partner with rack integration teams to define tests executed at rack-level assembly.
• Establish KPIs and dashboards for system test coverage, yield, throughput, failure rates, and field return correlation.
• Manage internal test engineering team and relevant external partners.
• Own system test documentation: test specifications, factory/field procedures, debug guides, and integration handbooks.

Required Qualifications

• 8+ years of experience in system-level or server platform validation, test engineering, or platform QA.
• Strong understanding of server architectures, BMC/OpenBMC/Redfish, Linux-based systems, and hardware/firmware interactions.
• Experience validating or testing high-speed IO subsystems (PCIe Gen4/5/6 or comparable serial fabrics).
• Experience leading test development for manufacturing or field diagnostics in large-scale server, storage, or networking systems.
• Ability to lead teams, manage external vendors, and drive cross-functional test initiatives.
• Strong skills in system debug, log analysis, failure isolation, and multi-component testing.
• Familiarity with liquid-cooled or thermally complex server designs.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with accelerator-based compute (AI/ML, GPUs, custom ASICs).
• Experience with rack-level architectures, DC power distribution, or cooling infrastructure.
• Knowledge of reliability testing, environmental stress testing, and fleet-level monitoring.

How we work

• Ownership and execution: you will have full agency to drive your work forward
• Rapid iteration: we all work directly with top leadership to move from idea to hardware on ambitious timelines
• Full-stack engagement: hardware, software, silicon, and modelling teams all work closely together to create a product with generational impact
• Optimistic and pragmatic: we possess the will to win, and to do the hard work to get us there
• Team player mentality: the mission is bigger than any of us, and we have the curiosity and technical focus to see the best idea shipped, no matter who’s it is

What We Offer

• Competitive salary: A competitive salary reflective of your experience and the specialist nature of the role.
• Equity & Ownership: meaningful equity so everyone shares in the value creation
• Benefits: Private Medical, Dental and Vision, Contributory Pension, 25 Days holiday plus bank holidays and Life/Critical Illness Insurance.
• Diverse & fun office: we believe the hardest problems get solved by the broadest range of minds. We are committed to Equal Employment Opportunity through attracting and retaining a diverse team and building an inclusive environment.

Fractile is seeking to increase the clock speed of global progress, one chip at a time. We’ve recently raised $220M from investors including Founders Fund and Accel and our most important work lies ahead.

Export controls

Our work involves technologies subject to UK, US and other international export control regulations. Certain roles may require additional eligibility checks to ensure compliance with applicable law. We'll be transparent about this throughout the hiring process.