Server CPU Hardware Systems Lead - US

Graphcore; Austin (TX); On-site; USD 120,000 - 150,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical, dental, and vision coverage

401(k) retirement plan

Flexible working hours

Job summary

Graphcore is seeking a Lead System Engineer in Austin, Texas, to lead validation efforts within their compute rack validation team. This role involves driving system enablement and validation of cutting-edge technologies, ensuring high-quality outcomes. The candidate must have extensive experience with silicon bring-up and systems engineering.

Responsibilities include leading methodologies for firmware integration and contributing to the development of tools and strategies for validation. The successful applicant will possess strong analytical skills and technical leadership capabilities.

Qualifications

• Strong analytical/problem-solving skills with attention to details.
• Experience in validation involving first silicon and system bring-up.
• Understanding of PC industry standard buses such as PCIe, CXL.

Responsibilities

• Lead the system enablement for first silicon and other components.
• Drive organization-wide methodology for Firmware integration.
• Develop methodologies for successful system bring-up and validation.

Skills

Analytical/problem-solving skills

Experience in validation roles

Understanding of PC industry standard buses

Strong knowledge of ARM CPU or X86 architecture

Excellent communication skills

Deep experience with Linux and Windows

Education

Masters or PhD in Electrical Engineering or related field

Job description

We are looking for a disciplined and dynamic, Lead System Engineer – compute blade and rack Validation to join our growing compute rack validation team. As a diligent leader in Systems Engineering, you will drive multiple aspects of validation throughout the life cycle of the program. In this high visibility position, you will be part of a leading team to innovate and improve system bring‑up and enablement abilities, as well as silicon and system validation to deliver the highest quality, industry leading technologies to market. Your technical leadership skills, validation and debug expertise will be necessary towards product development, definition, root cause and resolution. Your agility and collaborative approach will be essential to work within System Validation & other engineering teams (System Architects, SoC and Rack FW etc).

The technical leader will be driving key areas of system validation including leading first silicon & system bring‑up (nodes and rack level systems) – rack level systems and blades will be based of ARM server architecture. Candidate will be immersed in challenging system enablement work, system validation (end‑to‑end) methodology, tests development and execution as well as triage/debug of critical issues to meet critical program milestones at POR quality. The candidate will also be a key contributor to state‑of‑the‑art HW and lab capabilities for Graphcore’s system engineering. The candidate should be able to work in a global environment while maintaining a synergetic culture.

Primary Responsibilities

• Lead the system enablement (including first silicon and other FW components) to ensure system capabilities are brought up as per plan of record and system architecture spec.
• Drive organization wide methodology for Firmware integration and best known configuration (HW/FW/SW) usage model by leading the release of deployment ready solutions.
• Develop key methodologies, lab HW and system SW capabilities as well as system visibilities and debug tools necessary for successful system (HW/SW/FW) bring‑up and system validation at blade and rack level for AI compute rack.
• Triage issues found during server rack validation bring‑up, Post‑Silicon Validation, and production phases of the program. Ensure issues are solved on time with quality.
• Develop and own test plans, lead test case development and execution of key domains within AI compute solutions like CPU, GPU, memory, HBM, IO etc.
• Drive technical innovation to improve capabilities across system validation, including tool, script development, technical and procedural methodology enhancement, and various internal and cross‑functional technical initiatives.

Qualifications

• Strong analytical/problem‑solving skills and pronounced attention to details
• Extensive experience in validation roles involving first silicon and system bring up, OS, FW, Silicon, and HW
• Understanding of PC industry standard buses and their software stack, such as PCIe, CXL.
• Proven experience in understanding, defining and enabling storage (storage rack), networking capabilities (network rack, DNS, DHCP etc) in a lab environment to help add end‑to‑end validation and debug capabilities for rack and blade validation.
• Strong knowledge of ARM CPU or X86 architecture, SoC design, memory, RAS & power management as well as HW/SW based tools, and revision control systems.
• Extensive knowledge of system architecture, technical debug, and validation strategy
• Good understanding and experience in platform/ system level debug, Operating System, Device Drivers and System BIOS interactions.
• Excellent communication and coordination skills.
• Detail oriented, highly organized, able to prioritize, and juggle multiple workstreams to tight deadlines.
• Technical leadership: capable of championing new tools, methods, and capabilities to drive platform validation improvements in schedule, quality, or coverage.
• Deep experience with Linux and Windows Operating Systems, Hypervisors (VMware, KVM, Hyper‑V, etc.), and development and certification processes of these environments
• Experience in technical program management.
• A thorough understanding of datacenter industry technologies and their software stack.
• Must be a self‑starter, and able to independently drive tasks to completion

Preferred Qualifications

• Masters or PhD in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering or a related field
• 14+ years of work experience demonstrating working on complex systems engineering challenges to validate and debug HW‑FW‑SW challenges in a server compute rack or data center blade environment.
• Experience designing and deploying modern AI/ML rack scale systems
• Knowledge of industry standards and best practices for hardware development
• Familiarity with emerging technologies in AI and Data Center
• Comfortable meeting, engaging and collaborating with ODM partners across the globe.

Benefits

In addition to a competitive salary, Graphcore offers flexible working and a comprehensive benefits package designed to support your health, wellbeing and financial future. Our benefits include medical, dental and vision coverage, Flexible Spending Accounts (FSAs), Health Savings Accounts (HSAs), disability and life insurance, a 401(k) retirement plan, commuter benefits, wellness services and an Employee Assistance Programme (EAP). 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.