Staff System Validation Engineer

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.

Graphcore’s teams are drawn from diverse backgrounds and bring a broad range of skills and perspectives.

We are seeking a Staff System Validation Engineer to design and implement validation tests for Arm-based data center SoCs using a combination of open-source benchmarking tools and custom micro-benchmarks. Define test cases tune workload parameters and use Python to automate and analyze validation across processing units system memory communication links and PCI Express components.  

The Systems Validation team validates Graphcore’s AI compute platforms across hardware firmware and software domains.

• Translate hardware features into structured parameterized test cases including:
  • Objectives workload models parameters metrics and pass/fail criteria. 
• Use and tune open-source tools such as:
  • Stress-ng fio iperf sysbench Imbench
• Define workload parameters:
  • Concurrency (threads/cores) memory footprint access patterns
  • Queue depth block size CPU/NUMA affinity. 
• Design and execute validation scenarios:
  • Functional performance stress and corner-case testing.
• Validate across domains:
  • CPU scaling and cache behavior
  • Memory (DDR/HBM) bandwidth latency and NUMA effects
  • Interconnect contention under multi-core load
  • PCIe/I-O throughput latency and multi-device scenarios
• Develop custom micro-benchmarks (C/C++) when existing tools are insufficient
• Use Python to:
  • Automate test execution and orchestration
  • Implement parameter sweeps and test matrices 
  • Parse analyze and visualize results. 
• Debug system behavior and performance issues in collaboration with hardware and firmware teams

Essential:

• Strong background in Linux systems and low-level performance analysis
• Experience in system validation benchmarking or performance testing
• Solid understanding of one or more domains:
  • CPU architecture memory systems or PCIe
• Experience using benchmarking tools (stress-ng fio iperf etc.)
• Ability to define test cases parameters and workload models
• Proficiency in Python (essential) for automation orchestration and data analysis
• Programming experience in C/C++ for micro-benchmark development

Desirable:

• Experience with Arm-based platforms
• Strong programming skills in C/C++ and Python for system-level development and automation
• Familiarity with performance tools (perf numactl taskset)
• Experience with large-scale or high core-count systems

What We Do

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.

Why Work With Us

Our team is at the forefront of the machine intelligence revolution enabling innovators from all industries to build AI-native products to expand human potential. What we do at Graphcore really makes a difference.

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