Debug Validation Engineer — Multiple Levels

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, analyt