Bring-Up and Characterisation Engineer

Bristol, England, United Kingdom

12/18/2024

About Graphcore

How often do you get the chance to build a technology that transforms the future of humanity?

Graphcore products have set the standard in made-for-AI compute hardware and software, gaining global attention and industry acclaim. Now we are developing the next generation of artificial intelligence compute with systems that will allow AI researchers to develop more advanced models, help scientists unlock exciting new discoveries, and power companies around the world as they put AI at the heart of their business.

Graphcore recently joined SoftBank Group – bringing large and ongoing investment from one of the world’s leading backers of innovative AI companies.

Job Summary

We are looking for a Characterisation and Bring-Up engineer to work with Architecture, Silicon Engineering, Hardware Engineering, Operations (device manufacture) and Product teams to help create and execute the bring-up and characterisation of our cutting-edge silicon devices and system platforms. Graphcore design and develop leading edge silicon processors and high-power high-speed blade systems at the forefront of AI technology. As such you will need to develop a detailed understanding of our silicon and platform products.

Your role will be to create and execute bring-up and characterisation plans of our silicon devices to show that they will operate correctly over all conditions in the final product. You will concentrate on automated and manual testing of systems in the lab and datacentre. The results will be integrated with data from other teams to provide the complete characterisation solution for the product. For example, a large amount of device testing can be performed by the production test team using high-speed production test equipment.

The Team

This is a new team within Graphcore and will be initially part of manufacturing operations.

The manufacturing operations group has members in Bristol, Cambridge and Taiwan and is responsible for delivering world-class leading-edge products to customers.

Responsibilities and Duties

• Understand the architecture and design of silicon devices and systems, and clearly document the requirements for characterisation.
• Assist in the creation of product specific bring-up and characterisation plans.
• Execution of bring-up and characterisation plans.
• Create and maintain an automated system for running characterisation testing, capturing the results to a central database and performing data analysis.
• Execution of manual characterisation tests where automation is not appropriate.
• Report regularly on progress and issues to your lead.
• Produce characterisation reports containing platform test results and feeding them up into the overall product characterisation report.
  
  

Candidate Profile

Essential

• A proven track record of delivering technical output.
• Experience and understanding of silicon digital device design characterisation.
• Knowledge of silicon process technology and how that impacts device performance at transistor and system level.
• Knowledge of high-performance processor and system-on-chip systems.
• Experience of high-speed digital interfaces, such as PCIe, Ethernet or DDR.
• Knowledge of measurement automation and data analysis.
• The ability to code or script automation and data analysis using appropriate coding languages such as Python, JMP for example.
• An ability to work part of a team, either independently or with some oversight.
• Bachelor's degree or equivalent practical experience.
  
  

Desirable

• Knowledge of PCBA and system level technologies.
• Background knowledge of ATE systems and capabilities. Whilst you will not be directly involved with such testing, some of the characterisation work will be performed on such systems.
  
  

Benefits

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