Staff System Software Engineer

ABOUT GRAPHCORE  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 As a member of the drivers and utilities team you will contribute to the planning, design, implementation and testing of low level kernel drivers and user space driver library code. You will be part of one of the two teams in the system software department (the firmware team being the other one) and report to the drivers and utilities team manager.   THE TEAM The drivers and utilities team forms part of the system software group – working closely with both software engineers developing our Poplar SDK and with silicon and hardware engineers developing Graphcore’s IPU solution. The drivers and utilities team develop custom control software on the host in kernel and user space. Our solutions enable our customers to get maximum performance and utility for our cutting-edge products.   RESPONSIBILITIES AND DUTIES * Design, implement, test and document OS Kernel and Device Driver software at the highest standard using C/C++/Python programming languages * Participate in agile development – working as part of a scrum team to develop the right software at pace * Communicate effectively and contribute regularly to technical discussions with your peers in software and hardware engineering, with architects and other stakeholders * Hands-on during key product development phases involving close working with hardware and silicon engineering groups to enable fast time to market delivery CANDIDATE PROFILE Essential: * Proven industry experience in software development using programming languages such as C/C++/Python * OS Kernel and Device Driver development and deployment experience in Linux or Windows systems * Good understanding of lower-level software stack and interactions with the hardware layer * Possess effective problem-solving skills, familiar with a full suite of debug and performance analysis tools and techniques * Experience with one or more of the following: PCIe, CPU, device drivers, SoC, firmware, and hardware/software integration * Proactive in obtaining engineering or management input to solve issues * Motivated to schedule own workload * Excellent written and verbal communication skills, work well within a multinational team and with multinational customers. Excellent cultural awareness is essential.  Desirable * Experience developing firmware or drivers for GPUs.  * Knowledge of CUDA or OpenCL   * Experience working on upstreaming of kernel code / contributing to Linux kernel. * Exposure to integration with data centre / cloud service operations – for example integration with Kubernetes or open stack.  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.   Applicants for this position must hold the right to work in the UK. Unfortunately at this time, we are unable to provide visa sponsorship or support for visa applications

About us   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. Together, they share a bold vision: to enable Artificial Super Intelligence and ensure its benefits are accessible to everyone.   Graphcore’s teams are drawn from diverse backgrounds and bring a broad range of skills and perspectives. A melting pot of AI research specialists, silicon designers, software engineers and systems architects, Graphcore enjoys a culture of continuous learning and constant innovation.    About the Role We are looking for Staff System Software Engineer in Test to join our team. In this role, you will be responsible for design, development, automation and reporting of Integration and system tests spanning across firmware and device drivers. This role requires you to have significant technical breadth and deep understanding of low-level system software specifically in server class systems. You will be part of a new team responsible for integration of different system software deliverables and development of system tests spanning all the components. You will contribute to shaping the test strategy , guide best practices and solve complex problems while maintaining a strong hands-on focus. You will partner with development and other QA teams to deliver high quality scalable and reliable solutions.   About the Team Integration and system test team is responsible for verification and validation of integrated components across Board management controller (BMC), Firmware and Linux device driver. The team is also responsible for management and maintenance of common tools and pipelines used across the system software organization.   Responsibilities and Duties Design and Development · Act as a technical authority for designing test infrastructure and features. · Design, Implement, Execute and report on high quality tests to ensure team has a high-quality gate for the system software release package. · Develop re-usable and scalable pipeline solutions to support component teams · Design, implement and maintain internal tools. · Take ownership of technically challenging areas and ensure near 100% feature coverage. · Perform initial triage and debugging of both internal and external issues. · Review and improve design, coding and implementation processes across the team.   Cross-Functional Interactions · Collaborate with component developers and QA to understand the interactions between different components. · Consult stakeholders of the package to understand their use-cases to develop robust system tests. · Develop acceptance pipelines covering tests across teams using the system software package. · Communicate complex technical concepts clearly to both expert and non-expert audiences. Quality, Reliability and System thinking · Ensure correctness, robustness, security, scalability and maintainability of the tools and pipeline solutions. · Contribute to improvement in validation framework, CI/CD systems, testing methodologies and packaging pipelines. · Drive root-cause investigations and long-term corrective actions along with the component teams for all incoming issues.   Mentorship · Mentor junior engineers within the team. · Raise quality and coding standards through guidance, best practices and setting an example. · Contribute to long term improvements in culture and team ceremonies.   Essentials · 10+ years of experience in low level system testing and integration. · Experience working with RTOS and complex boot logic. · Experience working with Linux and device drivers · Experience in test development using Python and C/C++. · Experience with CI/CD pipelines using GitHub/GitLab/Jenkins or similar. · Experience with build and integration tools and modern testing practices. · Excellent problem-solving skills and a track record of working with complex cross-layer issues. · Strong communication skills and proven ability to document.   Desired · Experience working with server class systems · Experience either with openBMC or Zephyr. · Experience with Qemu or similar emulation environment. Benefits In addition to a competitive salary, Graphcore offers a competitive benefits package. 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.