Senior Execution and Quality Validation Engineer

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. Job Summary Reporting to the Validation leadership team, the Senior Execution and Quality Validation Engineer will be responsible for executing validation plans, developing automation solutions, and improving product quality across Graphcore silicon and platform technologies. Working closely with architecture, design, verification, firmware, software, systems engineering, and validation teams, the successful candidate will contribute to scalable validation methodologies, improve test coverage and execution efficiency, and help ensure products meet high standards of functionality, reliability, and performance before customer deployment. The role requires strong technical skills, attention to detail, and a passion for improving validation quality through effective execution, automation, and continuous improvement. The Team The Validation Execution and Quality team sits within the Validation organisation and is responsible for improving validation effectiveness, test execution efficiency, product quality, and release readiness across Graphcore silicon and platform products. The team develops validation methodologies, automation frameworks, test execution infrastructure, and quality processes that enable engineering teams to execute validation activities at scale. Working closely with validation, architecture, firmware, software, systems, and design teams, the group helps ensure products are thoroughly validated before release. Responsibilities and Duties Execute validation strategies for silicon, subsystem, and platform technologies across functional, performance, reliability, and stress testing  Plan, optimize, verify, and test critical electronic systems, including silicon, FPGA-based platforms, test systems, and associated validation infrastructure  Develop and execute validation plans to ensure products meet quality, reliability, and performance objectives  Create detailed test plans from high-level validation requirements and test cases, ensuring timely execution and high-quality results  Design, develop, and maintain automation frameworks that enable efficient execution of test plans, regression suites, and validation activities  Support silicon and platform validation activities from bring-up through product readiness  Analyse validation results and system behaviour to identify issues and opportunities for improvement  Collaborate with architecture, design, verification, firmware, software, systems engineering, and validation teams to implement new validation requirements and improve test coverage  Integrate new validation capabilities and test solutions into existing validation infrastructure to improve productivity, quality, and execution efficiency  Develop automated data collection, analysis, and reporting solutions to improve engineering visibility and decision-making  Evaluate design features to identify functional, compatibility, integration, and reliability risks  Investigate validation failures using structured debug and root-cause analysis methodologies  Contribute to improvements in validation techniques, workflows, automation, and engineering processes  Support power, performance, and system-level validation activities through development of scalable validation infrastructure and methodologies  Contribute to validation best practices, documentation, and engineering standards  Act as a quality-focused validation engineer, helping identify and resolve issues before products reach customers  Candidate Profile Essential: Experience in silicon validation, hardware validation, system validation, or related engineering disciplines Strong understanding of validation methodologies, test planning, test execution, and quality processes  Experience developing automation frameworks for validation, regression execution, and test orchestration  Strong Python programming skills for automation, data analysis, and infrastructure development  Strong understanding of hardware systems, silicon bring-up, and validation workflows  Experience translating high-level requirements into structured validation plans and test cases  Experience analysing validation results and participating in root-cause investigations for complex technical issues  Understanding of validation coverage, quality metrics, release readiness criteria, and risk assessment methodologies  Experience collaborating across architecture, design, verification, firmware, software, systems, and validation teams  Excellent analytical, diagnostic, and problem-solving skills  Strong communication skills and the ability to work effectively across multidisciplinary engineering teams Desirable Experience with post-silicon bring-up and system integration activities  Experience developing regression systems and automated test execution infrastructure  Experience with FPGA-based validation environments  Experience automating laboratory equipment and validation environments  Familiarity with CI/CD systems and continuous testing methodologies  Experience developing dashboards, reporting systems, or engineering analytics tools  Experience with C, C++, or embedded software development  Experience work