Principal Power & Performance 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 senior leadership within Architecture and Validation, the Power and Performance Validation Lead will drive validation strategy and execution for advanced AI compute silicon and systems. The role is responsible for leading power, thermal and performance validation activities across pre-silicon and post-silicon environments to ensure products meet efficiency, reliability and scalability expectations.

This role combines deep technical expertise with people leadership responsibilities, including team development, prioritisation, mentoring and delivery coordination across multiple projects and stakeholders.

The Team

The Power and Performance Validation team sits within the Architecture and Validation organisation and is responsible for validating the performance, efficiency and thermal behaviour of Graphcore silicon and systems.

The team supports the full product lifecycle, from early architectural modelling through to first silicon bring-up, characterization and production readiness. Engineers work closely with cross-functional teams globally to debug complex issues, optimize workloads and continuously improve validation infrastructure and methodologies.

Responsibilities and Duties

• Define and lead validation strategies for power, thermal and performance characterization of AI compute silicon and platforms
• Lead, mentor and support a team of validation engineers, providing technical guidance, coaching and career development
• Drive planning, prioritisation and execution of validation activities across multiple projects and milestones
• Develop comprehensive validation plans covering functional, stress, workload and corner-case scenarios
• Lead post-silicon bring-up and characterization activities for power and performance validation
• Drive validation of CPU, memory, interconnect and high-speed I/O subsystems under complex workload conditions
• Develop scalable automation frameworks, regression infrastructure and reporting tools using Python
• Design and execute benchmark workloads, parameter sweeps and performance experiments to identify optimization opportunities
• Collaborate with architecture, RTL, firmware, software and systems teams to debug and resolve complex technical issues
• Define validation metrics, pass/fail criteria and reporting methodologies to ensure repeatable and high-quality analysis
• Guide development of custom workload generators and micro-benchmarks where required
• Analyse power, thermal and performance data to identify bottlenecks and recommend improvements
• Contribute to continuous improvement of validation processes, tooling and engineering practices
• Communicate technical findings, project status, risks and recommendations clearly to stakeholders and engineering leadership
• Support hiring activities, onboarding and team growth initiatives

Candidate Profile

Essential:

• Strong experience in power and performance validation, silicon characterization or system performance engineering
• Experience leading or managing engineering teams within a technical environment
• Deep understanding of modern SoC architecture, including CPU, memory, interconnect and high-speed I/O technologies
• Strong Linux systems knowledge and low-level performance analysis experience
• Strong Python programming skills for automation, orchestration and data analysis
• Experience with benchmarking and profiling tools such as stress-ng, fio, perf, iperf or equivalent technologies
• Experience debugging complex hardware and software interactions
• Ability to define structured validation methodologies, workload models and test strategies
• Strong analytical skills with the ability to interpret large datasets and identify system bottlenecks
• Strong communication, stakeholder management and cross-functional collaboration skills
• Ability to lead complex technical initiatives across geographically distributed teams

Desirable

• Experience with AI accelerator, GPU or high-performance compute architectures
• Experience with pre-silicon modelling or simulation environments
• Knowledge of power management technologies and silicon characterization methodologies
• Programming experience in C/C++ for low-level system or benchmark development
• Familiarity with hardware instrumentation and telemetry systems
• Experience working with high core-count or large-scale compute systems
• Experience scaling or building technical engineering teams