Staff System Validation Engineer
About UsGraphcore 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.Graphcore’s teams are drawn from diverse backgrounds and bring a broad range of skills and perspectives.Job SummaryWe are seeking a Staff System Validation Engineer to design and implement validation tests for Arm-based data center SoCs using a combination of open-source benchmarking tools and custom micro-benchmarks. Define test cases, tune workload parameters, and use Python to automate and analyze validation across processing units, system memory, communication links, and PCI Express components.The TeamThe Systems Validation team validates Graphcore’s AI compute platforms across hardware, firmware, and software domains.Responsibilities and Duties Translate hardware features into structured, parameterized test cases, including:Objectives, workload models, parameters, metrics, and pass/fail criteria. Use and tune open-source tools such as:Stress-ng, fio, iperf, sysbench, ImbenchDefine workload parameters:Concurrency (threads/cores), memory footprint, access patternsQueue depth, block size, CPU/NUMA affinity. Design and execute validation scenarios:Functional, performance, stress, and corner-case testing.Validate across domains:CPU scaling and cache behaviorMemory (DDR/HBM) bandwidth, latency, and NUMA effectsInterconnect contention under multi-core loadPCIe/I-O throughput, latency, and multi-device scenariosDevelop custom micro-benchmarks (C/C++) when existing tools are insufficientUse Python to:Automate test execution and orchestrationImplement parameter sweeps and test matrices Parse, analyze, and visualize results. Debug system behavior and performance issues in collaboration with hardware and firmware teamsCandidate ProfileEssential Strong background in Linux systems and low-level performance analysisExperience in system validation, benchmarking, or performance testingSolid understanding of one or more domains:CPU architecture, memory systems, or PCIeExperience using benchmarking tools (stress-ng, fio, iperf, etc.)Ability to define test cases, parameters, and workload modelsProficiency in Python (essential) for automation, orchestration, and data analysisProgramming experience in C/C++ for micro-benchmark developmentDesirableExperience with Arm-based platformsStrong programming skills in C/C++ and Python for system-level development and automationFamiliarity with performance tools (perf, numactl, taskset)Experience with large-scale or high core-count systems