Principal Execution & QA 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 Principal Execution and Quality Validation Engineer will be responsible for driving validation execution, automation, product quality, and release readiness across Graphcore silicon and platform technologies.

The role combines deep expertise in hardware validation, test automation, and quality engineering with a strong focus on execution excellence. Working closely with architecture, design, verification, firmware, software, systems engineering, and validation teams, the successful candidate will develop scalable validation methodologies, improve test coverage and execution efficiency, and ensure products meet the highest standards of functionality, reliability, and performance before customer deployment.

As a recognized technical leader within the validation organisation, this role will influence validation strategies, automation roadmaps, and quality practices across multiple projects and engineering disciplines.

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

Define and drive validation strategies for complex silicon, subsystem, and platform technologies, ensuring comprehensive coverage across functional, performance, reliability, and stress testing
Leverage advanced hardware knowledge to plan, optimize, verify, and test critical electronic systems, including silicon, FPGA-based platforms, test systems, and associated validation infrastructure
Develop and execute validation plans that ensure products meet quality, reliability, and performance objectives before release
Create detailed test plans from high-level validation requirements and test cases, ensuring timely execution and high-fidelity results
Design, develop, and maintain automation frameworks that enable rapid execution of test plans, regression suites, and validation activities
Lead silicon and platform validation activities from bring-up through product readiness
Conduct complex analysis of 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, methodologies, 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 complex design features to identify functional, compatibility, integration, and reliability risks
Investigate and drive resolution of complex validation failures through structured debug and root-cause analysis methodologies
Assess validation techniques, workflows, and engineering processes, introducing automation and process improvements to maximize productivity
Support power, performance, and system-level validation activities through development of scalable validation infrastructure and methodologies
Influence validation roadmaps, infrastructure development, and engineering best practices across the validation organisation
Act as the final validation authority for assigned areas, ensuring issues are identified and resolved before products reach customers
Drive continuous improvement initiatives that improve validation quality, execution efficiency, and engineering productivity
Mentor engineers on validation methodologies, automation frameworks, test execution strategies, and quality practices

Candidate Profile

Essential

Strong experience in silicon validation, hardware validation, system validation, or related engineering disciplines
Deep understanding of validation methodologies, test planning, test execution, and quality processes
Strong experience developing automation frameworks for validation, regression execution, and test orchestration
Expert-level 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, test cases, and measurable quality outcomes
Experience analysing validation results and driving root-cause investigations for complex technical issues
Strong 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
Exceptional communication skills and the ability to influence technical direction across multidisciplinary engineering teams
Ability to independently lead complex technical initiatives and drive adoption of new validation methodologies and tools

Desirable

Experience with post-silicon bring-up and system integration activities
Experience developing large-scale 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 working on AI accelerator, high-performance compute, or semiconductor products
Experience defining organisational validation standards, quality metrics, and engineering best practices
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