
Graphcore designs Intelligence Processing Units (IPUs) purpose-built to accelerate machine learning and AI workloads. They're hiring a 2026 Graduate Silicon Engineer, based in Cambridge. This role sits within the UK's growing AI semiconductors sector.
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.
About the role
The Silicon team are responsible for designing the silicon chips produced by Graphcore in leading node technologies and using the leading EDA Tools. Silicon is divided into three areas, that all work closely together:
The Logical design and DFT team; responsible for realising architectural intent in a form that can be physically implemented and subsequently manufacturing level tested.
The Verification team; ensure that our chips perform in accordance with their specification and that their implementation is similarly accurate.
The Physical Design team; take the logical RTL and produce final transistor level layout (GDS) ready to send to a foundry for manufacture.
All 3 roles involve using industry standard EDA tools which you will become familiar with.
About you
We are looking for technical, passionate, and motivated individuals with a desire to learn, work and develop in a technically challenging, fast paced environment.
Essential:
We are not looking for an instant expert but graduates with the hunger to learn, develop and contribute to Graphcore's future.
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.
Graphcore is a Bristol-based AI semiconductor company founded in 2016 by serial semiconductor entrepreneurs Nigel Toon and Simon Knowles. Toon previously led XMOS and Picochip, while Knowles co-founded Element14 (acquired by Broadcom) and Icera (acquired by NVIDIA for $435M). The company developed Intelligence Processing Units (IPUs), novel AI accelerators designed from the ground up for machine learning workloads, alongside the proprietary Poplar graph programming framework. Graphcore raised $767M in total funding, reaching a $2.77B valuation, with backing from Sequoia Capital, Atomico, Amadeus, Microsoft, and others. In July 2024, SoftBank Group acquired Graphcore for approximately $500M to $600M. The company continues to operate from Bristol with plans to expand its UK headcount to 750.