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2026 Graduate Software Engineer - AI/ML Test Systems

Graphcore·Bristol·Posted 32 days ago

Graphcore designs Intelligence Processing Units (IPUs) purpose-built to accelerate machine learning and AI workloads. This 2026 Graduate Software Engineer - AI/ML Test Systems role is based in Bristol. The role contributes to the UK's fast-growing AI semiconductors sector.

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

The position requires a strong interest in reliability and performance testing, as well as a genuine passion for debugging and problem-solving. Ideal candidates will be self-motivated, enthusiastic, and able to work independently while also being effective communicators who can collaborate with team members. They should also be the type of person who takes initiative and gets things done quickly and efficiently. This opportunity is particularly well-suited for graduate software engineers seeking to gain hands-on exposure to the exciting fields of Artificial Intelligence (AI), ML, and AI accelerator hardware.

The Team

The Software QA team is composed of highly skilled and dedicated software engineers with a strong passion for automation and data analysis. They collaborate extensively with industry-standard machine learning frameworks and models, making contributions to upstream open-source projects. Operating in a dynamic and fast-paced environment, the team consistently delivers high-quality results, ensuring exceptional customer experiences and impactful advancements in the product.

Responsibilities and Duties

  • Create representative ML workloads and gain insights from their execution. (Numerical accuracy, performance analysis and benchmarking).
  • Build Continuous Integration/Delivery (CI/CD) against hardware simulators/emulators and physical hardware.
  • Design and write tests for projects within the Software team and ML frameworks.
  • Work closely with all Software development teams, supporting a culture of quality, security and maintainability.
  • Evaluate the effectiveness of existing test strategies and infrastructure and make thoughtful improvements to ensure they continue to support team goals and organizational direction.

Candidate Profile

Essential:

  • Bachelor’s or Master’s Degree in Computer Science, Maths, Machine Learning, Data Science, or related field.
  • Strong proficiency in Python
  • Proficiency in C++
  • Experience with Linux operating systems
  • Must be a fast learner

Desirable

  • Exposure to machine learning frameworks such as PyTorch, JAX, Triton, TensorFlow
  • Experience with distributed workload management systems such as Kubernetes, VLLM, Keras or MLOps pipelines
  • Experience with hardware architectures or compilers
  • Experience with test automation in a CI/CD environment
  • Exposure to data analytic methodologies

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. 

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About Graphcore

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.

Stage: AcquiredBristol
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