Senior Firmware Engineer

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 Soft Bank 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.

Reporting to the Firmware Manager and working as a member of the Firmware Team, the Senior Staff Firmware Engineer is responsible for the design, development, and delivery of complex firmware systems across Graphcore’s next‑generation hardware platforms.

This role requires significant technical breadth and deep embedded systems expertise. You will contribute to shaping the firmware architecture and design, guide engineering practices, and solve highly challenging problems while maintaining a strong hands‑on focus. You will partner closely with hardware, drivers, silicon and platform teams to deliver robust, scalable, production‑quality firmware.

The Firmware Team develops the low‑level software responsible for the complete boot, configuration, and monitoring of Graphcore silicon and hardware platforms. Our work includes:

• Boot and power sequencing
• Low‑level hardware interfaces and drivers
• Telemetry, monitoring and SMBus/BMC data exposure
• Silicon and system bring‑up

• Act as a technical authority for complex firmware features, flows, and subsystems
• Contribute to architectural development and design for substantial parts of the firmware stack, ensuring long‑term maintainability and scalability
• Influence technical decision‑making both within your immediate team and beyond
• Work closely with the Tech Lead to provide technical direction and maintain the long‑term architecture of Graphcore’s firmware and tooling

• Design, implement, and deliver high‑quality, production‑ready firmware in C
• Take ownership of technically challenging areas such as boot flows, real‑time embedded logic, platform security, or silicon bring‑up
• Perform deep system debugging using oscilloscopes, logic analysers, JTAG, emulation, and other low‑level tools
• Review and improve code, designs, and implementation approaches across the team

• Collaborate closely with hardware, silicon, platform, drivers and test teams to define requirements and resolve interdependent issues
• Work directly with external partners, firmware vendors, or silicon suppliers on integration and technical problem‑solving
• Communicate complex technical concepts clearly to both expert and non‑expert audiences

• Ensure correctness, robustness, security, and maintainability of firmware solutions
• Support improvements to validation frameworks, CI/CD systems, automated testing and firmware packaging
• Drive root‑cause investigations and long‑term corrective actions for complex issues in the field or during bring‑up

• Mentor other engineers within the Firmware team and across the broader System Software organisation
• Raise engineering standards through guidance, best practices, design patterns and consistent high‑quality execution
• Contribute to long‑term improvements in engineering culture, team capabilities, and quality bar

• Contribute to improving Agile workflows, estimation, and team execution models
• Drive enhancements to build systems, integration environments and development tooling
• Introduce new technologies, frameworks, or design approaches that increase efficiency or product capability

• Significant industry experience in…