Principal Test Framework Software Engineer
Originally posted 29 October 2026 by the employer.
About the role
As Principal Test Framework Software Engineer, you will define and evolve the software architecture used to qualify and validate Graphcore's AI hardware platforms. Working within Test Software and Automation, you will translate hardware requirements into test solutions across development, system validation, and production environments.
What you'll do
- Own the architecture and technical roadmap for shared test automation frameworks used in hardware bring-up, qualification, regression testing, and production validation.
- Design and implement framework components, interfaces, configuration models, and reusable libraries that support multiple hardware platforms and test environments.
- Translate hardware specifications, validation plans, and quality requirements into scalable automated test suites with clear coverage and traceability.
- Integrate automated testing with continuous integration and delivery pipelines, source control, lab infrastructure, and test orchestration systems.
- Develop tools and data pipelines that collect, process, analyze, and visualize test results to identify failures, trends, and quality risks.
- Lead complex debugging across test software, operating systems, firmware, hardware, and lab environments.
What you'll need
- A bachelor's or master's degree in computer science, electrical engineering, computer engineering, or a related field, or equivalent practical experience.
- Professional experience building software for test automation, validation infrastructure, developer tooling, or related systems, including technical leadership at Principal, Staff, or Lead Engineer scope.
- Strong software development skills in Python and proficiency with Bash or comparable scripting languages.
- Demonstrated success designing modular, scalable, and maintainable frameworks, including stable interfaces, reusable components, configuration management, and automated verification.
- Experience with Linux or Unix environments, Git-based development, continuous integration and delivery pipelines, and software engineering practices for production-quality tools.
- Experience working at the boundary between software and hardware, including hardware test, system validation, or embedded platform environments.
Nice to have
- Experience with test orchestration, lab management, hardware farms, scheduling systems, or distributed automation infrastructure.
- Background in AI hardware, server platforms, embedded systems, baseboard management controllers, or related low-level environments.
- Experience integrating automated tests with manufacturing, deployment, or product-release workflows.
- Experience developing test-data pipelines, dashboards, or visualization tools for engineering analysis and quality reporting.
- Familiarity with containerized environments, remote execution, or infrastructure-as-code practices used to manage test systems.
Skills: test automation frameworks, Python, CI/CD, hardware bring-up, validation infrastructure
More semiconductor jobs: Austin jobs
This role has been open 0 days — well below the 50-day median for Infrastructure/Platform Software roles.
Infrastructure/Platform Software · Infrastructure Platform
|
Open roles in category
1033
|
Median days open
50 d
|
Category median salary (all employers)
$232k
|
See the full market breakdown ▾Category comparison, skills in demand, and who else is hiring
| Metric | Graphcore | All employers we track in this specialty (1033 roles · 91 employers) |
|---|---|---|
| Open roles in this specialty | 49 | 1033 |
| Open roles in the wider Software, Firmware & Systems family | 107 | 6363 · 147 employers |
| Median days open | 105 d | 50 d (+55 d vs this employer) |
| Median salary (USD postings) | — | $232k |
Skills observed across this category: test automation frameworks, Python, CI/CD, hardware bring-up, validation infrastructure
Who's hiring in this category
- NVIDIA · 295 open roles · median 51 d
- Qualcomm · 59 open roles · median 56 d
- AMD · 53 open roles · median 30 d
- Graphcore (this employer) · 48 open roles · median 104 d
- Intel Corporation · 46 open roles · median 14 d
- Cerebras · 36 open roles · median 93 d
How we counted: 1033 open Infrastructure/Platform Software (Infrastructure Platform) roles from 91 employers tracked in the SemiconductorJobs index, counted 29 Oct 2026. Specialty figures count only roles carrying this exact specialty label, so an employer's related work in neighbouring specialties is not included there — it is counted in the wider Software, Firmware & Systems family row. Figures refresh nightly.