Staff UEFI Firmware Engineer

About the role

Graphcore is actively seeking a Staff UEFI Firmware Engineer to join the Firmware Engineering team and take ownership of the core firmware stack that powers its next-generation AI server platforms. In this role, you will be responsible for architecting, developing, and shipping robust UEFI firmware that manages platform initialization, hardware configuration, and critical reliability features for large-scale data center deployments. You will work directly with system architects to define low-level firmware behavior, ensuring that the silicon capabilities are fully utilized to meet the stringent performance and stability requirements of hyperscale environments. This position requires deep collaboration with cross-functional partners including silicon engineering, hardware design, BMC firmware, validation, and platform architecture teams to deliver a cohesive and reliable platform. The ideal candidate will bring a strong background in server firmware, with a proven ability to translate complex hardware specifications into stable and secure firmware images. You will be instrumental in enabling the boot flow, security model, and runtime services that underpin the entire AI training and inference infrastructure. This role offers the opportunity to have significant technical impact on the infrastructure that powers machine intelligence workloads globally.

Key facts

What you'll do

• Architect and implement UEFI firmware images that serve as the foundational control plane for hyperscale server systems.
• Partner with ODM vendors from initial design bring-up through high-volume production to ensure firmware compatibility and platform correctness.
• Integrate UEFI firmware into modern CI/CD pipelines to enable automated builds, regression testing, and static analysis checks on every change.
• Develop low-level initialization routines for critical system components including CPU clusters, memory controllers, DDR training sequences, and high-speed PCIe interconnects.
• Design and implement security mechanisms such as root of trust measurement, verified boot, secure boot chains, and secure firmware update processes with cryptographic signing.
• Create and maintain platform-level RAS (reliability, availability, serviceability) features that are exposed through UEFI interfaces and system firmware logs.
• Build and expose standardized interfaces for telemetry collection, remote firmware updates, and system management functions.
• Collaborate closely with hardware engineers, BMC firmware teams, security specialists, and validation groups to achieve end-to-end platform integration.
• Investigate and perform root cause analysis for firmware defects observed in laboratory test environments and in deployed customer systems.
• Define and drive the firmware roadmap for new server platforms, ensuring alignment with product milestones and customer requirements.
• Mentor junior firmware engineers and contribute to architectural decisions that shape the long-term firmware strategy for the company.
• Maintain and evolve UEFI-based build systems to support new silicon revisions, hardware features, and compliance requirements.
• Ensure firmware images meet strict security and certification standards required for deployment in regulated data centers.
• Act as a technical leader in firmware design reviews, code inspections, and validation planning activities across the organization.

Requirements

• Hold a Bachelor's or Master's degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Computer Science, or a closely related technical field.
• Possess 8 or more years of hands-on experience building UEFI or BIOS firmware specifically for server and data center platforms.
• Demonstrate deep expertise in UEFI specification, TianoCore firmware framework, and modern UEFI firmware architecture.
• Have a proven track record of successfully delivering firmware for hyperscale or large-scale cloud data center environments.
• Show strong proficiency in C and C++ programming, including low-level systems programming and firmware constraints.
• Maintain a solid understanding of DDR memory training procedures, cache coherency protocols, and PCIe subsystem configuration.
• Exhibit experience with secure boot implementations, cryptographic operations, and chain-of-trust mechanisms within firmware.
• Display strong problem-solving skills with the ability to debug complex firmware and hardware interactions under pressure.

Skills & tools

• UEFI and TianoCore framework development
• C/C++ programming for low-level systems
• DDR memory training and optimization
• Cache coherency protocol understanding
• PCIe configuration and debugging
• Firmware CI/CD pipeline implementation and maintenance
• Static analysis tools and code quality enforcement
• Secure boot and root of trust implementation
• Server hardware bring-up and integration
• Automated testing frameworks for firmware
• Version control and code review processes
• Debugging tools for firmware and hardware validation

About the company

Graphcore has built a new type of processor for machine intelligence to accelerate machine learning and AI applications for a world of intelligent machines.