Graduate Software Engineer, Drivers and Utilities 2027

Location: Bristol, UK Start date: September 2027 Application deadline : Midnight, 29th November 2026 We encourage you to apply early, as we may close applications before the advertised deadline. The Graduate Programme at Graphcore Join Graphcore in a permanent role and start your career with two years of hands-on learning. From day one, you’ll be trusted to take ownership, share your ideas and help shape what we’re creating. You’ll tackle challenging problems alongside a team who support your development and are as excited about your success as you are. What you’ll work on Put your coding skills to work at the boundary of hardware and software, helping Graphcore’s platforms perform at their best. As a Graduate Systems Software Engineer in the Drivers and Utilities team, you’ll help plan, build, test and improve kernel drivers and user space driver libraries. Your code will support the wider software stack and help engineering teams and customers use Graphcore hardware efficiently and effectively. You’ll write code to Graphcore standards, create unit tests, review code and manually test changes. You’ll also support our continuous integration system and contribute to technical design discussions, learning how changes are developed, checked and integrated. Your team and support Systems Software brings together Firmware, Drivers and Utilities, and System QA. These teams enable the silicon and hardware platforms created across Graphcore. You’ll work closely with hardware and software colleagues through design discussions, Scrum ceremonies, code reviews and testing. Technical evidence and the needs of the software stack help guide our decisions. As you find your feet with your buddy’s assistance, you’ll be encouraged to ask questions, challenge existing approaches and share ideas for making things better. Take responsibility for your code, ask questions early and learn from feedback. Speak up when you spot a problem or need support. While we expect more of a learning curve with graduates joining the team, everyone’s contribution is valued and you may find your solutions to our most challenging problems being adopted – some of our previous graduates' ideas have even been accepted for patent applications in their first year with the company! How you’ll learn and grow During the two-year programme, you’ll build your understanding of how hardware and software interact through hands-on work on drivers and libraries. Writing and testing changes will help you develop your low-level programming skills and learn how to check that your code behaves as intended. Work on continuous integration will show you how automated checks support reliable software development. Code reviews, design discussions and practical problem solving with hardware and software teams will help you develop your engineering judgement, explain your approach and understand how your work fits into Graphcore’s wider software stack. What we're looking for • Experience with low-level software, such as embedded software, device drivers, or a university or personal project • Basic electronics knowledge, including confidence reading schematics and datasheets • Introductory coding experience in C, C++ or Python • Practical Git experience, including branches, pull requests, reviews and merges, and awareness of Continuous Integration systems such as Jenkins • Bring curiosity about how hardware and software platforms interact, a willingness to take responsibility for your work and openness to asking questions and learning from others You can demonstrate these skills through coursework, a dissertation, personal or team projects, research, or other relevant experience. Tell us what you built or investigated, how you approached it and what you learned. Benefits • Fl