Key Takeaways
- Undertake a 12-week Software Engineering internship focusing on AI hardware drivers and utilities.
- Earn £2500 per month, with potential for graduate programme opportunities.
- Gain hands-on experience in low-level software development, testing, and continuous integration.
- Applications close at midnight on 29th November, with potential for early closure.
About the Role
The Internship Programme at Graphcore
Explore a career at Graphcore through a 12-week summer internship, gaining hands-on experience on real projects. You’ll bring fresh ideas, put your learning into practice and help shape what we’re creating. Along the way, you’ll tackle challenging problems with a team who welcome your questions and support you as you build your skills and confidence.
What you’ll work on
Put your low-level programming skills to work on the drivers that connect Graphcore’s AI hardware with machine learning software. As a Software Engineering Intern in Drivers and Utilities, you’ll explore kernel and user-space development alongside engineers working across the hardware and software stack. Your contributions will help the wider software team use Graphcore hardware efficiently and support the systems our customers depend on.
Your tasks could include:
- Writing code
- Adding unit tests
- Manually testing your own and teammates’ changes
- Maintaining continuous integration (CI)
- Fixing issues
The team and culture
The Drivers and Utilities team sits within System Software, alongside Firmware and System QA. You’ll work with engineers who collaborate directly with Poplar SDK developers, silicon engineers and hardware engineers. Technical design discussions, code reviews and Scrum sessions will help you understand how the team develops and coordinates its work. You can ask for help as you learn the codebase, discuss different approaches and use feedback to improve your changes. Decisions are shaped by design discussions, code reviews and test results. As an intern, you’ll be encouraged to ask questions, share ideas and flag problems early, with support from experienced engineers as you learn.
How you’ll learn and grow
Over the 12 weeks, you’ll build practical experience in low-level software development, testing and continuous integration through the work your tasks focus on. Following changes from an initial idea through implementation and testing will help you understand what makes driver software reliable. You’ll learn how to check your work, investigate issues and contribute to a shared codebase, gaining a clearer view of a career close to the hardware.
Your internship is a chance to explore a future at Graphcore. Depending on your performance and the roles available, there may be an opportunity to join one of our graduate programmes once you’ve graduated.
What we’re looking for
- Currently studying for a bachelor’s or master’s degree in Computer Science, Maths, Machine Learning, Data Science or a related field
- Low-level software experience, such as embedded code or device drivers, and introductory programming experience in C, C++ or Python. Personal or university projects count
- Basic electronics knowledge, including the ability to read and understand schematics and datasheets
- Awareness of continuous integration systems such as Jenkins, plus experience using Git to manage source code, raise and review pull requests, and merge branches
Previous industry experience is not required. Tell us what you built or investigated through coursework, personal or team projects or other relevant experience, how you approached it and what you learned.
Benefits
- Flexible working
- 5 days of annual leave
- Life in the office: free food, ice cream, on-site barista
- Learning and development: access to O’Reilly online learning platform
Sponsorship
Applicants must already have the right to work in the UK for the full duration of the programme, without requiring visa sponsorship. We are unable to sponsor work visas for our Early Careers opportunities.
How to apply and what to expect
To apply, answer the application questions below and upload your CV and cover letter. We’ll let you know the outcome of your application by early December at the latest. If successful, you’ll be invited to complete a technical assessment. Candidates who reach the final stage will then be invited to attend in-person assessments in early spring.