Career Openings in Cambridge, UK

Solarflare is the pioneer in high-performance, low-latency 10GbE server I/O solutions. We're changing the way operating systems, applications and the hardware interact to allow computer networks to be faster, more responsive and more reliable. Our architectural approach combines hardware and software to deliver high-performance adapter products and application-acceleration middleware for superior performance in a wide range of applications, including financial services, high-performance computing (HPC), cloud computing, storage and virtualised data centres. Our products are used globally by many of the world's largest companies.

Solarflare's R&D site is based in Cambridge, UK and our headquarters is in Irvine, California. Solarflare is venture-capital backed and the remuneration package includes share options for all employees.

Due to the success and growth of Solarflare products we are looking for additional engineers in various capacities. CVs should be emailed to uk-jobs@solarflare.com with a covering letter.

Hardware Engineer – FPGA
Director of Board Products
Verification Lead
Test Engineer
Device Driver Engineer
Software Engineer (FPGA products)
Software Engineer (Onload)
Firmware Engineers
Graduate Software Engineers
Software Application Engineers
Verification Engineer
Product Engineer

Hardware Engineer – FPGA

We are currently seeking a Design Engineer based at our R&D Centre in Cambridge and reporting to the Vice President of Hardware Engineering. You will be working on our FPGA based product range.

Responsibilities:

Development of applications including FPGA RTL and associated testing for the Solarflare AOE product

Essential Skills & Experience:

RTL coding, simulation and debug in System Verilog
FPGA implementation flows; Altera Quartus II
Debugging tools and workflows for FPGA based products
Linux / Python / GNU Make
Excellent communication and written skills
Ability to work well as part of a team
Professional and enthusiastic approach to work
Willingness to be flexible and accept new challenges
A university degree (or equivalent) in either Electronic Engineering or Computer Science, although other degrees would be considered if experience is relevant

Additional skills which would be useful:

UVM / DPI experience
Synopsys VCS
Altera Qsys or SoPC builder experience
C, TLM2.0 and/or other programming languages
Communications protocols: ethernet and sockets
Knowledge of financial trading systems and exchange protocols
Agile scrum experience
Hardware Emulation tools
Board design and implementation skills

Director of Board Products

We are currently seeking a Director of Board Products based at our R&D Centre in Cambridge and reporting to the Vice President of Hardware Engineering. You will manage and lead a team which will design, test and deliver all board level hardware.

Responsibilities:

To manage and lead a team of Engineers to design, test and deliver all board level hardware.
This leader will partner closely with the Software Design Team and the Operations Team in the US
Provide leadership to coach, motivate, and lead team members to their optimum performance levels and career development.
Work with and lead a team to execute projects within timelines and within budget.
Work with team to produce product and technical specifications

Requirements:

Minimum of 10 years (or equivalent) of increasing responsibility of management/ leadership experience in a Hardware product development role
Will have led and managed product development teams in the past, and have created and shipped successful products
Will have strong technology knowledge across a broad technical spectrum including but not limited to:
- Board level design processes, ideally in a networking or telecoms arena
- Parts database management
- Product test, verification, OEM vendor qualification
- Design to cost
- Working with offshore CMs, Far East experience preferred
- Product lifecycle management, phase-gated reviews
Excellent oral and written communication skills
The candidate is very organized, and has a track record of strong operational skills.
Good university degree, ideally in electronic engineering, although science graduates will be considered if they have relevant experience

Additional skills which would be useful:

Be equally comfortable and capable interacting with technologists as with business executives
Also have experience of Communications - Routing, Switching, Wireless, and Software

Test Engineer

We are looking for a Test Engineer to join our Test Team in Cambridge, UK.

Responsibilities:

Responding promptly to requests to test new or existing features; ability to quickly grasp new concepts, tests, and features is essential
Setting up test rigs, installing OSes and configuring equipment
Performing manual tests and recording results
Scheduling and running automated tests
Triaging and analysing results, collecting evidence, drawing conclusions
Applying scientific principles in running experiments and investigating failures
Communicating findings effectively and clearly, and summarizing and presenting findings to a wider audience
Assisting the customer-support team with investigating customer questions
Ensuring all results and defect-tracking systems are kept up to date
Verifying bug fixes and/or minor features/enhancements

Requirements:

2 plus years (or equivalent) experience in a test role
Excellent oral and written communication skills
Ability to configure Linux and Windows systems
Good understanding of PC architecture
Solid bug reporting / triage skills
Experience of protocols – TCP, IP, UDP, ICMP, ARP
High energy, self-driven and desire to constantly learn
HND or Degree in a relevant technical subject (Computer Science, Electronic Engineering or Physics)

Additional skills which would be useful::

C programming
Python programming
Good working knowledge of computer networking products
General product knowledge of virtualization technologies

Device Driver Engineer [ref: SwDrvEng]

We are looking for high calibre software engineers to work on the design and implementation of network device drivers for our next generation of 10G network controllers.

This role will involve working on a number of OS platforms including Linux, Solaris and VMware (Windows device driver development is also a possibility if of interest). There will be an opportunity to work with tier 1 OEMs and directly contribute software changes to the Linux kernel.

To be successful you will have the ability to quickly understand a complex hardware and software architecture. You will have worked extensively at the hardware / software interface involving networking in some capacity, programming in C ideally on Linux kernel components.

We are looking for device driver engineers with a very strong academic background in a numerical subject (e.g. maths, physics, computer science) or of similar calibre.

Requirements:

PhD, first class or 2:1 from well ranked university.
3+ years software experience (or equivalent) working at silicon or networking companies. For senior roles, 7+ years software experience (or equivalent) ideally working at silicon or networking companies plus repeated evidence of technical leadership in the successful delivery of complex and challenging software products.
Proven commercial experience developing in C
Linux kernel and device drivers
Hardware/software co-design and understanding of server system architectures
Ethernet & TCP/IP
Embedded systems
PCI-Express, server virtualization (Xen/Vmware/KVM)
Experience of digital design (EDA tools, Verilog, VHDL) an advantage

Software Engineer (FPGA products) [ref: SwAOEEng]

We are looking for high calibre software engineers to work on the design and implementation of software for Solarflare’s ground breaking Application Onload Engine (AOE) product range. Solarflare's AOE combines a fully featured 10GbE server adapter with a state-of-the-art FPGA (field-programmable gate array) - it is an open platform that moves application processing into the network adapter to greatly improve performance.

This is an exciting role which will involve development in C of firmware, Linux device drivers and associated application control code.

We are looking for engineers with a very strong academic background in a numerical subject (e.g. maths, physics, computer science) or of similar calibre.

Requirements:

PhD, first class or 2:1 from well ranked university.
3+ years software experience (or equivalent) working at silicon or networking companies. For senior roles, 7+ years software experience (or equivalent) ideally working at silicon or networking companies plus repeated evidence of technical leadership in the successful delivery of complex and challenging software products.
Proven commercial experience developing in C
Linux kernel and device drivers
Hardware/software co-design and understanding of server system architectures
Ethernet & TCP/IP
Embedded systems
Experience of working with FPGAs an advantage

Software Engineer (Onload) [ref: SwOnloadEng]

We are looking for very high calibre software engineers to work on the design and implementation of Solarflare’s OpenOnload application middleware. OpenOnload is a kernel bypass network solution providing an accelerated TCP/IP network stack which is dynamically linked into an application's address space and granted direct access to accelerated network hardware.

This role involves working on an ultra high performance TCP/IP implementation, a sockets layer which is semantically identical to Linux and a number of Linux kernel modules which integrate closely with the Linux network stack.

The role involves close working and consultancy to our tier1 financial (Wall Street) customer base. This is an ideal opportunity if you want more customer contact than a typical development role provides.

We are looking for engineers with a very strong academic background in a numerical subject (e.g. maths, physics, computer science) or of similar calibre.

Requirements:

PhD, first class or 2:1 from well ranked university.
3+ years software experience (or equivalent) working at silicon or networking companies. For senior roles
7+ years software experience (or equivalent) ideally working at silicon or networking companies plus repeated evidence of technical leadership in the successful delivery of complex and challenging software products.
Proven commercial experience developing in C
Linux kernel and device drivers
Good knowledge of Ethernet, TCP/IP and the sockets interface
Strong communication skills and desire to work closely with customers

Firmware Engineers [ref: SwFirmEng]

We are looking for high calibre software engineers to work on the design and implementation of embedded firmware which runs on our 10G network controllers and within attached FPGAs.

This is an exciting role helping Solarflare move into new markets. You will have worked extensively at the hardware / software interface involving networking in some capacity, programming in C and ideally assembler on occasion for small embedded environments.

We are looking for embedded engineers with a very strong academic background in a numerical subject (e.g. maths, physics or computer science) or of similar calibre.

Requirements:

PhD, first class or 2:1 from well ranked university.
3+ years software experience (or equivalent) working at silicon or networking companies.
Proven commercial experience developing in C
Hardware/software codesign
Ethernet & TCP/IP
Embedded systems ideally with extensive knowledge of system software and device drivers

Graduate Software Engineers [ref: SwGrdEng]

This is a great opportunity to gain experience and training in all aspects of the software life cycle before moving into a core software development role.

During the first year you will rotate through the various teams in the software department; the test group to understand the test process, the automation group to gain experience developing unit/system test harnesses, and application engineering to work on field issues/maintenance/release updates and assist in pre-sales prototyping. After this period you will move to a suitable core development role that suits your interest, skills and business needs.

You will become expert in technical skills including C and assembler programming, Python scripting and networking technologies. Prior skills and knowledge in these is a major advantage.

We are looking for top graduate calibre candidates with a very strong academic background in a numerical subject (e.g. maths, physics, computer science). PhD, first class or 2:1 from well ranked university.

Requirements:

PhD, first class or 2:1 from well ranked university.
Strong scientific / engineering degree or equivalent
Evidence of interest in programming in C
Knowledge of Linux and networking an advantage

Software Application Engineers [ref: SwAppsEng]

In this team you will be providing support and consultancy to our customers – mainly focussed on our OpenOnload product. OpenOnload is an open source, high performance, TCP/IP stack and therefore this role would suit engineers with a strong interest in networking who thrive on investigating and troubleshooting a substantial code base written in C. This is an ideal opportunity for your first move into a customer focussed role.

Working closely with the software development team you will be providing 1^st to 3^rd line technical support for the network adapter product range which is used globally by customers.

As we have customers worldwide, the team provides 24 hour support which will require some on-call duties.

Requirements:

PhD, first class or 2:1 from well ranked university
Strong scientific / engineering degree or equivalent
Proven commercial experience developing in C
Knowledge of Linux
Networking (TCP/IP, Ethernet)
Strong communication skills
Desire to work closely with customers
Socket programming
Application Support experience desirable

Verification Engineer

We are currently seeking a highly motivated Verification Engineer to join our growing Hardware Design team in Cambridge, UK. The ideal candidate is a self-starter, organised, flexible and will be required to demonstrate specialist skills in complex verification, including hands-on experience using state of the art verification tools, techniques and methodologies to achieve successful outcomes.

The team is focused on Solarflare's new Application Onload Engine (AOE) product. Verification is crucial to delivering a high quality product and Solarflare is using ASIC verification techniques to that end.

Consequently, although the team is targeting applications at FPGAs, the verification skills of the successful candidate are likely to have been gained in an ASIC development environment.

Responsibilities:

Using UVM and System Verilog, verify the applications and library components being developed by the RTL team to deliver high quality FPGA firmware to Tier 1 financial institutions and other high-profile customers

Requirements:

Proven track record of technically owning and executing the verification process from test plan creation to verification sign-off on a project of reasonable complexity
Extensive experience of SystemVerilog, OVM, UVM, DPI and TLMs, assertion-based verification
Demonstrated use of appropriate techniques (co-simulation, coverage collection, constrained random stimulus etc).
Programming experience in C and Python and sockets-based networking
Experience of Linux / Bash / GNU Make
Work unsupervised and as part of a team
Excellent oral and written communication skills
Good university degree, ideally in electronic engineering or computer science, although other science graduates will be considered if they have relevant experience.

Additional skills which would be useful:

Packet/wired-networking background; knowledge of Ethernet Layer 2 and Layer 3 protocols
Provide input to the board design process

Product Engineer

We are looking for an Product Engineer to join our Hardware Design team in Cambridge, UK. The ideal candidate is a self-starter, organised, flexible, and a good team-worker.

Responsibilities:

Provide engineering support for product/s through all phases of product development
Coordinate and manage new product introduction schedule and activities through product life cycle
Management of all product documentation throughout the product life cycle
Working to specified time frames and budgets
Work closely with Design, Test and Project Manager
Communicates technical product status to management
Work unsupervised and as part of a team

Requirements:

Excellent oral and written communication skills
Electronics engineering background
Experience of managing product documentation
Process improvement
Production / manufacturing experience for medium to large volume manufacturing
High energy, self-driven and desire to constantly learn
Proven experience of working within a technical environment
Project management experience
HND or Degree in Electronic Engineering or other applicable qualifications

Verification Lead

We are currently seeking a highly motivated Verification Lead to join and lead our growing Hardware Design team in Cambridge, UK. The ideal candidate is a self-starter, organised, flexible and will be required to demonstrate specialist skills in complex verification, including hands-on experience using state of the art verification tools, techniques and methodologies to achieve successful outcomes.

Consequently, although the team is targeting applications at FPGAs, the verification skills of the successful candidate are likely to have been gained in an ASIC development environment.

Responsibilities:

Using UVM and System Verilog, verify the applications and library components being developed by the RTL team to deliver high quality FPGA firmware to Tier 1 financial institutions and other high-profile customers
Manage and help expand the Cambridge verification team

Requirements:

Proven track record of technically owning and executing the verification process from test plan creation to verification sign-off on a project of reasonable complexity
Experience in managing teams of verification engineers
Extensive experience of SystemVerilog, OVM, UVM, DPI and TLMs, assertion-based verification
Demonstrated use of appropriate techniques (co-simulation, coverage collection, constrained random stimulus etc).
Programming experience in C and Python and sockets-based networking
Experience of Linux / Bash / GNU Make
Work unsupervised and as part of a team
Excellent oral and written communication skills
Good university degree, ideally in electronic engineering or computer science, although other science graduates will be considered if they have relevant experience.

Additional skills which would be useful:

Packet/wired-networking background; knowledge of Ethernet Layer 2 and Layer 3 protocols
Provide input to the board design process