Senior/Principal DFT Engineer
Fractile is hiring a Senior/Principal DFT Engineer in London, United Kingdom. Level rates it ; you can apply on Fractile.
Level's read on this job
- On Level's scale, this role is Builds AI ●●●●: the job is building AI systems.
- The posting mentions Synopsys, Tessent and dft among its tools and skills.
- Level classes it as a senior role.
- Fractile has 23 other open roles on Level.
- Posted within the past two weeks.
AI in this role
Own and define the DFT architecture for a large AI accelerator SoC at Fractile.
Fractile was founded in 2022 on the bet that, eventually, the world’s most capable AI systems would be limited in their impact by the time taken to produce useful outputs. We bet everything on the logical conclusion: that the only way to truly unlock this latent value, to make speed viable at scale, was to radically re-invent the hardware that we run our frontier AI models on. Ever since, we have been building chips and systems that tackle this problem: how to efficiently generate output at thousands of tokens per second, while handling the complexity and capacity challenges of operating large models at very long contexts.
The workloads that push to the limits of the current frontier are already transformational; it is the technical and economic limits on inference speed that are constraining progress. The defining work of the 21st century will be marked by the engine of inference delivering immense and diffuse chains of intellectual inquiry, in drug discovery, in software engineering, in materials discovery, in any field where progress is driven by deep reasoning and intelligence to resolve complex problems.
Key Responsibilities
Own and define the DFT architecture for a large AI accelerator SoC (scan, compression, MBIST, LBIST, boundary scan)
Set DFT strategy, methodology, flow and signoff criteria
Drive integration of DFT tools and flows into the overall EDA environment
Define hierarchical DFT approach for multi-core designs and large memory systems
Define scan architecture, compression strategy, and ATPG approach
Define memory test and repair strategy for large embedded RAM
Establish power-aware and at-speed test strategies
Work closely with RTL and physical design to ensure clean DFT integration and timing closure
Work with test and product engineering teams to bring up and debug ATPG patterns on ATE, supporting production test and yield ramp
Mentor and guide DFT engineers
Required Experience
Strong experience in DFT for complex ASIC/SoC designs (typically 8+ years)
Proven ownership of DFT architecture on at least one large tapeout
Deep expertise in scan, compression, ATPG, and MBIST
Experience with industry tools (Synopsys or Tessent)
Strong understanding of clocking, resets, power domains, and physical constraints
Experience with silicon bring-up, debug, and yield ramp
Profile
Comfortable owning ambiguous, high-impact problems
Balances architectural thinking with hands-on execution
Sets direction while staying close to implementation details
Competitive salary: A competitive salary reflective of your experience and the specialist nature of the role.
Equity & Ownership: meaningful equity so everyone shares in the value creation
Benefits: Private Medical, Dental and Vision, Contributory Pension, 25 Days holiday plus bank holidays and Life/Critical Illness Insurance.
Diverse & fun office: we believe the hardest problems get solved by the broadest range of minds. We are committed to Equal Employment Opportunity through attracting and retaining a diverse team and building an inclusive environment.
Fractile is seeking to increase the clock speed of global progress, one chip at a time. We’ve recently raised $220M from investors including Founders Fund and Accel and our most important work lies ahead. Join us!
Export controls
Our work involves technologies subject to UK, US and other international export control regulations. Certain roles may require additional eligibility checks to ensure compliance with applicable law. We'll be transparent about this throughout the hiring process.
How we rate this
Senior/Principal DFT Engineer at Fractile rates 85 out of 100 for how much of the daily work is AI. That makes it Builds AI (AI Level 4 of 4). The level is about AI in the job, not seniority.
Builds AI. The job is building AI systems.
- ●●●● Builds AI80 to 100
- ●●●○ Works on AI60 to 79
- ●●○○ Uses AI40 to 59
- ●○○○ Little AI0 to 39
Levels come from how often the tools, models and workflows of the role are named in the posting itself. Read the description and count the AI tools, models and workflows it names.
Prepare for this job
Built from this posting and from similar jobs on Level.
Skills and AI tools this role asks for
Questions you could be asked
- Tell me about a project where dft was part of your work. What did you do?
- Tell me about a project where asic was part of your work. What did you do?
- Tell me about a project where soc was part of your work. What did you do?
- Tell me about a project where atpg was part of your work. What did you do?
- Tell me about a project where mbist was part of your work. What did you do?
Adapt your resume
- List these exact terms on your resume: Dft, Asic, Soc, Atpg, and Mbist. An applicant tracking system matches the wording, not the idea.
- Attach one line of real, concrete experience to at least one of them. A tool named with nothing behind it rarely survives a human read.
- Lead with what you built, trained or shipped. This role is judged on the AI system itself, not the tools around it.
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