The posting
About 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.
About the role
Based in the UK you will be a key member of the Manufacturing Operations team where you will drive the development of our business management systems as well as our product, supplier, software and customer quality initiatives.
You will be comfortable with assessing processes and technologies to identify quality gaps and provide robust but pragmatic solutions to drive all aspects of the business in achieving the highest levels of quality and resilience.
Key responsibilities
- Define and deliver the company quality strategy, policy and objectives, aligned to the product roadmap and growth plan.
- Build, lead and develop a quality team covering supplier, product, reliability, software and systems quality.
- Define and report quality performance to the executive team.
- Establish appropriate document control, change control, CAPA, internal audit, training and records processes that scale with a fast-growing fabless company.
- Work with PMO to embed quality gates into the new product introduction (NPI) and product lifecycle process, from concept through end of life.
- Own quality across the supply chain: wafer foundry, assembly and packaging, wafer and final test, PCB/PCBA and system-level contract manufacturers.
- Lead supplier selection, qualification, audits and ongoing performance management, including scorecards and quarterly business reviews.
- Work with engineering leaders to define software quality standards across drivers, firmware, compilers, SDKs and runtime.
- Establish release criteria, test coverage expectations, defect management and regression processes, aligned with CI/CD practice.
- Bring in secure development and software supply chain practice, including SBOMs and vulnerability management.
- Support responsible AI and AI management practice where customers ask for it, including awareness of ISO/IEC 42001.
- Be the senior point of contact for customer quality, audits and escalations.
- Lead customer RMA and complaint handling, root cause analysis and 8D responses to agreed timelines.
- Ensure product compliance with RoHS, REACH, WEEE, conflict minerals reporting, UKCA and CE marking, and relevant safety and EMC standards.
Essential experience and skills
- Significant experience in quality roles in semiconductors or electronics hardware, including creating and leading a quality function or team.
- Direct experience managing quality through outsourced manufacturing: foundries, OSATs, test houses and/or contract manufacturers.
- Deep knowledge of ISO 9001 and hands-on experience building or running a certified QMS.
- Working knowledge of semiconductor qualification and reliability (JEDEC), failure analysis and
- Awareness of data centre RAS assessments and HPC system qualification and certification.
- Fluency in core quality tools: 8D, FMEA, control plans, SPC, MSA and root cause analysis.
- Experience handling customer quality escalations with large, demanding customers.
- Degree in electrical or electronic engineering, materials science, physics or a related discipline.
- Clear, confident communicator who can influence engineers, suppliers and executives, and hold partners to account.
- Willing to travel internationally, including to Asia and US, for supplier audits and customer quality reviews.
Desirable
- Experience in a fabless company, particularly one bringing an initial product to volume.
- Background in high-performance compute, data centre, networking or AI hardware.
- Exposure to software quality, release management or secure development practice.
- Lead auditor certification (ISO 9001), Six Sigma Black Belt, or chartered status (for example CQI or IET).
- Experience working with suppliers in Taiwan, South Korea or US.
The impact you will have
You will help Fractile to makes sure every one of our suppliers builds to our standard, and that our customers receive AI hardware and software they can trust in production whilst shaping the quality culture across engineering, operations and commercial teams.
What We Offer
- 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.
