The posting
Location: Bristol, UK Salary: £45,000 per annum 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 design skills to work on clearer ways for people to understand complex AI workloads.
In Graphcore’s UX team, you’ll help shape software used to understand and optimise workloads running on our hardware. Your work will make technical workflows easier to navigate and turn complex system behaviour into clear user experiences.
With support from senior designers, you’ll create wireframes, high-fidelity designs and research materials. You’ll also help run usability studies, analyse findings and maintain our research repository, using what you learn to improve designs.
Your team and support
The UX team works closely with engineers and product managers throughout the development lifecycle. Design decisions are shaped by user insight, technical constraints and clear evidence.
Your manager, Lucy, will work with you to build your skills, make time for learning and shape your career. Her favourite part of leadership is helping talented, driven people turn ideas into action, with the support and space to do their best work. You’ll also have a buddy to help you settle in, alongside a team of experienced designers keen to share what they know and help you develop.
Josh recently joined us as a graduate and is confident, he’ll have discovered all the best lunch spots near the office by the time you arrive. He’s looking forward to sharing his favourites with you!
You’ll contribute to Decagon, our design library, and help keep research insights useful and easy to find. The work moves from discovery to design, testing and iteration, and you will build confidence and take ownership of defined tasks.
You’ll be encouraged to ask questions, challenge existing approaches and share ideas for making things better. We’ll support you to take responsibility for your work and speak up when you spot a problem or need help. Thoughtful discussion and clear communication help us learn from each other and improve our designs.
How you’ll learn and grow
During the two-year programme, you’ll build skills across user experience (UX), user interface (UI) design, research and design systems through real product work.
Creating designs and helping run usability studies will give you practical experience of exploring user needs, testing ideas and turning findings into improvements. Contributing to Decagon will help you understand how a shared design library supports consistent interfaces.
Working with senior designers, engineers and product managers will help you explain your design decisions, respond to feedback and understand how user needs and technical constraints shape a product.
What we’re looking for
- A degree in UX, Interaction Design, Human–Computer Interaction (HCI), Graphic Design or a related discipline
- UX/UI design experience and a portfolio demonstrating your UX thinking, design process and visual skills
- Proficiency in design tools such as Figma or Adobe XD
- Strong communication and collaboration skills, with an interest in designing for complex, technical or business-to-business (B2B) software products
Your experience can come from academic or personal projects, internships or placements. In your portfolio, show the problem you explored, how you approached it, the design decisions you made and what you learned.
Benefits
- Flexible working: Balance your work and personal life with greater flexibility
- Retirement planning support: Up to 5% matched pension
- Phantom equity: Share in Graphcore’s success
- Workplace experience: Enjoy thoughtfully designed office spaces for collaboration, with free food and an on-site barista to support your day
- Peace of mind protection: Income protection and life assurance to provide financial security for you and your loved ones
- Electric Vehicle Scheme: Choose an electric vehicle and lease it through salary sacrifice
- Flexible benefits: Tailor your benefits package with a choice of additional options, including private medical insurance and dental cover
- Optional benefits: Dental cover, health cash plan, private medical insurance, cycle to work scheme, give as you earn
We welcome people from all backgrounds and experiences and are committed to building an inclusive environment where everyone can do their best work.
We’re an equal opportunity employer and recognise that everyone brings different strengths and perspectives. If you need any adjustments during the interview process, just let us know - we’re happy to support you.
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.
Introduction to Graphcore
At Graphcore, we’re building next generation AI compute: from semiconductors and software to systems at datacenter scale. We are proud to be owned by SoftBank Group and work with other companies in the SoftBank family to deliver AI compute to customers working at the AI frontier. Starting your career here means working alongside people with different backgrounds and expertise, from AI researchers to chip designers and software engineers. You’ll learn from each other, bring fresh ideas and help solve challenging problems together.
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.
Ready to put your learning into practice? Start your UX career in a permanent role, with two years of hands-on learning through the Graphcore Graduate Programme. Apply now and help shape what comes next.
