Foundry Engineer - Dram

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 Taiwan, you will be Fractile’s manufacturing technology interface with our DRAM suppliers and their manufacturing team. You will work closely with our silicon design, quality and operations teams to take DRAM devices from development and engineering samples through qualification and volume production.

This is a hands-on technical role. You must have direct experience with DDR5 DRAM, understand DRAM architecture and operation down to gate and transistor level, and know how to define test strategies that detect manufacturing defects and verify device performance.

You will be comfortable challenging supplier assumptions, investigating failures in detail and taking ownership of issues through to resolution.

Key responsibilities

• Own the technical manufacturing relationship with Fractile’s DRAM suppliers, ensuring clear requirements, credible qualification plans and readiness for production.

• Work with Fractile’s design teams and DRAM partners to translate device requirements into manufacturing specifications, test coverage and acceptance criteria.

• Review DRAM architecture and circuit implementation, including memory cells, access transistors, capacitors, wordlines, bitlines, sense amplifiers, decoders, peripheral logic and redundancy circuits.

• Apply detailed knowledge of activation, sensing, restoration, precharge, refresh and read/write operations to assess device behaviour and investigate failures.

• Define and review test strategies covering wafer probe, packaged-device testing, characterisation, qualification and production screening.

• Working with Fractile’s Manufacturing Test Team you will ensure test programmes cover functional, parametric, timing, retention, coupling and disturb-related failures across appropriate voltage, temperature and frequency conditions.

• Assess the effects of redundancy, repair and on-die ECC on test coverage, ensuring underlying defects are adequately detected and understood.

• Analyse wafer maps, bit-failure maps, yield trends and characterisation data to identify root causes and drive corrective actions with suppliers.

• Establish correlation between supplier test results and Fractile’s device and system evaluation, resolving gaps in coverage or inconsistent results.

• Drive improvements in yield, outgoing quality and test efficiency as products move into volume production.

• Assess and manage supplier process, material and test-programme changes, including their qualification requirements and impact on Fractile’s products.

• Give internal teams clear visibility of technical risks, qualification progress and manufacturing readiness.

Essential experience and skills

• Substantial experience in DRAM manufacturing, product engineering, test engineering or device characterisation.

• Hands-on experience with DDR5 DRAM development, qualification or production testing.

• Deep understanding of DRAM structure and operation at gate and transistor level, including memory-cell behaviour and analogue sensing circuits.

• Practical experience selecting and implementing DRAM test strategies.

• Understanding of how process variation and manufacturing defects affect DRAM performance, power, retention, reliability and yield.

• Ability to interpret circuit schematics, device specifications, timing diagrams and failure signatures.

• Experience working directly in or with DRAM suppliers and driving technical issues to resolution.

• Ability to work independently, prioritise competing issues and make sound engineering decisions in a growing company.

• Strong communication skills in English.

• Degree in electrical engineering, electronics, semiconductor physics or a related discipline, or equivalent industry experience.

Desirable experience

• Custom DRAM development and new product introduction.

• DRAM redundancy analysis, repair flows and on-die ECC evaluation.

• Reliability qualification, burn-in and accelerated stress testing.

• Statistical analysis and scripting using Python, JMP or similar tools.

• Mandarin language skills.

The impact you will have

You will help Fractile bring its memory technology into production, establishing effective test coverage, resolving manufacturing issues and ensuring our DRAM suppliers deliver the performance, quality and scale our compute platform needs.

How we work

• Ownership and execution: you will have full agency to drive your work forward

• Rapid iteration: we all work directly with top leadership to move from idea to hardware on ambitious timelines

• Full-stack engagement: hardware, software, silicon, and modelling teams all work closely together to create a product with generational impact

• Optimistic and pragmatic: we possess the will to win, and to do the hard work to get us there

• Team player mentality: the mission is bigger than any of us, and we have the curiosity and technical focus to see the best idea shipped, no matter who’s it is

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.