Scholar Profile – Tara

Meet Tara: A Year in Engineering at Arm

Tara is completing a year-long placement at Arm in Sheffield, working in System Engineering Verification on a server SoC for cloud workloads. Alongside her placement, she is studying Mechatronic Engineering at the University of Manchester and is a UK Electronics Skills Foundation (UKESF) Scholar.

What has surprised you most about working at Arm?

One thing that has surprised me is the scale of Arm’s technology and partnerships. With the growing focus on SoCs, I hadn’t realised just how many companies we work with, or just how much demand there is for Arm technology.

I’ve been surprised by the level of technical expertise around me. Working within Verification has given me a strong understanding of how the whole design ties together. Beyond the technical expertise, I’ve also seen how excited people here are to build new tools and explore new technologies, such as AI agents and agentic workflows, which have turned into genuinely useful internal tools.

How has your placement helped you grow as an engineer?

I’ve already developed new skills and gained a much deeper understanding of engineering in industry.

As a mechatronics student, I’d studied areas such as digital system design and microcontrollers at university, but not at the same level of depth that I’m now experiencing at Arm.

So far, I’ve been learning more about chip design, the flow of SoC development and how different blocks fit together. I’ve also started building my verification skills, from writing tests and analysing waveforms to understanding issues in more detail and working out how to solve them.

It’s helped me see how some of the concepts I’ve learned at university come together when you’re working on a much larger engineering system.

What would you like future UKESF Scholars to know about placements at Arm?

There are lots of different teams at Arm working across different areas, so I’d recommend thinking about what you’ve enjoyed most from your studies and projects before you apply.

If you’ve had experience with digital design, for example, think about whether you’ve enjoyed the software or hardware side more, or whether there’s a particular stage of chip design that interests you.

But don’t feel intimidated by what you have or haven’t done already. You aren’t expected to know everything. What’s important is showing that you’re passionate, interested in the work and able to pick up new things.

Arm has a lot to offer, so being curious about where your interests could take you is valuable.

How has the UKESF Scholarship supported your journey into engineering?

The UKESF Scholarship has been a great way to connect more deeply with industry and learn more about the different opportunities available in engineering. Through the scholarship, I was also given the opportunity to represent Arm at a UKESF event about semiconductor talent, where I spoke with a range of senior people from across the industry.

I’ve also been paired with a UKESF buddy who has already been through the programme. It means I have someone I can contact with career questions, or even just general questions about their experience.

Having that connection with someone who has already been through the journey has been really useful as I start to build my own experience in industry.