Linux Engineering Lead Bristol, UK

At Graphcore, we’re building the future of AI compute. We’re a team of semiconductor, software and AI experts, with deep experience in creating the complete AI compute stack – from silicon and software to infrastructure at datacentre scale. As part of the SoftBank Group, backed by significant long‑term investment, we are delivering key technology into the fast‑growing SoftBank AI ecosystem. To meet the vast and exciting AI opportunity, Graphcore is expanding its teams around the world. We are bringing together the brightest minds to solve the toughest problems, in a place where everyone has the opportunity to make an impact on the company, our products and the future of artificial intelligence.

Job Summary

We are looking for a highly experienced Lead Engineer Support Linux Engineer to guide and develop a small group supporting engineering systems in a fast‑paced AI‑centered environment. The position requires strong Linux skills combined with leadership, automation, and DevOps approaches to maintain systems that are reliable, scalable, and easy to support at scale. An important responsibility is developing and managing a configuration‑as‑code environment, where system configuration and operations are handled through automation, pipelines, and source control rather than manual intervention.

You will be responsible for leading incident response, driving operational improvements, and setting standards for how Linux systems are managed and supported across the organization. While the role includes leadership responsibilities, it will initially require a hands‑on approach, including direct involvement in troubleshooting, system support, and automation efforts, while building team capability and scaling processes. Collaborating intimately with engineering groups, platform engineers, and infrastructure experts, you will guarantee systems stay stable, efficient, and consistent with changing business and product delivery requirements.

Responsibilities and Duties

• Guide, mentor, and cultivate a team of Linux Engineering Support Engineers, defining clear roles, responsibilities, and methods of collaboration.
• Own and oversee support for Linux‑based systems and engineering environments, ensuring stability, performance, and availability.
• Act as a point of contact for complex technical issues and outages, providing hands‑on support when a customer concern arises.
• Diagnose and resolve high‑impact system and interoperability issues across mixed and distributed environments.
• Perform hands‑on investigation and troubleshooting to understand issues and drive effective solutions.
• Direct incident response efforts, encompassing triage, coordination, and resolution.
• Take responsibility for and lead Root Cause Analysis (RCA) processes, ensuring preventative improvements are identified and applied.
• Establish and improve incident management processes, driving operational maturity and reliability.
• Drive adoption of automation and configuration‑as‑code practices across Linux systems.
• Ensure system changes are delivered through controlled, auditable processes wherever possible.
• Oversee development and implementation of automation solutions for system management and operational tasks.
• Promote and support use of workflows based on Git and CI/CD pipelines for configuration and operational processes.
• Identify and prioritize opportunities to reduce manual effort through automation and improved tooling.
• Collaborate with engineering teams to assist development environments and system requirements.
• Act as a senior technical liaison between engineering teams and infrastructure/platform functions.
• Support onboarding of new systems, services, and environments using standardized and automated approaches.
• Ensure system configurations stay consistent and aligned with established standards and governance.
• Oversee integration points (e.g. identity, CI/CD, tooling) and ensure issues are resolved effectively.
• Identify and drive improvements in system performance, scalability, and maintainability.
• Contribute to and enforce documentation, standards, and operational guidelines.
• Ensure systems meet audit, compliance, and governance requirements, with full traceability of changes.

Candidate Profile

• Extensive experience managing and maintaining Linux‑based systems in complex technical or engineering environments.
• Strong troubleshooting skills across operating systems, networking, storage, and application layers.
• Demonstrated ability to identify and solve intricate technical problems, including within diverse or distributed settings.
• Demonstrated experience managing significant incidents and outages, including directing resolution efforts and participating in Root Cause Analysis (RCA).
• Extensive background in automation and scripting (e.g., Bash, Python, or similar).
• Extensive background in configuration management or infrastructure‑as‑code tools (e.g., Ansible, Terraform, Puppet, or similar).
• Experience working with configuration‑as‑code practices and workflows managed through Git.
• Experience building, managing, or assisting with CI/CD pipelines for configuration and operational processes.
• Strong understanding of system interoperability across distributed environments.
• Experience working within defined standards, governance frameworks, and controlled processes.
• Strong communication skills and ability to collaborate closely with engineering, platform, and infrastructure teams.
• Experience mentoring or supporting the development of other engineers.
• Capability to work efficiently across different time zones within a dispersed organization.
• Demonstrated capability to work autonomously, establish goals, and achieve results.
• Experience managing or coordinating incident response activities.
• Experience working alongside DevOps, platform, or infrastructure engineering teams.
• Experience with monitoring, observability, and logging systems.
• Experience supporting AI/ML or high‑performance computing environments.
• Understanding of identity and access management concepts.
• Experience building or scaling operational processes or support functions.

We welcome people of different backgrounds and experiences; we’re committed to building an inclusive work environment that makes Graphcore a great home for everyone. We offer an equal opportunity process and understand that there are visible and invisible differences in all of us. We can provide a flexible approach to interview and encourage you to chat to us if you require any reasonable adjustments.