Engineering Lab Infrastructure Lead Bristol, UK

graphcore; Bristol; On-site; GBP 45,000 - 60,000; Full time

Job summary

Graphcore in Bristol is looking for a Lead Lab Support Engineer to provide comprehensive IT support to Engineering Labs. The role includes managing Linux and Windows systems, leading a team, and ensuring high-quality service delivery. Candidates should have robust troubleshooting skills, experience with server management, and networking knowledge. A collaborative team culture is emphasized, aimed at fostering innovation in artificial intelligence technology.

Qualifications

• Experience in providing L1 & L2 IT support.
• Familiarity with server and desktop hardware maintenance.
• Good understanding of networking principles.

Responsibilities

• Log and solve support requests face-to-face & via ticket system.
• Ensure high-quality support through effective triage.
• Establish and refine Lab Support service standards.

Skills

Linux administration

Windows administration

Customer service skills

Networking skills (VLANs, VPNs, Wi-Fi)

Python programming

Troubleshooting principles

Infrastructure-as-Code (Puppet, Ansible)

Containerisation frameworks (Docker, Kubernetes)

Tools

Configuration Management systems

Monitoring solutions (Zabbix, Prometheus)

Web servers (HTTP, NGINX)

Job description

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 datacenter 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

As a Lead Lab Support Engineer at Graphcore, you will serve as the technical lead providing IT support to Engineering Labs and Silicon development projects. This includes bring-ups and testing in hybrid Linux and Windows environments. You will deliver reliable, scalable, and high-quality services to internal customers, partners, and collaborators. You will also lead a small team of Lab Support Engineers and encourage a culture of accountability, collaboration, and continuous improvement.

Working alongside Project Managers, engineering teams, and interested parties, you will build and deploy scalable workflows. You must ensure IT support for Engineering Labs keeps pace with the organisation’s evolving requirements. At first, this role requires direct involvement in daily support, configuration, and onboarding activities while forming the Lab Support team and setting up scalable processes.

The Team

You’ll be joining a multidisciplinary team with strong technical skills and a very encouraging culture. We work closely together and regularly share knowledge, and your skills will make a direct impact on our business. It’s an exciting and pivotal moment for us right now, with plenty of new projects ahead. If you're looking to solve interesting problems and see your work deliver real-world results, this is the team for you.

Responsibilities and Duties

• Logging and solving support requests face‑to‑face & via ticketing system
• Ensure high‑quality L1 & L2 support through effective triage, prioritization, and allocation of tickets
• Establish, manage, and consistently refine the Lab Support service, covering standards, processes, and governance
• Serve as the primary point of escalation and decision‑making for IT service delivery
• Handling and providing support for Linux‑based systems
• Handling and maintaining Windows‑based systems
• Managing a fleet of servers, helping Hardware Lab teams with daily activities, tools and packages installation, platform configuration via Configuration Management systems
• Installing and troubleshooting servers, hardware maintenance, fault finding
• Detailing solutions and maintaining a clear, up‑to‑date internal knowledge base.
• Excellent communication and customer service skills
• Good understanding of troubleshooting principles and methodical problem‑solving
• Good Windows administration skills, Active Directory domain joining, policies
• Good networking skills such as VLANs, VPNs, Wi‑Fi, routing, subnetting
• Familiarity with desktop and server hardware, BMCs, Out‑of‑Band networks, firmware & BIOS upgrades, PDU, rack mounts
• Managing Infrastructure‑as‑Code using Puppet, Ansible, or similar via Git
• Understanding of authentication services such as LDAP, Radius
• Experience in managing web servers, load‑balancers, reverse‑proxies (e.g.: ha‑proxy, nginx)
• Experience with identifying network/storage/CPU/RAM bottlenecks across complex workloads.
• Experience with various monitoring solutions and stack (e.g. Zabbix/Prometheus/Grafana Mimir/Open Telemetry)
• Proficiency with containerisation frameworks and orchestration (e.g.: Docker/containerd/Kubernetes).
• Python programming skills, with the ability to write code to interact with APIs, process data, and build small applications

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.