Director, Sustaining Engineering

The Team The Sustaining Engineering team supports deployed systems and associated data centre infrastructure, with a focus on reliability, serviceability, availability and continuous improvement. The team works closely with product development, data centre operations, manufacturing, quality, sourcing and supplier teams to understand field performance, identify systemic issues and drive effective corrective actions. Bringing together expertise across failure analysis, hardware systems, firmware and software, data engineering and quality, the team provides advanced technical support for complex issues and turns operational insight into measurable product and reliability improvements. Responsibilities and Duties • Lead and develop the Sustaining Engineering function, setting direction, priorities, operating rhythms and success measures for the team. • Build, manage and coach a multidisciplinary engineering team spanning failure analysis, systems engineering, firmware and software support, data engineering and quality-related disciplines. • Own the advanced technical support path for complex deployed-system issues, ensuring effective triage, root cause analysis, containment, corrective action and communication. • Establish and continuously improve processes for failure reporting, analysis, corrective action and prevention across deployed infrastructure. • Partner with engineering, operations, manufacturing, quality, sourcing and suppliers to resolve recurring hardware, firmware, software and system-level reliability issues. • Use fleet telemetry, service data, repair information and failure-analysis outputs to identify trends, quantify impact and prioritise engineering improvements. • Drive effective feedback loops from deployed-system performance into design, validation, manufacturing, supplier quality and serviceability improvements. • Define requirements for tools, workflows, laboratory capability and data infrastructure needed to support effective sustaining engineering operations. • Develop scalable approaches to failure analysis, including laboratory processes, equipment strategy, external specialist support and effective handling of returned materials. • Establish metrics and reporting that provide clear visibility of reliability trends, issue status, corrective actions, risks and operational performance. • Ensure effective collaboration across sites and functions, creating alignment around priorities, ownership and technical decisions. • Represent sustaining engineering in cross-functional reviews, technical discussions and operational forums, ensuring reliability and field-performance considerations inform decision-making. • Translate operational learning and technical analysis into strategic recommendations that improve the quality, reliability and supportability of Graphcore systems. Candidate Profile Essential: • Experience leading sustaining engineering, reliability engineering, failure analysis, hardware systems engineering, data centre infrastructure engineering or a closely related technical function. • Strong understanding of deployed-system reliability, root cause analysis, corrective action, serviceability and lifecycle improvement for complex hardware-based systems. • Experience building and leading multidisciplinary engineering teams, including developing managers, technical leads and senior individual contributors. • Ability to operate at both strategic and detailed technical levels, translating operational data and engineering analysis into clear priorities and action plans. • Experience working across hardware, firmware, software, operations, quality, manufacturing, sourcing and supplier teams to resolve complex technical issues. • Strong analytical capability, with experience using tel