Director, Sustaining Engineering

Graphcore•Milpitas, CA

About The Position

The Director, Sustaining Engineering leads the function responsible for supporting deployed systems and associated data centre infrastructure, focusing on reliability, serviceability, availability and continuous improvement. The team works with product development, data centre operations, manufacturing, quality, sourcing and suppliers to understand field performance, identify systemic issues and drive corrective actions. Its expertise spans failure analysis, hardware systems, firmware and software, data engineering and quality, providing advanced technical support for complex issues and turning operational insight into measurable product and reliability improvements. The role sets the function’s direction, priorities, operating rhythms and success measures, and builds and develops a multidisciplinary engineering team. It owns the advanced technical support path for complex deployed-system issues, oversees scalable failure-analysis processes and ensures operational learning informs design, validation, manufacturing, supplier quality and serviceability improvements. The Director also establishes metrics, reporting, tools, workflows, laboratory capability and data infrastructure, and represents sustaining engineering in cross-functional reviews and operational forums.

Requirements

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 work at strategic and detailed technical levels and translate 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, including experience using telemetry, quality data, service data and failure-analysis outputs to identify trends and support engineering decisions.
Demonstrated ability to establish scalable engineering processes and drive continuous improvement across complex systems and organisations.
Excellent communication and stakeholder management skills, including the ability to influence across functions and communicate complex technical issues clearly.
Ability to create structure in ambiguous situations, make well-informed decisions and drive issues through to measurable resolution.
Strong people leadership skills, emphasising clear direction, coaching, accountability and effective collaboration.

Nice To Haves

Experience with large-scale data centre compute, server, storage, networking, power or cooling infrastructure.
Experience with failure reporting, analysis and corrective action systems or equivalent structured reliability processes.
Familiarity with fleet telemetry, asset management, service management, data platforms or analytics systems used to support reliability and operational insight.
Experience defining or scaling failure-analysis laboratory capability, including equipment, processes, external specialist support and supplier engagement.
Knowledge of supplier quality engineering, manufacturing quality, field quality or returned-material analysis.
Experience with statistical analysis, quality methods or engineering analysis tools used in root cause investigation and continuous improvement.

Responsibilities

Lead and develop the Sustaining Engineering function, setting direction, priorities, operating rhythms and success measures.
Build, manage and coach a multidisciplinary engineering team spanning failure analysis, systems engineering, firmware and software support, data engineering and quality-related disciplines.
Own advanced technical support for complex deployed-system issues, including 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 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 that support sustaining engineering operations.
Develop scalable failure-analysis approaches, including laboratory processes, equipment strategy, external specialist support and handling of returned materials.
Establish metrics and reporting for reliability trends, issue status, corrective actions, risks and operational performance.
Ensure effective collaboration across sites and functions, aligning priorities, ownership and technical decisions.
Represent sustaining engineering in cross-functional reviews, technical discussions and operational forums, ensuring reliability and field performance inform decision-making.
Translate operational learning and technical analysis into strategic recommendations that improve Graphcore systems’ quality, reliability and supportability.