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Linux Engineer

Graphcore·Bristol·Hybrid·Posted 14 days ago

Graphcore is a Bristol-based AI semiconductor company building Intelligence Processing Units for machine learning workloads, now part of SoftBank. They're hiring a Linux Engineer in Bristol (hybrid). This software engineering role sits within the UK's AI semiconductor sector.

About Graphcore

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

In the role of Linux Engineer at Graphcore, you will be key to ensuring flawless operation of our systems and personnel. You will support core IT services and Linux environments daily, assisting colleagues with issue resolution efficiently. A strong focus on security and adherence to guidelines is essential. This is an outstanding chance to join a company breaking new ground in AI technology!

The Team

You’ll be joining a multidisciplinary team with outstanding technical skills and an encouraging culture. We collaborate closely, frequently exchanging knowledge, and your expertise will have a direct effect on our business. It's an exciting time to be part of Graphcore, with ambitious new projects ahead. If you’re eager to tackle interesting challenges and watch your work produce real-world outcomes, this is the team for you.

Responsibilities and Duties

  • Logging and solving support requests face-to-face and via the ticketing system.
  • Managing and supporting Linux-based systems, providing Layer 1 & 2 support.
  • Security patching, including risk assessment for Linux environments.
  • Collaborating with engineering teams to manage hybrid cloud and on-prem servers.
  • Maintaining Infrastructure-as-Code specifications to deploy and automate changes.
  • Handling key infrastructure services such as DNS, DHCP, VPN, and LDAP.
  • Maintaining and supporting the virtualisation platform.
  • Detailing solutions and maintaining a clear, up-to-date internal knowledge base.

Essential:

  • Excellent communication and customer service skills.
  • Strong understanding of troubleshooting principles and methodical problem-solving.
  • Over 5 years of experience in System Administration concentrating on delivering essential infrastructure services and automation.
  • Strong Linux administration skills in Debian & RedHat derivatives on bare metal and virtual machines.
  • Good networking skills such as VLANs, VPNs, Wi-Fi, routing, and subnetting.
  • Hands-on experience building and managing CI/CD pipelines (e.g., Jenkins, GitLab CI).
  • Experience in handling Infrastructure-as-Code with Terraform, Puppet, Ansible, or equivalent tools.
  • Managing Virtualisation Platforms like VMware ESXi/vSphere and KVM/libvirtd.

Desirable

  • Experience with identifying network/storage/CPU/RAM bottlenecks across complex workloads.
  • Familiarity with various monitoring solutions and stacks (e.g., Zabbix, Prometheus, Grafana Mimir, Open Telemetry).
  • Experience handling web servers, load balancers, and reverse proxies (e.g., ha-proxy, nginx).
  • 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.

Benefits

In addition to a competitive salary, Graphcore offers flexible working, a generous annual leave policy, private medical insurance and health cash plan, a dental plan, pension (matched up to 5%), life assurance and income protection. We have a generous parental leave policy and an employee assistance programme (which includes health, mental wellbeing, and bereavement support). We offer a range of healthy food and snacks at our central Bristol office and have our own barista bar!

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.

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About Graphcore

Graphcore is a Bristol-based AI semiconductor company founded in 2016 by serial semiconductor entrepreneurs Nigel Toon and Simon Knowles. Toon previously led XMOS and Picochip, while Knowles co-founded Element14 (acquired by Broadcom) and Icera (acquired by NVIDIA for $435M). The company developed Intelligence Processing Units (IPUs), novel AI accelerators designed from the ground up for machine learning workloads, alongside the proprietary Poplar graph programming framework. Graphcore raised $767M in total funding, reaching a $2.77B valuation, with backing from Sequoia Capital, Atomico, Amadeus, Microsoft, and others. In July 2024, SoftBank Group acquired Graphcore for approximately $500M to $600M. The company continues to operate from Bristol with plans to expand its UK headcount to 750.

Stage: AcquiredBristol
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