John Hinchliffe

Reliability Engineering Manager | Streaming Infrastructure | Multi-CDN Observability | Live Event Operations | AI-Augmented Incident Analysis

Leeds, England, United Kingdom

About

Reliability Engineering Manager at Sky/NBCUniversal, responsible for the reliability, observability and operational resilience of the shared streaming platform powering Peacock, NOW, WOW and SkyShowtime across the US and Europe. My work spans distributed systems, multi-CDN delivery (Akamai and Fastly), streaming observability, incident response, SLOs and live event operations. I specialise in turning complex telemetry into actionable insights, leading investigations across platform services, client applications and content delivery infrastructure to identify root causes and drive lasting improvements. I also lead AI-augmented engineering adoption within my team, developing shared tooling, workflows and reference infrastructure that enable AI coding assistants to accelerate incident investigation, cross-codebase analysis and observability at scale. With a career spanning software development, technical support, problem management and reliability engineering, I bring a broad technical perspective to diagnosing and resolving complex issues across large-scale distributed platforms.

Experience

  • Sky (7 yrs 11 mos)
    • Reliability Engineering Manager
      Sep 2024 - Present · 1 yr 11 mos

      Responsible for the reliability, observability and operational resilience of the shared streaming platform powering Peacock, NOW and SkyShowtime across the US and Europe, supporting tens of millions of streaming customers. Highlights • Reliability ownership across multiple streaming propositions and territories. • Specialist in multi-CDN architecture and observability (Akamai & Fastly). • Lead complex cross-domain investigations spanning CDN, platform and client ecosystems. • Production observability tooling used across teams. • AI-augmented reliability engineering and enablement. • Support for large-scale live streaming events. Multi-CDN Observability • Specialist in multi-CDN architecture (Akamai & Fastly), including traffic routing analysis, latency investigation, DNS caching behaviour and cache offload measurement. • Develop observability techniques including proxy cache-hit metrics, per-User-Agent routing analysis and geographic-region traffic attribution from CDN logs. • Investigate and diagnose CDN infrastructure, latency and traffic-routing issues, providing technical evidence for Akamai and Fastly escalations. Incident Investigation & Root Cause Analysis • Lead investigations spanning CDN, backend services, content delivery systems and client applications. • Combine telemetry, infrastructure metrics, video analytics, CDN logs and codebase analysis to identify root causes across service boundaries. • Support high-concurrency live streaming events and critical business launches. Observability, Tooling & AI Enablement • Design and build production dashboards, alerting systems and telemetry-analysis workflows. • Drive adoption of SLOs and actionable telemetry practices. • Lead AI-augmented engineering adoption, building shared tooling, documentation and investigation workflows. Technologies: Streaming Platforms • Distributed Systems • Multi-CDN Architecture • Observability Engineering • Datadog • Grafana • OpenSearch • AWS • GCP • Kubernetes • BigQuery

    • Principal Problem Manager
      Oct 2021 - Sep 2024 · 3 yrs

      Responsible for leading complex investigations into reliability, performance and customer-impacting issues across Peacock, NOW, WOW, SkyShowtime and Showmax streaming platforms, driving root cause analysis, operational resilience and long-term service improvements across US and European streaming propositions. Highlights • Led cross-functional investigations into high-priority incidents impacting streaming platforms, content delivery, identity, client applications and backend services. • Specialist in root cause analysis across distributed systems using telemetry, observability platforms, client analytics and operational data. • Produced executive incident reviews, reliability reporting and strategic recommendations for engineering and leadership stakeholders. • Partnered with SRE, platform, client, content and operations teams to drive corrective actions and long-term reliability improvements. • Supported major live streaming events, platform launches and business-critical incidents across multiple territories. Reliability, Observability & Investigation Leadership • Led investigations spanning CDN infrastructure, backend services, identity platforms, content delivery systems and client applications. • Correlated telemetry from multiple observability, analytics and monitoring platforms to identify root causes across service boundaries. • Investigated issues affecting playback, authentication, content availability, streaming quality, personalisation, entitlements and platform performance. • Produced post-mortem reports, executive summaries and action tracking to ensure permanent resolution and operational learning. • Developed analytical approaches, reporting and investigation workflows to identify recurring failure patterns and systemic reliability risks.

    • Problem Manager
      Sep 2018 - Oct 2021 · 3 yrs 2 mos

      Responsible for managing complex problem investigations across consumer streaming and digital platforms, coordinating cross-functional teams to identify root causes, reduce recurring incidents and improve service reliability. • Led root cause investigations and post-incident reviews for customer-impacting issues. • Drove corrective actions and long-term service improvements across engineering and operational teams. • Facilitated incident trend analysis, problem governance and reliability reporting. • Worked closely with engineering, operations and support teams to improve platform stability and operational resilience.

  • Liquidlogic ()
    • Problem Management Team Leader
      Aug 2015 - Sep 2018 · 3 yrs 2 mos

      Responsible for establishing and leading the organisation's Problem Management function, applying ITIL principles to reduce recurring incidents and improve service quality across business-critical software platforms. Highlights • Established the Problem Management team, including recruitment, onboarding and development of team members. • Led root cause analysis of software, database, configuration and infrastructure issues. • Partnered with incident management, development and operational teams to drive permanent corrective actions. • Produced management reporting, trend analysis and executive updates relating to service quality and recurring issues. • Introduced structured problem investigation practices, known error management and continual service improvement processes.

    • Development Support Analyst (Java/SQL)
      Jul 2012 - Aug 2015 · 3 yrs 2 mos

      Provided development support and technical expertise for business-critical social care software platforms, working closely with development, support and customer-facing teams. • Investigation and resolution of complex application, integration and database issues. • Java development, debugging and code analysis supporting product improvement and defect resolution. • Support of integrations with third-party applications and web services. • Database development and administration using Microsoft SQL Server. • Worked within Agile delivery teams to support software quality and operational stability.

    • Technical Support Analyst
      Nov 2009 - Jul 2012 · 2 yrs 9 mos

      Provided first and second-line technical support for enterprise software platforms, specialising in application troubleshooting, database analysis and customer issue resolution. • Investigated software, data and configuration issues across customer environments. • Developed SQL tools and scripts to support issue resolution and operational support. • Reproduced and diagnosed software defects in test environments. • Supported software deployment, configuration and user enablement activities.

  • Director / Consultant at ETL Data Solutions
    May 2008 - Nov 2009 · 1 yr 7 mos

    Provided independent IT, database and software development consultancy services across multiple industries, delivering bespoke applications, data solutions and operational tooling. • Designed and developed web-based business systems using PHP, JavaScript and MySQL. • Delivered workflow automation, reporting, scheduling and asset-management solutions. • Worked directly with clients to gather requirements, design solutions and manage delivery. • Implemented scalable hosted solutions designed for operational resilience and flexibility.

  • Data Analysis Manager at Datalinx
    Dec 2000 - Mar 2008 · 7 yrs 4 mos

    Led the delivery and support of bespoke CRM and data-management solutions for large-scale marketing and customer engagement programmes. • Managed client delivery activities across multiple CRM platforms. • Designed, developed and maintained database-driven business solutions. • Performed large-scale data transformation, reporting and analysis. • Led a team responsible for customer delivery and operational support.

  • Development & Support Analyst at Extract Technology Ltd
    Jun 1999 - Dec 2000 · 1 yr 7 mos

    Provided infrastructure, application and technical support across UK and international business operations. • Delivered first and second-line IT support across multiple locations. • Supported implementation of business-critical information systems. • Developed and maintained internal technology solutions and document-management platforms.