Job Description Network Automation & Test Engineer (Contract-to-Hire)
Client: Cisco Solutions Team (Venkateshs org)
Location: San Jose, CA or Bengaluru, India (onsite strongly preferred)
Engagement Type: Contract-to-Hire treated as a full engagement from day one
Experience Level: 7 +years
About the Role
Venkateshs solutions team is looking for engineers to own system-level and solution-level testing for data-center networking environments. This is explicitly not a software development role its a test/validation role that requires a genuine blend of strong networking knowledge and practical Python automation skills. Candidates must ramp quickly with limited handholding, as the team doesnt have bandwidth for extensive training.
What Youll Do
- Perform system- and solution-level testing across data-center networking environments.
- Develop and maintain Python-based test automation.
- Automate test cases covering Layer 2, Layer 3, BGP, IP fabric, VXLAN, and EVPN scenarios.
- Support testing related to SONiC and potentially FBOSS.
- Review existing test code and understand the networking behavior its meant to validate.
- Validate the correctness of AI-generated or team-generated automation code using AI coding tools appropriately while independently verifying output.
- Troubleshoot test failures spanning automation, systems, and networking layers.
- Collaborate closely with engineering, test, and solution teams; participate in onsite technical discussions and debugging sessions.
Required Technical Background
Networking
- Strong Layer 2 and Layer 3 fundamentals
- BGP (critical non-negotiable)
- Data-center fabrics and IP fabric concepts
- VXLAN and EVPN
- Routing and switching
- Ability to troubleshoot system- and solution-level networking issues
- CCNP-equivalent depth
- OSPF exposure is helpful but secondary to BGP
Automation
- Strong Python skills
- Experience developing or maintaining network test automation
- Ability to read and understand existing automation code
- Ability to evaluate whether generated or existing code is technically correct
- Experience automating system, solution, or network test cases
- Ability to translate a networking test scenario into an automation approach
- Not required: application development or algorithm-heavy software engineering background
Preferred (Strong Plus)
- SONiC experience
- FBOSS experience
- Experience automating tests in a SONiC environment
- Data-center network operating systems exposure
- Python-based network test frameworks, especially pyATS or similar
Ideal Candidate Profile
- Understands the networking behavior being tested, not just the automation syntax
- Knows what the automation is intended to validate
- Can review code (including AI-generated code) and judge whether the output is technically correct
- Comfortable troubleshooting both automation failures and underlying networking issues
- Thrives in a collaborative system/solution test setting
- Ramps quickly and operates with limited guidance
Not a fit: a Python engineer without networking depth, or a network engineer who cant understand/maintain automation. The team needs both, genuinely combined not one skill compensating for the other.
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