Senior Software Network Test Engineer - Customer Solution Validation This role has been designed as 'Hybrid' with a requirement that you will work on average 2 days per week from an HPE office. Job Description: Senior Software Network Test Engineer - Customer Solution Validation Location (HYBRID): Sunnyvale, CA HPE Networking is seeking a Solution Test & Automation Engineer to contribute to quality engineering for large-scale networking and distributed software solutions. This Individual Contributor role requires advanced technical expertise and consistent impact on product quality, customer success, and engineering execution. The role combines software testing expertise, system-level engineering knowledge, customer engagement, and collaboration across engineering teams. The successful candidate will apply advanced knowledge to solve complex technical problems, improve automation and validation practices, and enhance product quality, scalability, observability, and reliability across the product lifecycle. You will partner closely with engineering, architecture, product management, sales engineering, services, support, and customers to validate networking solutions, establish scalable quality engineering practices, and improve engineering productivity and product quality. In addition to technical execution, you will provide expertise to project teams and support mentoring and knowledge sharing activities. Success in this role requires sustained impact on technical components of products and solutions, advanced subject matter expertise, effective collaboration across teams, delivery of quality engineering improvements, and contributions that advance customer outcomes and business objectives. Solution Validation & Customer Engagement - Understand customer deployments, business requirements, architectures, and large-scale operational environments to develop comprehensive validation strategies. - Drive validation efforts for customer solutions and complex networking deployments. - Collaborate with customers, field engineers, solution architects, sales engineers, and services teams to validate real-world networking solutions and operational readiness. - Participate in technical design workshops and architecture reviews to improve reliability, scalability, observability, and serviceability. - Translate customer requirements into repeatable, solution-focused validation frameworks. - Present technical findings, risk assessments, quality recommendations, and executive-level updates to customers and internal stakeholders. - Participate in cross-functional initiatives that improve customer outcomes and product quality. Automation & Quality Engineering - Contribute to automation strategy and implementation across products and engineering teams. - Architect, develop, and evolve scalable automation frameworks supporting functional, integration, system, resiliency, scale, performance, and solution validation. - Establish engineering best practices and standards for continuous validation through CI/CD pipelines. - Support innovation in automation infrastructure, tooling, and AI-assisted engineering practices. - Promote quality engineering methodologies that improve time-to-market and engineering productivity. - Identify opportunities to simplify validation workflows and reduce operational costs through automation. System-Level Testing & Debugging - Validate distributed, multi-component software and networking platforms at scale. - Utilize logs, metrics, traces, telemetry, observability platforms, and diagnostic frameworks to troubleshoot complex failures. - Perform root-cause investigations spanning multiple teams and technology domains. - Differentiate product defects from infrastructure, automation, and environmental issues. - Provide recommendations to improve product testability, diagnosability, and operational excellence. Technical Leadership - Provide technical expertise for significant projects, releases, and engineering initiatives. - Serve as a subject matter expert for solution validation, automation, and quality engineering. - Partner with engineering teams across functions to align around quality objectives. - Promote quality-first engineering practices throughout the development lifecycle. - Mentor engineers through technical guidance, reviews, coaching, and knowledge sharing. - Contribute to technical innovation through engineering improvements, knowledge sharing, and technical proposals. - Support technical capabilities that create business value and customer impact. Required Qualifications Software Engineering & Automation - Strong programming expertise in Python, Go, or C++, with proficiency in at least one language. - Experience designing and building automation frameworks and quality engineering solutions. - Experience integrating large-scale automated testing into CI/CD environments. - Experience delivering impactful automation initiatives. Systems & Networking - Strong understanding of Linux/UNIX operating systems, networking, processes, memory management, and system internals. - Extensive experience validating distributed and multi-component systems. - Deep hands-on expertise configuring and validating multi-vendor networking environments. - Experience supporting service provider, enterprise, and cloud networking deployments. - Strong knowledge of performance testing and traffic-generation platforms such as Ixia and Spirent. Testing & Quality Engineering - Deep expertise in system-level and end-to-end validation. - Multi-feature, longevity, resiliency, interoperability, scale, and performance testing. - Fault injection and recovery validation. - Root-cause analysis and complex defect investigation. - Advanced troubleshooting across multiple software and infrastructure layers. Leadership & Influence - Demonstrated ability to solve complex technical problems and deliver measurable product impact. - Proven ability to provide technical guidance and influence engineering decisions. - Experience mentoring engineers and supporting cross-functional initiatives. Preferred Qualifications - 10+ yrs of industry experience. - Advanced networking expertise in Layer 2, Layer 3, TCP/IP, Routing, MPLS, EVPN, and data center technologies. - Experience with network operating systems, cloud infrastructure, observability platforms, and distributed architectures. - Working knowledge of JUNOS. - Industry certifications such as JNCIE, CCIE, or equivalent. - Experience leveraging AI-assisted engineering tools for automation development, test generation, diagnostics, failure analysis, and productivity improvements. - Track record of innovation resulting in patents, publications, standards contributions, or architectural leadership. What We Can Offer You: Health & Wellbeing We strive to provide our team members and their loved ones with a comprehensive suite of benefits that supports their physical, financial and emotional wellbeing. Personal & Professional Development We also invest in your career because the better you are, the better we all are. We have specific programs catered to helping you reach any career goals you have - whether you want to become a knowledge expert in your field or apply your skills to another division. Unconditional Inclusion We are unconditionally inclusive in the way we work and celebrate individual uniqueness. We know varied backgrounds are valued and succeed here. We have the flexibility to manage our work and personal needs. We make bold moves, together, and are a force for good. Let's Stay Connected: #unitedstates #networking Job: Engineering Job Level: TCP_04 "The expected salary/wage range for this position is provided below. Actual offer may vary from this range based upon geographic location, work experience, education/training, and/or skill level. - United States of America: Annual Salary USD 136,500 - 276,500 in California The listed salary range reflects base salary. Variable incentives may also be offered." Information about employee benefits offered in the US can be found at https://myhperewards.com/main/new-hire-enrollment.html