About the role

Senior Staff Test Engineer is a highly technical leadership role responsible for defining and driving system-level validation strategies for server platforms across development and production environments. This role focuses on evaluating and integrating changes that impact manufacturing test systems, including firmware (BMC, BIOS, switch firmware), test infrastructure, and automation.

You will apply deep expertise in server architecture, networking, and power systems to assess risk, design validation methodologies, and ensure changes are safely deployed without impacting production stability. As a key technical authority, you will collaborate closely with engineering, manufacturing, and customer-facing teams to drive root cause analysis, improve validation coverage, and establish scalable test solutions.

This role requires strong hands-on capability in system debugging, rack-level networking, and test tool development (both software and hardware), along with the ability to influence technical decisions and elevate engineering standards across the organization.

What You’ll Do

• Define and lead system-level test architecture and validation strategy for server platforms across Design, NPI, and production environments (L10/L11).
• Own end-to-end validation of complex server systems, including CPU, GPU, memory, networking, storage, and power subsystems.
• Lead deep system-level debugging and root cause analysis, isolating issues across hardware, BIOS/BMC, OS, networking stack, and power systems.
• Serve as the technical escalation point for complex system failures across development and production.
• Develop, deploy, and validate network configurations (VLANs, port configs, L2/L3 behavior) for server rack switches to support system bring-up and testing.
• Debug system and rack-level network issues, including connectivity, traffic flow, and protocol behavior between servers and switches.
• Lead validation of server power infrastructure, including power supplies, power shelves, and redundancy architectures.
• Design and develop custom test and repair solutions, including:
• Digital tools (automation frameworks, validation utilities, debug software)
• Physical tools (debug cables, harnesses, fixtures, signal breakout solutions)
• Build and scale automated validation frameworks to improve test coverage, efficiency, and repeatability.
• Drive validation of server management interfaces, including BIOS/UEFI, BMC (OpenBMC), IPMI, and Redfish.
• Lead GPU system validation, including stress testing, workload validation, and system-level interaction with CPU, memory, and networking.
• Mentor engineers and elevate team capabilities in system validation, networking, power systems, and test tool development.

What You’ll Bring

• Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Computer Science, Information Technology, or a related field.
• 8+ years of hands-on experience in test engineering or system validation.
• Deep understanding of server architecture, including CPU, DIMMs, NICs, GPUs, FPGA, and system interconnects.
• Strong knowledge of BIOS/UEFI, BMC (OpenBMC), IPMI, Redfish
• Expertise with validation and stress tools such as: FIO, Linpack, mprime/mprime95, IPMITOOL
• Proficiency in Python, Shell, or Perl for test tool development and validation.
• Familiarity with engineering change processes (ECO/ECA) and test impact analysis.
• Proven ability in system-level debugging and root cause analysis across hardware, firmware, OS, networking, and power domains.
• Experience automating network setup and configuration using scripting (Python/Shell) and APIs.
• Strong debugging experience across system and network boundaries.
• Excellent communication skills, with the ability to translate technical findings into clear recommendations for non-technical or customer-facing stakeholders.

Preferred Skills:

• Experience in high-volume manufacturing environments (L10/L11).
• Experience validating GPU-based or AI systems.
• Familiarity with data center environments and large-scale deployments.
• Experience with liquid cooling systems.
• Strong background in failure analysis and reliability engineering.
• Contributions to test tools, frameworks, or validation standards.

ZT Systems assesses market data to ensure a competitive compensation package is created for all our employees. The typical base salary for this position is expected to be around $116,250 to $155,000. If hired, the final base salary will be determined on an individual basis taking into consideration experience, skills, knowledge, education and/or certifications.

Base salary is just one component of ZT Systems total rewards philosophy. We take pride in offering a wide range of benefits and perks that appeal to the variety of needs across our diverse employee base. Other rewards may include bonus, paid time off, generous 401k match, tuition reimbursement, wellbeing resources, and more.

We are dedicated to building a diverse, inclusive, and authentic workplace, so if you’re excited about this opportunity but your experience doesn’t align perfectly with every qualification in the job description, we encourage you to apply anyway. You may be just the right candidate for this or other roles.