Software Engineer - QA Engineer, Automation and networking 8 to 11 years

Cisco · Bengaluru · 9+ yrs experience · Posted 2026-07-15

Tech stack: Docker, Linux, Python, Redis

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About the role

The Cisco Distributed System Engineering (DSE) group is at the forefront of developing products that power the largest networks in the world. The networking industry is going through a massive transformation to build the next generation infrastructure to meet the needs of AI/ML workloads and continuously increasing internet users and application. We are uniquely positioned to capture that market transition. This team builds products by harnessing the potential of open-source technologies while pushing the boundaries on Systems and Silicon Architecture.
This solutions team collaborates directly with large webscaler customers to replicate their networks and prepare software and hardware before deployment. With a broad range of expertise and strong communication skills, the team works on short sprints across Cisco's product lineup, focusing on SONiC for web-scale environments, including AIML, routers, and switches.
Responsibilities:
- As a Software Engineer, you'll be part of an agile team engaged in the design, development and execution of tests to qualify network performance for AI/ML capability. You will be a part of our solutions team which works in a fast-paced environment and be responsible for end-to-end product testing and production support.
- In this role you will leverage your strong Python automation skills for scripting and testing, with some opportunities for development work. You will work with automation frameworks like PyTest to automate and streamline the testing process. You will be expected to both learn from and make contributions to the open-source community to drive innovative solutions in this space. Other responsibilities will include…
- Building out testing environments for system/solution validation
- Developing and enhancing test frameworks and benchmarking tools
- Defining and gathering data for network performance benchmarking
- Troubleshooting customer issues
Qualifications:
- Around 9+ years of experience in software Testing and automation experience within the networking or telecommunication industry. Preferably in product companies with very good exposure on distributed architecture and networking (routers and switches).
- Adept in Python as coding language. Actively coding and automating functionalities with at least 5+ years of hands-on experience with virtualization and container technologies e.g. Docker.
- Hands-on work experience working with software data and control plane software, Linux user space/OS internals. Comfortable with networking technologies such as L2, L3, VLAN, Port Channel, LAG, VXLAN, Segment Routing, BGP, QoS, ACL etc.
- Experience in designing, modelling, performance testing. Worked with opensource tools and databases (e.g. Redis). Experience in writing of Test Plans and testing of software for high performing and scalable data canter / service provider networking products.
- Comfortable working on technical projects in a complex development environment.
- Self-motivated and quick learner with excellent problem-solving skills, logical thinking and a hunger to learn new technologies.
- Good team player with nice communication and presentation skills.
- Working knowledge of VxLAN and IP Fabrics, BGP, BGP-EVPN, IPv6, MPLS, SR/SRv6, QoS.
- Working Knowledge of Automation using Python, Experience with PyTest or similar open-source QA automation frameworks
- Fair understanding of the network security requirements.
- Exposure to SONiC or experience working with the SONiC open-source community
- Previous experience in a customer-facing environment

Qualifications

- Around 9+ years of experience in software Testing and automation experience within the networking or telecommunication industry.
- Preferably in product companies with very good exposure on distributed architecture and networking (routers and switches).
- Adept in Python as coding language.
- Actively coding and automating functionalities with at least 5+ years of hands-on experience with virtualization and container technologies e.g. Docker.
- Hands-on work experience working with software data and control plane software, Linux user space/OS internals.
- Comfortable with networking technologies such as L2, L3, VLAN, Port Channel, LAG, VXLAN, Segment Routing, BGP, QoS, ACL etc.
- Experience in designing, modelling, performance testing.
- Worked with opensource tools and databases (e.g. Redis).
- Experience in writing of Test Plans and testing of software for high performing and scalable data canter / service provider networking products.
- Comfortable working on technical projects in a complex development environment.
- Self-motivated and quick learner with excellent problem-solving skills, logical thinking and a hunger to learn new technologies.
- Good team player with nice communication and presentation skills.
- Working knowledge of VxLAN and IP Fabrics, BGP, BGP-EVPN, IPv6, MPLS, SR/SRv6, QoS.
- Working Knowledge of Automation using Python, Experience with PyTest or similar open-source QA automation frameworks
- Fair understanding of the network security requirements.
- Exposure to SONiC or experience working with the SONiC open-source community
- Previous experience in a customer-facing environment

Responsibilities

- As a Software Engineer, you'll be part of an agile team engaged in the design, development and execution of tests to qualify network performance for AI/ML capability. You will be a part of our solutions team which works in a fast-paced environment and be responsible for end-to-end product testing and production support.
- In this role you will leverage your strong Python automation skills for scripting and testing, with some opportunities for development work.
- You will work with automation frameworks like PyTest to automate and streamline the testing process.
- You will be expected to both learn from and make contributions to the open-source community to drive innovative solutions in this space.
- Other responsibilities will include…
- Building out testing environments for system/solution validation
- Developing and enhancing test frameworks and benchmarking tools
- Defining and gathering data for network performance benchmarking
- Troubleshooting customer issues

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