Lead Data Center Networking Validation Engineer

Cisco Systems, Inc; San Jose (CA); Hybrid; USD 187,000 - 268,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Hybrid work model

Performance-based bonuses

Job summary

Cisco Systems, Inc. is seeking a senior network validation professional to lead end-to-end testing and issue resolution for Scale Data Center Infrastructure solutions.

You will reproduce customer environments, design test plans, and coordinate root-cause analysis with engineering teams. The role focuses on readiness of leaf-spine data center architectures, with emphasis on reliability, high availability, and proactive problem-solving across global teams.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering, computer engineering, computer science, or a related field.
• 12+ years of experience in network engineering, systems validation, customer engineering, or network operations.
• Experience with scalable data center architectures, including leaf-spine topologies, routing underlays, network overlays, redundancy, high availability, convergence, capacity planning, and failure-domain design.

Responsibilities

• Lead customer escalations and end-to-end technical validation of network solutions, reproducing customer environments and verifying operational workflows.
• Design structured test plans, perform hands-on lab testing, and coordinate root-cause analysis with engineering teams.
• Define and maintain qualification matrices for platforms, optics, and software, ensuring readiness and reliability before production use.
• Communicate technical findings and risks to both customer teams and Cisco stakeholders, building trust and transparency.
• Elevate operational standards by developing evidence-driven processes that prevent customer-impacting issues.

Skills

Network engineering

Systems validation

Customer engineering

Network operations

Education

Bachelor's degree (EE/CE/CS)

Tools

Lab instrumentation

Traffic generators

Packet-capture tools

Network test platforms

Performance-analysis tools

Job description

Cisco Systems, Inc. is seeking a senior network validation professional to lead end-to-end testing and issue resolution for Scale Data Center Infrastructure solutions.

You will reproduce customer environments, design test plans, and coordinate root-cause analysis with engineering teams. The role focuses on readiness of leaf-spine data center architectures, with emphasis on reliability, high availability, and proactive problem-solving across global teams.