Principal Software Test Engineer (Solution Engineering, Customer Solution Validation)

HP Enterprise; Sunnyvale (CA); Hybrid; USD 170,000 - 230,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Annual equity awards

Hybrid work model

Subsidized health insurance

Retirement programs

Paid time off with parental leave

Job summary

HP Enterprise's HPE Networking team seeks a Principal Solution Test & Automation Engineer to drive quality across large-scale networking and distributed software solutions. This role combines deep testing expertise with system-level engineering and mentorship for teams and customers.

You will lead validation efforts for complex networking deployments, develop scalable automation frameworks, and influence engineering decisions across functions.

Qualifications

• Extensive experience designing and building automation platforms and testing ecosystems.
• Proven ability to implement and scale automated validation in CI/CD pipelines.
• Hands-on expertise with Linux/UNIX, networking, and distributed systems.
• Strong knowledge of performance testing and traffic-generation platforms (e.g., Ixia/Spirent).
• Experience mentoring engineers and driving cross-functional initiatives.

Responsibilities

• Lead validation for customer solutions and complex networking deployments.
• Develop scalable automation frameworks for functional, integration, and system testing.
• Partner with engineering, architecture, product management, and customers to validate complex solutions.
• Present findings, risk assessments, and recommendations to stakeholders and executives.

Skills

Automation frameworks

CI/CD

Python/Go/C++

System-level validation

Mentoring engineers

Tools

Jenkins

Git

Ixia/Spirent

Job description

• HPE Networking is seeking a Principal Solution Test & Automation Engineer to drive quality engineering for large-scale networking and distributed software solutions. This is a highly technical Individual Contributor role requiring visible technical impact on products and major components, customer success, and engineering excellence. The role combines strong software testing expertise, system-level engineering knowledge, customer engagement, and technical leadership. The successful candidate will be recognized as an internal authority in key technology areas, drive innovation in automation and validation, and improve 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 complex networking solutions, establish scalable quality engineering practices, and deliver long-lasting improvements to engineering productivity and product quality. In addition to technical execution, you will provide leadership across functions, mentor engineers, and help define the future direction of solution validation and automation
• Success in this role requires visible technical impact on products or major components, recognized expertise in key technology areas, contributions to cross-functional initiatives, mentorship and knowledge sharing, and innovation that advances customer outcomes and business objectives
• Understand customer deployments, business requirements, architectures, and large-scale operational environments to develop comprehensive validation strategies
• Lead 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 and influence technical design workshops, architecture reviews, and strategic planning discussions 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
• Drive cross-functional initiatives that improve customer outcomes and product quality
• Contribute to and help drive automation strategy across products, programs, 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
• Drive innovation in automation infrastructure, tooling, and AI-assisted engineering practices
• Drive organization-wide adoption of quality engineering methodologies that improve time-to-market and engineering productivity
• Identify opportunities to simplify validation workflows and reduce operational costs through automation
• Validate distributed, multi-component software and networking platforms at scale
• Utilize logs, metrics, traces, telemetry, observability platforms, and diagnostic frameworks to troubleshoot complex failures
• Drive root-cause investigations spanning multiple teams and technology domains
• Differentiate product defects from infrastructure, automation, and environmental issues
• Influence architecture and design decisions to improve product testability, diagnosability, and operational excellence
• Provide technical leadership for significant project and program initiatives
• Serve as a recognized internal authority for solution validation, automation, and quality engineering
• Lead and connect engineering teams across functions to align around common quality objectives
• Drive quality-first engineering practices throughout the development lifecycle
• Mentor engineers through technical guidance, reviews, coaching, and knowledge sharing
• Contribute to technical innovation through patents, white papers, standards participation, publications, and architectural proposals
• Contribute to long-term technical capabilities that create recurring business value and customer impact

Benefits

• Recognition for your contributions, and potential participation in long-term incentives like annual equity awards
• The chance to earn an annual bonus based on performance
• Subsidized health insurance, retirement programs and paid time off, including an industry-leading maternity and paternity leave package
• A hybrid, flexible work model that ensures connectivity, a commitment to our culture and continued impact for team members
• Opportunities for personal and professional development to help you reach your career goals

Requirements

• Extensive experience designing and building automation platforms, frameworks, and quality engineering ecosystems
• Expert-level programming expertise in Python, Go, or C++, with deep proficiency in at least one language
• Experience integrating large-scale automated testing into CI/CD environments
• Proven experience delivering impactful automation initiatives
• Extensive experience validating distributed and multi-component systems
• Strong understanding of Linux/UNIX operating systems, networking, processes, memory management, and system internals
• 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
• Root-cause analysis and complex defect investigation
• Multi-feature, longevity, resiliency, interoperability, scale, and performance testing
• Fault injection and recovery validation
• Advanced troubleshooting across multiple software and infrastructure layers
• Deep expertise in system-level and end-to-end validation
• Demonstrated ability to deliver visible technical impact on products or major components
• Proven ability to influence engineering decisions and technical direction within and across teams
• Experience mentoring engineers and contributing to cross-functional technical initiatives
• 12+ yrs of industry experience
• Advanced networking expertise in Layer 2, Layer 3, TCP/IP, Routing, MPLS, EVPN, and data center technologies
• Working knowledge of JUNOS
• Experience with network operating systems, cloud infrastructure, observability platforms, and distributed architectures
• Industry certifications such as JNCIA, CCIA, or equivalent
• Track record of innovation resulting in patents, publications, standards contributions, or architectural leadership
• Experience leveraging AI-assisted engineering tools for automation development, test generation, diagnostics, failure analysis, and productivity improvements