Senior QA Automation Engineer - Networking L2/L3

Cisco Systems, Inc.; Milpitas (CA); Hybrid; USD 168,000 - 245,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical, dental and vision insurance

401(k) with Cisco matching

Paid parental leave

Disability coverage

Life insurance

Paid time off and holidays

Job summary

Cisco Systems, Inc. is seeking an experienced engineer for the Customer Validation Testing team in Milpitas, CA. The role blends automation, frameworks, and ML-driven results visualization to deliver robust IOS XR test solutions.

You will collaborate with global teams, contribute to test plans, and drive automated and manual testing across L2/L3 networking domains, with hybrid in-office work 3 days per week.

Qualifications

• Bachelors in STEM with 7+ years of relevant experience or Masters in STEM with 5+ years
• 3+ years of programming experience with Python
• Networking domain experience working with L2 or L3 networking protocols such as ISIS, BGP, MPLS, IPv6, GRE, MPLS-TE, LDP, RSVP, LDP, Segment routing, L2VPN, L3VPN, EVPN.
• Experience in networking automation or software quality assurance

Responsibilities

• Crafting, automating, configuring, and qualifying customer use cases based on IOS XR platforms.
• Designing and developing innovative test frameworks and tools to support the test execution environment, as well as develop web-based GUIs that use analytics and machine learning to thoughtfully display and analyze execution results.
• Driving test cases both manually and through automation, raising, tracking, prioritizing, and verifying defects and fixes.
• Proactively seek continuous improvements in test coverage, execution, and automation, optimizing performance and configuration dimensioning.
• Reproduce customer issues in internal test labs as requested by the customer support team, generate test execution.
• Collaborating with the development team, account team, and customers to understand and validate customer use cases.

Skills

Python

Networking protocols

QA automation

Education

Bachelors in STEM

Masters in STEM

Tools

GIT

Jira

Jenkins

Job description

The application window is expected to close on: 10/27/2026

Job posting may be removed earlier if the position is filled or if a sufficient number of applications are received.

Job posting may be removed earlier if the position is filled or if a sufficient number of applications are received.

This is a hybrid role, located in Milpitas, CA and requires being in the office 3 days a week.

Meet the Team

The Customer Validation Testing (CVT) team is at the forefront of developing solutions that power the largest networks in the world. Engineers on this team will collaborate with dedicated, dynamic, hardworking team members to work on the qualification and automation of influential technologies, XR platforms, and solutions for deployment in high-end Cisco Web and Service Provider customers, impacting an endless number of users worldwide. The team is comprised of talented engineers with diverse experience levels, ranging from 3 to over 20 years, bringing significant expertise to the table. With a global presence, the team operates from centers in the US, Canada, and India.

Your Impact

• Crafting, automating, configuring, and qualifying customer use cases based on IOS XR platforms. This includes generating test plans and dynamically prioritizing tasks based on customer demands, maximizing the right technical expertise and skills in each area.
• Designing and developing innovative test frameworks and tools to support the test execution environment, as well as develop web-based GUIs that use analytics and machine learning to thoughtfully display and analyze execution results.
• Driving test cases both manually and through automation, raising, tracking, prioritizing, and verifying defects and fixes.
• Proactively seek continuous improvements in test coverage, execution, and automation, optimizing performance and configuration dimensioning.
• Reproduce customer issues in internal test labs as requested by the customer support team, generate test execution.
• Collaborating with the development team, account team, and customers to understand and validate customer use cases.

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelors in STEM with 7+ years of relevant experience or Masters in STEM with 5+ years of relevant experience
• 3+ years of programming experience with Python
• Networking domain experience working with L2 or L3 networking protocols such as ISIS, BGP, MPLS, IPv6, GRE, MPLS-TE, LDP, RSVP, LDP, Segment routing, L2VPN, L3VPN, EVPN.
• Experience in networking automation or software quality assurance

Preferred Qualifications

• Hands on experience with GIT, Jira, Jenkins and CI/CD pipeline tools
• Industry certification such as CCIE/CCNP/Cisco DevNet will be a plus.
• Experience with network automation frameworks like pyATS, Pytest Ansible & Robot
• Experience with network monitoring tools like Grafana, telegraf, Elasticsearch and InfluxDB
• Experience in working with traffic generators like Ixia and Spirent.
• Experience in network programmability - gNMI, gRPC, NETCONF, YANG, REST APIs, RPC
• Strong Linux experience, with preferred knowledge of virtualization and containerization technologies - KVM, VMware, Docker, and Kubernetes
• Strong troubleshooting and problem-solving skills.
• Experience with AI and machine learning is a plus
• Understanding and hands on Cisco IOS/IOS-XR platforms

Why Cisco?

At Cisco, we’re revolutionizing how data and infrastructure connect and protect organizations in the AI era – and beyond. We’ve been innovating fearlessly for 40 years to create solutions that power how humans and technology work together across the physical and digital worlds. These solutions provide customers with unparalleled security, visibility, and insights across the entire digital footprint.

Fueled by the depth and breadth of our technology, we experiment and create meaningful solutions. Add to that our worldwide network of doers and experts, and you’ll see that the opportunities to grow and build are limitless. We work as a team, collaborating with empathy to make really big things happen on a global scale. Because our solutions are everywhere, our impact is everywhere.

We are Cisco, and our power starts with you.

Message to applicants applying to work in the U.S. and/or Canada:

The starting salary range posted for this position is $167,700.00 to $245,200.00 and reflects the projected salary range for new hires in this position in U.S. and/or Canada locations, not including incentive compensation*, equity, or benefits.

Individual pay is determined by the candidate's hiring location, market conditions, job-related skillset, experience, qualifications, education, certifications, and/or training. The full salary range for certain locations is listed below. For locations not listed below, the recruiter can share more details about compensation for the role in your location during the hiring process.

U.S. employees are offered benefits, subject to Cisco’s plan eligibility rules, which include medical, dental and vision insurance, a 401(k) plan with a Cisco matching contribution, paid parental leave, short and long-term disability coverage, and basic life insurance. Please see the Cisco careers site to discover more benefits and perks. Employees may be eligible to receive grants of Cisco restricted stock units, which vest following continued employment with Cisco for defined periods of time.

U.S. employees are eligible for paid time away as described below, subject to Cisco’s policies:

• 10 paid holidays per full calendar year, plus 1 floating holiday for non-exempt employees

• 1 paid day off for employee’s birthday, paid year-end holiday shutdown, and 4 paid days off for personal wellness determined by Cisco

• Non-exempt employees** receive 16 days of paid vacation time per full calendar year, accrued at rate of 4.92 hours per pay period for full-time employees

• Exempt employees participate in Cisco’s flexible vacation time off program, which has no defined limit on how much vacation time eligible employees may use (subject to availability and some business limitations)

• 80 hours of sick time off provided on hire date and each January 1st thereafter, and up to 80 hours ofunused sick timecarried forwardfrom one calendar yearto the next

• Additional paid time away may be requested to deal with critical or emergency issues for family members

• Optional 10 paid days per full calendar year to volunteer

For non-sales roles, employees are also eligible to earn annual bonuses subject to Cisco’s policies.

Employees on sales plans earn performance-based incentive pay on top of their base salary, which is split between quota and non-quota components, subject to the applicable Cisco plan. For quota-based incentive pay, Cisco typically pays as follows:

• .75% of incentive target for each 1% of revenue attainment up to 50% of quota;

• 1.5% of incentive target for each 1% of attainment between 50% and 75%;

• 1% of incentive target for each 1% of attainment between 75% and 100%; and

• Once performance exceeds 100% attainment, incentive rates are at or above 1% for each 1% of attainment with no cap on incentive compensation.

For non-quota-based sales performance elements such as strategic sales objectives, Cisco may pay 0% up to 125% of target. Cisco sales plans do not have a minimum threshold of performance for sales incentive compensation to be paid.

The applicable full salary ranges for this position, by specific state, are listed below:

New York City Metro Area:

$167,700.00 - $282,000.00

Non-Metro New York state & Washington state:

$149,100.00 - $250,900.00

* For quota-based sales roles on Cisco’s sales plan, the ranges provided in this posting include base pay and sales target incentive compensation combined.

** Employees in Illinois, whether exempt or non-exempt, will participate in a unique time off program to meet local requirements.