Senior Software Quality Engineer, Secure Firewall

Cisco Systems, Inc.; Maryland; Hybrid; USD 138,000 - 198,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical, dental, vision insurance

401(k) with Cisco matching

Paid parental leave

Flexible vacation time off

Paid time away and sick leave

Job summary

Cisco Systems, Inc. is seeking a Software Quality Engineer to own test areas and validate complex end-to-end workflows across physical, virtual, and cloud environments.

You will build automated tests with Python, design risk-based plans, and reproduce and triage defects in collaboration with development, platform, automation, product, and release teams. This role emphasizes strong technical judgment and clear communication of risks.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree + 5 years of software quality engineering or related experience.
• Experience designing test scenarios, methodologies, and test environments.
• Python scripting used for test automation and tooling.
• Linux or Unix administration and debugging skills.
• Experience leveraging generative AI assistants across the SDLC for testing.

Responsibilities

• Own test areas and validate end-to-end workflows across physical, virtual, and cloud environments.
• Design risk-based test plans for Secure Firewall products and integrations.
• Test deployment topologies including high-availability and cloud-based setups.
• Develop, maintain, and troubleshoot automated tests with Python-based frameworks.
• Document defects with reproduction steps, evidence, impact, and severity.
• Collaborate with development, platform, automation, product, and release teams throughout the lifecycle.
• Utilize AI-assisted tooling to accelerate test design and failure analysis while safeguarding data.

Skills

Python scripting

Linux/Unix

AI-assisted testing

Test planning

Network security knowledge

Education

Bachelor’s degree

Tools

Python-based test frameworks (pyATS, pytest)

Wireshark / tcpdump

REST APIs

Git / CI/CD

Virtualization / Cloud (VMware, AWS, Azure, GCP)

Job description

Cisco Systems, Inc. is seeking a Software Quality Engineer to own test areas and validate complex end-to-end workflows across physical, virtual, and cloud environments.

You will build automated tests with Python, design risk-based plans, and reproduce and triage defects in collaboration with development, platform, automation, product, and release teams. This role emphasizes strong technical judgment and clear communication of risks.