Network Automation Engineer

Location

San Jose, CA

Work Setting

• Onsite

Employment Information

• Hire Type: Contract to Hire
• Position Type: Contract
• Pay: Hourly
• Pay Range (USD): $55 - $60/Hr.W2
• Travel Percentage: Not Required
• Allow Staffing Firms & Recruiters to Apply on Behalf of a Candidate: No
• Ability or Willingness to Provide Sponsorship: No

Position: Network Automation & Test Engineer

Location: San Jose, CA

Shift: Monday - Friday

Job Details

What You'll Do

• Perform system- and solution-level testing across data-center networking environments.
• Develop and maintain Python-based test automation.
• Automate test cases covering Layer 2, Layer 3, BGP, IP fabric, VXLAN, and EVPN scenarios.
• Support testing related to SONiC and potentially FBOSS.
• Review existing test code and understand the networking behavior it's meant to validate.
• Validate the correctness of AI-generated or team-generated automation code — using AI coding tools appropriately while independently verifying output.
• Troubleshoot test failures spanning automation, systems, and networking layers.
• Collaborate closely with engineering, test, and solution teams; participate in onsite technical discussions and debugging sessions.

Required Technical Background

Networking

• Strong Layer 2 and Layer 3 fundamentals
• BGP (critical — non-negotiable)
• Data-center fabrics and IP fabric concepts
• VXLAN and EVPN
• Routing and switching
• Ability to troubleshoot system- and solution-level networking issues
• CCNP-equivalent depth
• OSPF exposure is helpful but secondary to BGP

Automation

• Strong Python skills
• Experience developing or maintaining network test automation
• Ability to read and understand existing automation code
• Ability to evaluate whether generated or existing code is technically correct
• Experience automating system, solution, or network test cases
• Ability to translate a networking test scenario into an automation approach
• Not required: application development or algorithm-heavy software engineering background

Preferred (Strong Plus)

• SONiC experience
• FBOSS experience
• Experience automating tests in a SONiC environment
• Data-center network operating systems exposure
• Python-based network test frameworks, especially pyATS or similar

Ideal Candidate Profile

• Understands the networking behavior being tested, not just the automation syntax
• Knows what the automation is intended to validate
• Can review code (including AI-generated code) and judge whether the output is technically correct
• Comfortable troubleshooting both automation failures and underlying networking issues
• Thrives in a collaborative system/solution test environment
• Ramps quickly and operates with limited guidance

Not a fit: a Python engineer without networking depth, or a network engineer who can't understand/maintain automation. The team needs both, genuinely combined — not one skill compensating for the other.

Required Education

Bachelor's or Master's degree