Platform Validation Engineer - Santa Clara

Location: Local to Santa Clara, Onsite work

Immediate starter required

Client is seeking a Platform validation engineering (contract position) working as part of our EXA Hardware Engineering team. In this position, you'll be working cross-functionally with Engineering, Operations, OEM/ODM/JDM partners and support teams. You'll be responsible for the design, validation, platform debug, automation and failure analysis of Pure s high performance storage systems.

Responsibilities:

• Develop end-to-end validation strategy, requirements, environments, and methodologies for storage server platforms spanning hardware, firmware, and software components
• Develop and execute validation plans covering functional, electrical, thermal, reliability, firmware, feature, performance, and parametric testing
• Participate across the full product development cycle validation, documentation, DVT, failure analysis, RCA, and sustaining support
• Lead development and implementation of end-to-end debug solutions for systems at device and rack-level scale
• Execute full rack-level burn-in and soak/reliability testing against clearly defined pass/fail criteria over sustained duration
• Validate aggregate performance at full rack-level load against per-node targets, and profile CPU, memory, NIC, and SSD bottlenecks
• Validate rack-level mechanical, thermal, and acoustic compliance against customer specifications
• Participate in bug triage meetings to share findings and provide feedback
• Collaborate cross-functionally with internal partners (Software, Platform, Operations, Lab teams) to provide technical guidance on platform hardware fundamentals and deliver documentation for diagnostics, debug, and serviceability
• Conduct multi-node interoperability testing across data nodes, both within a rack and across rack-scale deployments
• Set up and run system stress tests (e.g., SPECint, iPerf, FIO, and custom I/O/memory tests)
• Develop and maintain automated test scripts for server- and rack-level validation across hardware, firmware, and software subsystems
• Partner with data center teams on rack deployment, power, and cooling requirements
• Drive product failure investigations including supplier and internal root-cause analysis (RCA) and corrective action (CA) to address design and manufacturing process changes, in support of system hardening and customer escalations

Preferred Qualifications:

• A Degree in Electrical or Computer Engineering, with either:
• Master's with 7+ years of professional work experience
• Bachelor's with 10+ years of professional work experience
• Solid experience with complex, high-volume design and manufacturing environments across product lines such as Compute, Storage, Server, and Networking
• Strong knowledge of hardware design, x86 architectures, and interfaces, with the ability to create, run, and validate x86 hardware at the electrical, SI, protocol, and functional levels
• Working knowledge of hardware, firmware, and software stack fundamentals (drivers/OS)
• Experience with rack-level infrastructure, cabling, optical transceivers, network fabric integrity, cable management, serviceability, and redundancy concepts
• Familiarity with drive types and storage protocols (NVMe, NVMe-oF, RDMA, TCP) is a plus
• Understanding of networking protocols including Ethernet, InfiniBand, RoCE, BGP, and iSCSI is a plus
• Experience with performance/benchmarking tools and collecting/parsing telemetry via BMC/IPMI, Redfish, and SMART logs
• Proficiency in Python and/or Shell/Bash scripting for test automation, with experience building test frameworks and reporting pipelines
• Familiarity with milestone-based validation processes and Go/No-Go reporting
• Ability to script interactions with lab equipment via serial/console interfaces (PDU, BMC, switches)
• Experience using hardware and software tools for platform debug: oscilloscopes, protocol analyzers, and memory dump/trace analysis
• Highly self-motivated with the ability to work autonomously in a fast-paced, technical development environment
• Strong teamwork and collaboration skills, with comfort working across cross-functional teams