Python Automation Engineer

Job Title: Network Automation & Test Engineer
Location: San Jose, CA (Onsite)
Duration: 6 Months -Contract to Hire


What You'll Do
• Perform system- and solution-level testing across data-center networking environments.
• Develop and maintain Python-based test automation.
• utomate 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
• bility to troubleshoot system- and solution-level networking issues
• CCNP-equivalent depth
• OSPF exposure is helpful but secondary to BGP


utomation
• Strong Python skills
• Experience developing or maintaining network test automation
• bility to read and understand existing automation code
• bility to evaluate whether generated or existing code is technically correct
• Experience automating system, solution, or network test cases
• bility 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.


Interview Process (4 rounds, Cisco-side)
1. utomation interview
2. utomation / problem-solving interview
3. Networking interview
4. Networking / system-test interview


utomation rounds emphasize practical problem-solving (e.g., "here's a test problem, how would you automate it") rather than complex algorithms. Networking rounds probe data-center depth - L2/L3, BGP, IP fabrics, and related technologies.