Automation Engineer
NextHop Systems
full-time
Posted on:
Location Type: Remote
Location: United States
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About the role
- Design, build, and own large-scale test automation frameworks for network devices using both open source and custom test frameworks, covering both physical and container-based topologies.
- Architect and implement CI/CD pipelines that automatically deploy container topologies, execute test plans, and publish test reports and logs.
- Develop and maintain configuration workflows and schemas, integrating with the NOS agnostic configuration services to generate, validate, and apply complex configurations across multi-DUT environments.
- Automate end-to-end network feature and platform testing (L2/L3, BGP/EVPN, QoS, ACLs, platform health).
- Integrate and automate traffic generators (IXIA / IXIA‑c, Spirent, Snappi/OTG) to validate forwarding behavior, convergence, and performance as part of regression and release test suites.
- Establish and enforce automation best practices for test structure, logging, cleanup, reusability, and reliability across multiple engineering teams.
- Collaborate closely with Software and Hardware Engineering teams to design test strategies for new features, platform bring-up, and regression suites; provide early feedback on design from an automation and testability perspective.
- Use well defined metrics to track test execution, quality trends, and contribution impact; define and report automation metrics such as test coverage, CI/CD pipeline efficiency, and automation adoption rates.
- Mentor and guide other engineers in Python development, network test automation, and modern DevOps practices, helping to grow a strong automation culture across Nexthop AI.
Requirements
- Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Electrical Engineering or a related field.
- Minimum 15 years of experience in roles focused on test automation, SDET, DevOps, or network engineering, with significant responsibility for designing and operating automated test systems.
- Expert-level Python skills, with deep experience building and maintaining pytest-based frameworks (fixtures, plugins, parametrization, markers) and shared test utilities.
- Proficient in networking protocols and technologies such as BGP, OSPF, EVPN, VxLAN, MPLS, and modern data center architectures (Clos/leaf–spine, ECMP, overlay/underlay).
- Extensive hands-on experience with network operating systems (NOS) such as SONiC, IOS, IOS‑XR, EOS, Junos, and similar, including automated configuration, show/parse cycles, and debugging.
- Experience testing and automating SONiC (Software for Open Networking in the Cloud) or comparable open-network NOS; familiarity with config_db, YANG models, and SAI is highly desirable.
- Proven ability to design and operate network test frameworks and to effectively debug and troubleshoot complex networking and system issues discovered by automated tests.
- Significant experience with traffic generators (IXIA / IXIA‑c, Spirent, or similar) and programmatic control via APIs (Snappi/OTG or vendor SDKs), including automation of flows, sessions, and KPI validation.
- Strong background in containerization and virtual topologies, including Docker, containerlab, Linux networking, and infrastructure-as-code patterns to describe and deploy test environments.
- Demonstrated experience with CI/CD systems (GitHub Actions, Jenkins, GitLab CI, etc.), including building, optimizing, and maintaining pipelines for automated testing and reporting.
- Hands-on experience with YAML/JSON configuration management, schema design, and integration with config translation/validation tools.
- Significant experience in DevOps, Network Operations, or Network Engineering within a cloud provider or enterprise-level team, with a strong emphasis on automation and reliability.
Benefits
- None 📊 Check your resume score for this job Improve your chances of getting an interview by checking your resume score before you apply. Check Resume Score
Applicant Tracking System Keywords
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Hard Skills & Tools
Pythonpytestnetwork test automationtraffic generatorscontainerizationCI/CDYAMLJSONnetwork operating systemsnetwork protocols
Soft Skills
mentoringcollaborationproblem-solvingautomation best practicescommunicationleadershiporganizational skillsdesign strategydebuggingtestability