Network Engineer
Onsite/Hybrid - Santa Clara, CA
6-12 Months contract
What are the top 3 skills required for this role?
• Experience with network automation tooling: Ansible, Nornir, NAPALM, pyATS, Batfish, NetBox/Nautobot
• Exposure to CI/CD pipelines (GitLab CI, GitHub Actions, Jenkins) applied to network configuration workflows
• Knowledge of infrastructureascode concepts as applied to networking
• Experience in a dedicated network validation or solutions engineering lab environment
Certifications: CCNP / CCIE (Enterprise or Data Center), JNCIP, ACE, or equivalent professional level certification will help.
Job Description/ Responsibilities
• Lab Validation & Testing
o Receive network use cases from architecture, engineering, or business stakeholders and translate them into structured lab test plans covering functional, performance, resiliency, and failure-scenario testing
o Execute high-touch validation of enterprise networking technologies including switching, routing, wireless, SD-WAN, firewalling, and network automation platforms
o Deliver complete validation packages including:
o Logical and physical topology diagrams
o Device configurations (sanitized and version-controlled)
o Step-by-step test procedures and results
o Pass/fail summaries with root cause analysis for failures
o Go/No-Go recommendations with supporting evidence
o Perform rack and stack of lab equipment when required — cable management, power sequencing, console access setup, and physical layer verification
• Design & Documentation
o Produce clear, detailed lab reports that can be handed directly to production engineering teams for deployment
o Maintain up-to-date physical and logical topology documentation for all active lab topologies
o Document configurations using version control (Git) so all tested configs are traceable and reusable
o Build and maintain a library of validated reference architectures and design patterns
• Vendor Collaboration
o Partner with network vendors (Cisco, Arista, Juniper, Palo Alto, Aruba, etc.) to conduct joint proof-of-concept testing and feature validation
o Drive vendor-supported test engagements including bug reproduction, feature requests, and interoperability testing
o Evaluate new hardware and software releases against defined acceptance criteria before recommending adoption
o Manage loaner equipment logistics and coordinate lab access for vendor engineers
• Automation & CI/CD
o Write scripts (Python, Bash, Ansible) to automate repetitive lab tasks — device provisioning, configuration push, test execution, and results collection
o Build or maintain CI/CD pipelines (Jenkins, GitLab CI, GitHub Actions) for automated configuration validation and regression testing
o Develop test automation frameworks using tools such as pyATS, Robot Framework, Batfish, or NAPALM
o Integrate lab test results into reporting dashboards or ticketing systems to provide traceability from test run to design decision
Years of Experience: 10.00 Years of Experience
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