QA Engineer - Networking L2/L3 Testing | 4 - 8 yrs
Confirmed on the employer's own hiring board on Sep 24, 2026. First seen by Alion on Sep 24, 2026. Cisco Systems scores A on the Alion truth index.
Meet the Team
The Cisco IOS XR Routing and BNG Test Team ensures the reliability, scalability, performance, and resiliency of Cisco’s carrier-grade routing platforms. We work closely with software developers, architects, product managers, and customer-facing teams to deliver comprehensive, end-to-end validation across Layer 2, Layer 3, routing, subscriber-management, and network-service technologies for service providers, hyperscalers, and web-scale customers operating some of the world’s largest and most demanding networks.
Our team values technical depth, automation-first engineering, continuous learning, collaborative problem-solving, and responsible adoption of AI-assisted development practices.
Your Impact
As a Software Test Engineer, you will own the quality validation of IOS XR routing and Broadband Network Gateway capabilities. You will design test strategies, develop automation, validate complex customer scenarios, investigate system-level failures, and provide data-driven release recommendations.
Your work will help ensure that Cisco delivers stable, scalable, and production-ready networking solutions. You will also mentor junior engineers, improve test frameworks, and use modern AI-assisted tools to accelerate engineering and troubleshooting workflows.
What You Will Do
- Design and implement functional, system, regression, scale, performance, interoperability, resiliency, and high-availability tests for IOS XR routing and BNG features.
- Validate BNG subscriber technologies, including IPoE, PPP, PPPoE, DHCPv4/DHCPv6, DHCP relay, Prefix Delegation, RADIUS, AAA, PAP/CHAP, accounting, Change of Authorization, subscriber policies, and session lifecycle management.
- Test Layer 2 and Layer 3 technologies such as Ethernet, VLAN, QinQ, LACP, IPv4/IPv6, BGP, OSPF, IS-IS, MPLS, Segment Routing, L2VPN, L3VPN, EVPN, ECMP, BFD, QoS, and high-availability mechanisms.
- Develop reusable and scalable test automation using Python and frameworks such as pyATS, Genie, or equivalent tools.
- Build and maintain physical, virtual, containerized, and cloud-based test environments using Linux, Docker, Kubernetes, clustering technologies, VMware, OpenStack, and network simulation platforms.
- Validate control-plane, forwarding-plane, subscriber-scale, traffic, failover, software upgrade, rollback, process restart, route churn, and subscriber churn scenarios.
- Troubleshoot complex issues using IOS XR logs, protocol traces, packet captures, telemetry, RADIUS transactions, crash information, and system-resource data.
- Validate model-driven interfaces and telemetry using YANG, NETCONF, RESTCONF, gNMI, gRPC, OpenConfig, and native IOS XR models.
- Integrate automated tests into CI/CD pipelines, code reviews, version control, and regression testing.
- Use approved AI coding assistants and engineering agents for test generation, automation development, log analysis, defect triage, and documentation.
- Apply foundational knowledge of generative AI, AI agents, MCPs, reusable AI skills, prompt and context management, and responsible validation of AI-generated output.
- Collaborate across engineering teams, review test designs and automation code, mentor junior engineers, and communicate product-quality risks and release readiness.
Minimum Qualifications
- Bachelor’s or master’s degree in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Telecommunications, or a related technical field.
- 4 to 8 years of experience in software engineering, network product testing, test automation, or quality engineering.
- Strong knowledge of BNG architecture and subscriber-management technologies, including PPP/PPPoE, DHCP, RADIUS, AAA, accounting, and subscriber session management.
- Comprehensive understanding of Layer 2 and Layer 3 networking, including TCP/IP, Ethernet, VLANs, IPv4/IPv6, BGP, OSPF, IS-IS, and MPLS.
- Experience configuring and troubleshooting Cisco IOS XR or another carrier-grade network operating system.
- Advanced Python programming skills for test automation, scripting, API interaction, data analysis, and troubleshooting.
- Experience developing system, scale, performance, resiliency, and high-availability test scenarios.
- Strong Linux or Unix skills and experience with Git, code reviews, debugging, and CI/CD pipelines.
- Working experience of cloud, containerization, virtualization, and clustering technologies, including Docker, Kubernetes, VMware, and OpenStack.
- Familiarity with AI coding assistants such as GitHub Copilot or equivalent tools.
- Basic understanding of generative AI, AI agents, MCP, reusable skills, and responsible AI practices.
- Strong knowledge of software development life cycle.
- Strong analytical, troubleshooting, communication, and cross-functional collaboration skills.
Preferred Qualifications
- Experience testing BNG and routing capabilities on Cisco IOS XR platforms such as Cisco 8000, ASR 9000, or NCS 5500/5700.
- Experience with traffic generators and subscriber-simulation tools such as IXIA or Spirent.
- Knowledge of advanced BNG features, including subscriber QoS, dynamic policy activation, etc.
- Experience with L2VPN, EVPN, telemetry, and network programmability.
- Familiarity with scale and performance characterization.
- CCNP Service Provider, CCIE Service Provider, DevNet Professional, or equivalent technical knowledge.
Why Cisco?
At Cisco, we’re revolutionizing how data and infrastructure connect and protect organizations in the AI era - and beyond. We’ve been innovating fearlessly for 40 years to create solutions that power how humans and technology work together across the physical and digital worlds. These solutions provide customers with unparalleled security, visibility, and insights across the entire digital footprint.
Fueled by the depth and breadth of our technology, we experiment and create meaningful solutions. Add to that our worldwide network of doers and experts, and you’ll see that the opportunities to grow and build are limitless. We work as a team, collaborating with empathy to make really big things happen on a global scale. Because our solutions are everywhere, our impact is everywhere.
We are Cisco, and our power starts with you.
Disclaimer
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