Test & Validation Integration Engineer - Federal Customer

Test & Validation Integration Engineer

(On-site role - 5 days per week - Active TS/SCI required)

The Test & Validation Integration Engineer serves as the critical bridge between staging and field deployment, ensuring enterprise-grade infrastructure operates seamlessly before reaching production sites. In this role, you will physically rack, stack, cable, and configure complex, multi-vendor compute, storage, and networking systems within a controlled lab environment. You will execute rigorous pre-deployment functionality tests, validate interoperability across network and container stacks, and fine-tune staging workflows to guarantee that onsite field teams can bring systems online rapidly with minimal friction. When configuration defects, hardware anomalies, or deployment bottlenecks arise, you will troubleshoot issues down to the component or protocol level, author prescriptive deployment runbooks, and collaborate directly with systems and network architects to ensure repeatable, zero-defect rollouts.

What You’ll Do

• Rack, Stack & Physical Integration: Physically assemble, mount, and cable high-density Dell PowerEdge servers, high-performance storage arrays, and network appliances within standard data center racks following structured cabling and thermal best practices.
• Multi-Vendor Device Provisioning: Apply baseline firmware, out-of-band management settings (iDRAC, console), and initial configurations across Cisco, Arista switches, Palo Alto firewalls, and Dell storage systems.
• Execute End-to-End Functionality Testing: Perform comprehensive pre-shipment validation, testing network throughput, VLAN segmentation, routing protocols, firewall policy enforcement, and storage volume availability prior to crating and shipping.
• Container & Platform Validation: Deploy, bootstrap, and validate baseline Kubernetes clusters across bare-metal and virtualized nodes, verifying container runtime health, CNI network plumbing, and persistent storage integration.
• Build & Optimize Deployment Runbooks: Formulate and refine step-by-step staging and commissioning procedures, identifying failure points in the lab so that field technicians can execute plug-and-play onsite activations with minimal engineering overhead.

Required Qualifications

• Systems & Network Integration: Hands-on experience racking, stacking, cabling, and configuring enterprise infrastructure-specifically involving Cisco, Arista, and Palo Alto hardware platforms.
• Server & High-Performance Storage: Practical proficiency provisioning enterprise compute (Dell PowerEdge) and enterprise storage fabrics (SAN/NAS, iSCSI, NVMe-oF, or NFS), including RAID configuration and out-of-band management (iDRAC).
• Kubernetes & Container Fundamentals: Practical experience installing, configuring, and verifying Kubernetes environments, container runtimes (containerd), and basic container networking/storage plugins.
• Pre-Deployment Diagnostics & Validation: Demonstrated ability to isolate physical and logical faults across Layer 1 through Layer 4 using CLI diagnostics, optics validation tools, and packet captures.
• Technical Authoring & Process Discipline: Strong documentation skills to write clear, foolproof Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs), cabling diagrams, and site activation runbooks tailored for field deployment teams.
• Clearance: Active TS/SCI and the ability to maintain access as required by the program.
• Physical Requirements: Candidates must be able to lift up to 50lbs.

Preferred Qualifications

• Professional Certifications: Intermediate to advanced networking, systems, or security certifications such as Cisco CCNP, Arista ACE, Palo Alto PCNSE, or Certified Kubernetes Administrator (CKA).
• Automation & Infrastructure as Code: Experience deploying configurations using Ansible, Terraform, Python, or Bash to accelerate repetitive staging workflows and validation suites.
• Advanced Network Architecture: In-depth understanding of leaf-spine architectures, BGP, EVPN-VXLAN, and stateful security inspection policies.
• Linux Systems Administration: Strong command of Linux internals, systemd services, kernel networking parameters, and driver/firmware upgrades.
• Lab & Data Center Operations: Familiarity with power distribution units (ePDU), high-density optic standards (QSFP28/QSFP-DD), and lab asset-tracking tools.

What We Offer

• Cutting-Edge Lab Access: Direct access to enterprise-class hardware, sandbox environments, and emerging software stacks.
• Technical Growth: Sponsored training, conference attendance, and certification support to continuously sharpen your engineering toolkit.
• Collaborative Engineering Culture: A multidisciplinary team that values bias for action, intellectual curiosity, and autonomous problem-solving.