Senior SDET

Role Summary

Join the award-winning Sophos XGS Firewall team as a Senior Software Development Engineer in Test (SDET) and help shape the future of network security. Recognized in the 2025 CRN® ARC Awards-including Product Innovation and Support across both Enterprise and SMB Network Security-Sophos XGS is a globally trusted platform used by over 600,000 organizations worldwide. This is an opportunity to work on a high-performance firewall platform, redefining secure connectivity through cutting-edge automation and scalable test frameworks.

As a Senior Software Development Engineer in Test for the control plane, you will lead the design and development of the software, infrastructure, and processes required to validate our next-generation control plane. You will own the end-to-end test strategy, with a strong focus on APIs, functionality, scale, performance, security, and other non-functional areas. The role involves driving early design and API specification reviews, building and evolving test automation, and adopting modern tools to achieve high quality standards.

You will work closely with Development, Quality Engineering, and Support teams, collaborating with engineers across Bangalore, Vancouver, Pittsburgh, and Ahmedabad in a globally distributed, high-impact engineering organization.

What you will do

Quality & Test Strategy Ownership

• Own and drive the end-to-end test strategy for the firewall control plane, ensuring comprehensive coverage across functionality, APIs, scale, performance, interoperability, and security.
• Define quality goals, test approaches, and success metrics aligned with shift-left quality principles.
• Ensure strong requirements, code, and solution-level coverage throughout the development lifecycle.

Automation & Framework Development

• Design, develop, and enhance test automation frameworks, libraries, and tools using Python-based technologies.
• Lead API, CLI, and system-level automation for complex networking solutions.
• Drive adoption of automation for non-functional, performance, and security testing.

Collaboration & Execution

• Actively participate in design and architecture reviews, representing quality expectations early in the development cycle.
• Work closely with Development and QE teams on triage, debugging, impact analysis, and fix verification.
• Partner with Support and field teams to investigate production issues, collect logs, reproduce issues, and validate fixes in lab environments.

Mentorship & Continuous Improvement

• Mentor and guide junior engineers on complex features, new technologies, and advanced test approaches.
• Research, evaluate, and introduce new testing tools, techniques, and best practices to continuously improve quality and efficiency.
• Develop a strong understanding of the Sophos product portfolio, validating end-to-end customer solutions involving multiple networking products (Firewalls, Switches, Routers).

What you will bring

• 8-12 years of overall experience, with strong hands-on focus on test automation of over 6 years.
• Solid experience testing networking products such as Firewalls, Switches, Routers, and management software.
• Strong knowledge of networking fundamentals (L2/L3) and application-level protocols.
• Proven experience in test automation using Python (Robot Framework or similar), with a focus on building reusable libraries.
• Hands-on experience with API testing (REST and gRPC), including authentication mechanisms, using tools like Postman and programmatic approaches.
• Experience across the full Quality Engineering lifecycle: functional, integration, non-functional, performance, and security testing.
• Strong debugging skills, including log analysis and system-level issue investigation.
• Working knowledge of Linux systems, kernel concepts, and networking stacks.
• Experience with traffic generators such as BreakingPoint and related automation APIs.

Preferred / Nice to Have

• Familiarity with security testing tools (e.g., Burp Suite, Nmap, Nessus, Nexus).
• Experience testing both hardware appliances and virtual images.
• Exposure to cloud platforms such as AWS and/or Azure.
• Experience working in Agile development environments.
• Exposure to AI-assisted tools for test automation, code generation, review, or productivity improvement.