Network Engineer- Cisco

About the role

Location: New York, NY. We are looking for a Senior Network Test Engineer with strong expertise in LAN/WAN, Data Center and Campus/Branch networking, combined with hands-on experience in network hardware testing, automation, and code/patch certification. The ideal candidate should be able to independently lead complex network testing and certification activities, work with multiple vendors, troubleshoot network issues at the protocol level, and develop automation to improve testing coverage and efficiency.

Responsibilities

• Test and certify network hardware, software releases, patches, SMUs, and code upgrades.
• Perform functional, performance, interoperability, and reliability testing in network lab environments.
• Rapidly evaluate and certify patches/CVEs and assess associated network and business risks.
• Design and execute testing strategies for routers, switches, firewalls, and load balancers.
• Identify, troubleshoot, and document hardware, software, performance, and compatibility issues.
• Develop test automation using Python, Ansible, APIs, Infrastructure-as-Code, and Robot Framework.
• Create and maintain engineering standards, configuration templates, testing guidelines, and technical documentation.
• Work closely with network vendors and internal engineering teams on PoCs, product evaluations, certifications, and new technologies.
• Present testing results, recommendations, risks, and certification findings to technical and senior management.
• Support production teams with expert-level troubleshooting and vulnerability/bug analysis.
• Evaluate emerging networking technologies and recommend improvements to network testing and certification processes.

Requirements

• 8+ years of Network Engineering experience.
• Strong experience with LAN/WAN, Data Center, Campus/Branch and WAN/MAN networks.
• Strong knowledge of BGP, OSPF, IGMP, PIM, Layer 2 protocols, and Spanning Tree.
• Hands-on experience with Cisco Catalyst/Nexus platforms.
• Experience with Cisco IOS/XE/NX-OS code certification, bug scrubs, and feature validation.
• Experience with Arista platforms is highly preferred.
• Strong Python and Ansible skills.
• Good Linux administration and networking knowledge.
• Experience with Wireshark, tcpdump, Git/GitHub.
• Strong understanding of network hardware testing and lab certification.
• Experience with IXIA and/or Spirent.
• Strong troubles