Senior Test Automation Engineer, onsite in Petaluma, California

About the role

Ciena is a technology company dedicated to driving meaningful social, community, and societal impact alongside our business priorities. As a Software Quality Assurance (SQA) Test Engineer, you will play a crucial role in ensuring the quality, reliability, and performance of Ciena's networking products.

Responsibilities

• Design, develop, execute, and maintain automated test cases and test suites for software features, system functionality, and customer use cases.
• Create and enhance automation frameworks to improve test coverage, scalability, efficiency, and maintainability.
• Create and execute functional, integration, system, regression, and solution-level test plans to validate product capabilities and software releases.
• Analyze test results, identify defects, perform root-cause analysis, and work closely with development teams to resolve issues.
• Participate in design reviews, requirements reviews, and test planning activities to ensure quality is incorporated throughout the development lifecycle.
• Support continuous integration and continuous testing initiatives by integrating automated test suites into Jenkins pipelines.
• Build and maintain test environments, configure test topologies, and validate networking solutions under realistic deployment scenarios.
• Collaborate effectively with software development, systems engineering, product management, and other quality engineering teams to support successful feature delivery.
• Contribute to continuous improvement of automation practices, testing methodologies, and overall product quality.
• Act as a customer advocate when designing and executing test cases. Act on behalf of customers to suggest improvements.

Requirements

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, or a related technical discipline.
• 5+ years of experience in software quality assurance, test automation, software development, or related engineering roles.
• Experience developing automated test solutions using Python or other object-oriented programming languages.
• Experience creating, executing, and maintaining automated test cases and regression test suites.
• Experience working in Linux-based development and test environments.
• Understanding of software development lifecycles, quality assurance methodologies, and defect management processes.
• Experience using version control and development tools such as Git, Bitbucket, and JIRA.
• Strong troubleshooting, analytical, and problem-solving skills with the ability to identify and isolate software defects.
• Ability to work independently while collaborating effectively within cross-functional engineering teams.
• Strong verbal and written communication skills.

Nice to have

• Experience with Passive Optical Network (PON) technologies, including GPON, XGS-PON.
• Familiarity with Optical Line Terminal (OLT) and Optical Network Unit (ONU/ONT) architectures, operation, and deployment scenarios.
• Knowledge of PON-related standards and protocols, including ITU-T specifications and OMCI.
• Knowledge of networking fundamentals including Ethernet, TCP/IP, IPv4, IPv6, routing, and switching protocols.
• Experience with traffic generation and network test tools such as Ixia, Spirent, Xena, or equivalent platforms.
• Experience troubleshooting and analyzing packet captures, protocol traces, and system logs to identify root causes of networking and service issues.
• Experience working with test management and collaboration tools such as TestRail and Confluence.
• Experience troubleshooting broadband access networks and analyzing protocol traces, packet captures, and system logs.
• Knowledge of software quality assurance practices for carrier-grade networking products with a focus on reliability, scalability, and customer deployment scenarios.
• Exposure to AI-assisted development tools and automation technologies.

Qualifications

• Must have a Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, or a related technical discipline.
• Must have 5+ years of experience in software quality assurance, test automation, software development, or related engineering roles.

Skills

• Experience developing automated test solutions using Python or other object-oriented programming languages.
• Experience creating, executing, and maintaining automated test cases and regression test suites.
• Experience working in Linux-based development and test environments.
• Understanding of software development lifecycles, quality assurance methodologies, and defect management processes.
• Experience using version control and development tools such as Git, Bitbucket, and JIRA.
• Strong troubleshooting, analytical, and problem-solving skills with the ability to identify and isolate software defects.
• Ability to work independently while collaborating effectively within cross-functional engineering teams.
• Strong verbal and written communication skills.

Benefits

Ciena offers a comprehensive benefits package, including medical, dental, and vision plans, participation in 401(K) (USA) & DCPP (Canada) with company matching, Employee Stock Purchase Program (ESPP), Employee Assistance Program (EAP), company-paid holidays, paid sick leave, and vacation time. We also comply with all applicable laws regarding Paid Family Leave and other leaves of absence.

Pay

The salary range for this role in Petaluma, California is $120, 500 - $192, 500. Please note that the pay range information provided in this posting pertains specifically to the primary location, which is the top location listed in case multiple locations are available. Non-Sales employees may be eligible for a discretionary incentive bonus, while Sales employees may be eligible for a sales commission. In addition to competitive compensation, Ciena offers a comprehensive benefits package.