Senior Principal Solution Test & Automation Engineer - Customer Engagement
This role has been designed as 'Hybrid' with a requirement that you will work on average 2 days per week from an HPE office.
Who We Are:
Hewlett Packard Enterprise is the global edge-to-cloud company advancing the way people live and work. We help companies connect, protect, analyze, and act on their data and applications wherever they live, from edge to cloud, so they can turn insights into outcomes at the speed required to thrive in today’s complex world. Our culture thrives on finding new and better ways to accelerate what’s next. We know varied backgrounds are valued and succeed here. We have the flexibility to manage our work and personal needs. We make bold moves, together, and are a force for good. If you are looking to stretch and grow your career our culture will embrace you. Open up opportunities with HPE.
Job Description:
Senior Principal Solution Test & Automation Engineer - Customer Engagement
Location (HYBRID): Sunnyvale, CA
HPE Networking is seeking a Senior Principal Solution Test & Automation Engineer to lead quality engineering for large-scale networking and distributed software solutions. This is a highly technical Individual Contributor role requiring substantial technical impact on strategic products, architectural initiatives, and customer success. The role combines deep software testing expertise, system-level engineering knowledge, customer engagement, and technical leadership. The successful candidate will serve as a go-to authority for complex quality engineering challenges, drive innovation in automation and validation, and influence product quality, scalability, observability, and reliability across the entire product lifecycle.
You will partner closely with engineering, architecture, product management, sales engineering, services, support, and customers to validate complex networking solutions, establish scalable quality engineering practices, and deliver long-lasting improvements to engineering productivity and product quality. In addition to technical execution, you will provide leadership across functions, mentor engineers, and help define the future direction of solution validation and automation.
Success in this role requires substantial technical impact on significant products and programs, recognized expertise within the organization, leadership across functions, delivery of long-lasting test engineering improvements, mentorship of technical talent, and innovation that advances customer outcomes and business objectives.
Solution Validation & Customer Engagement
- Understand customer deployments, business requirements, architectures, and large-scale operational environments to develop comprehensive validation strategies.
- Lead validation efforts for strategic customer solutions and complex networking deployments.
- Collaborate with customers, field engineers, solution architects, sales engineers, and services teams to validate real-world networking solutions and operational readiness.
- Participate in and influence technical design workshops, architecture reviews, and strategic planning discussions to improve reliability, scalability, observability, and serviceability.
- Translate customer requirements into repeatable, solution-focused validation frameworks.
- Present technical findings, risk assessments, quality recommendations, and executive-level updates to customers and internal stakeholders.
- Drive cross-functional initiatives that improve customer outcomes and product quality.
Automation & Quality Engineering
- Define and drive automation strategy across products, programs, and engineering teams.
- Architect, develop, and evolve scalable automation frameworks supporting functional, integration, system, resiliency, scale, performance, and solution validation.
- Establish engineering best practices and standards for continuous validation through CI/CD pipelines.
- Lead innovation in automation infrastructure, tooling, and AI-assisted engineering practices.
- Drive organization-wide adoption of quality engineering methodologies that improve time-to-market and engineering productivity.
- Identify opportunities to simplify validation workflows and reduce operational costs through automation.
System-Level Testing & Debugging
- Lead validation of distributed, multi-component software and networking platforms at scale.
- Execute and automate regression, longevity, fault-injection, recovery, scalability, interoperability, and performance testing.
- Utilize logs, metrics, traces, telemetry, observability platforms, and diagnostic frameworks to troubleshoot complex failures.
- Lead root-cause investigations spanning multiple teams and technology domains.
- Differentiate product defects from infrastructure, automation, and environmental issues.
- Influence architecture and design decisions to improve product testability, diagnosability, and operational excellence.
Technical Leadership
- Provide technical leadership for strategic initiatives, major releases, and architectural programs.
- Serve as a recognized authority for solution validation, automation, and quality engineering.
- Lead and connect engineering teams across functions to align around common quality objectives.
- Drive quality-first engineering practices throughout the development lifecycle.
- Mentor engineers through technical guidance, reviews, coaching, and knowledge sharing.
- Contribute to technical innovation through patents, white papers, standards participation, publications, and architectural proposals.
- Build long-term technical capabilities that create recurring business value and customer impact.
Basic Qualifications
Software Engineering & Automation
- Expert-level programming expertise in Python, Go, or C++, with deep proficiency in at least one language.
- Extensive experience designing and building automation platforms, frameworks, and quality engineering ecosystems.
- Experience integrating large-scale automated testing into CI/CD environments.
- Proven history of driving transformational automation initiatives.
Systems & Networking
- Strong understanding of Linux/UNIX operating systems, networking, processes, memory management, and system internals.
- Extensive experience validating distributed and multi-component systems.
- Deep hands-on expertise configuring and validating multi-vendor networking environments.
- Experience supporting service provider, enterprise, and cloud networking deployments.
- Strong knowledge of performance testing and traffic-generation platforms such as Ixia and Spirent.
Testing & Quality Engineering
- Deep expertise in system-level and end-to-end validation.
- Multi-feature, longevity, resiliency, interoperability, scale, and performance testing.
- Fault injection and recovery validation.
- Root-cause analysis and complex defect investigation.
- Advanced troubleshooting across multiple software and infrastructure layers.
Leadership & Influence
- Demonstrated history of leading significant technical initiatives with measurable business impact.
- Proven ability to influence engineering decisions, architecture, and strategic direction.
- Experience mentoring engineers and leading cross-functional technical initiatives.
Preferred Qualifications
- Advanced networking expertise in Layer 2, Layer 3, TCP/IP, Routing, MPLS, EVPN, and data center technologies.
- Experience with network operating systems, cloud infrastructure, observability platforms, and distributed architectures.
- Working knowledge of JUNOS.
- Industry certifications such as JNCIE, CCIE, or equivalent.
- Experience leveraging AI-assisted engineering tools for automation development, test generation, diagnostics, failure analysis, and productivity improvements.
- Track record of innovation resulting in patents, publications, standards contributions, or architectural leadership.
Accessibility
HPE is committed to creating an inclusive and accessible workplace and encourages applications from all qualified individuals, including those with disabilities. If you believe you require accommodation during any stage of the application or interview process, please submit your request by completing our secure form linked here.
Note: This option is reserved for applicants needing assistance/reasonable accommodation related to a disability.
What We Can Offer You:
Health & Wellbeing
We strive to provide our team members and their loved ones with a comprehensive suite of benefits that supports their physical, financial and emotional wellbeing.
Personal & Professional Development
We also invest in your career because the better you are, the better we all are. We have specific programs catered to helping you reach any career goals you have — whether you want to become a knowledge expert in your field or apply your skills to another division.
Unconditional Inclusion
We are unconditionally inclusive in the way we work and celebrate individual uniqueness. We know varied backgrounds are valued and succeed here. We have the flexibility to manage our work and personal needs. We make bold moves, together, and are a force for good.
Let's Stay Connected:
Follow @HPECareers on Instagram to see the latest on people, culture and tech at HPE.
Job:
EngineeringJob Level:
TCP_06"The expected salary/wage range for this position is provided below. Actual offer may vary from this range based upon geographic location, work experience, education/training, and/or skill level.
– United States of America: Annual Salary USD 183,000 - 370,500 in California
The listed salary range reflects base salary. Variable incentives may also be offered."
Information about employee benefits offered in the US can be found at https://myhperewards.com/main/new-hire-enrollment.html
HPE is an Equal Employment Opportunity/ Veterans/Disabled/LGBT employer. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, gender, or any other protected category, and all decisions we make are made on the basis of qualifications, merit, and business need. Our goal is to be one global team that is representative of our customers, in an inclusive environment where we can continue to innovate and grow together. Please click here: Equal Employment Opportunity.
Hewlett Packard Enterprise is EEO Protected Veteran/ Individual with Disabilities.
HPE will comply with all applicable laws related to employer use of arrest and conviction records, including laws requiring employers to consider for employment qualified applicants with criminal histories.
Recruitment Fraud Alert
We have become aware of an increase in fraudulent recruitment activities in which individuals impersonate our company or authorized recruitment agencies to offer fake employment opportunities. These scams may occur through false websites, emails, social media, or chat-based applications and often aim to obtain personal information or money. Please note that Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE), its direct and indirect subsidiaries and affiliated companies, and its authorized recruitment agencies/vendors will never charge a candidate a registration fee, hiring fee, or any other fee in connection with its recruitment and hiring process. We also never request personal information such as back account details, Social Security numbers, or national IDs via social media or chat applications.
All legitimate job opportunities will come through official company channels, and candidates are responsible for verifying the credentials of any third party claiming to represent the company. Any reliance on fraudulent communication is at the individual’s own risk, and HPE disclaims legal liability for any resulting damages. If you suspect recruitment fraud, do not share personal information or make any payments and report the incident to your local authorities immediately.
Skills Required
- Expert-level programming expertise in Python, Go, or C++, with deep proficiency in at least one language
- Extensive experience designing and building automation platforms, frameworks, and quality engineering ecosystems
- Experience integrating large-scale automated testing into CI/CD environments
- Proven history of driving transformational automation initiatives
- Strong understanding of Linux/UNIX operating systems, networking, processes, memory management, and system internals
- Extensive experience validating distributed and multi-component systems
- Deep hands-on expertise configuring and validating multi-vendor networking environments
- Experience supporting service provider, enterprise, and cloud networking deployments
- Strong knowledge of performance testing and traffic-generation platforms such as Ixia and Spirent
- Deep expertise in system-level and end-to-end validation
- Experience with feature, longevity, resiliency, interoperability, scale, and performance testing
- Experience with fault injection and recovery validation
- Experience conducting root-cause analysis and complex defect investigations
- Advanced troubleshooting across multiple software and infrastructure layers
- Demonstrated history of leading significant technical initiatives with measurable business impact
- Proven ability to influence engineering decisions, architecture, and strategic direction
- Experience mentoring engineers and leading cross-functional technical initiatives
- Advanced expertise in Layer 2, Layer 3, TCP/IP, Routing, MPLS, EVPN, and data center technologies
- Experience with network operating systems, cloud infrastructure, observability platforms, and distributed architectures
- Working knowledge of JUNOS
- Industry certification such as JNCIE, CCIE, or equivalent
- Experience leveraging AI-assisted engineering tools for automation development, test generation, diagnostics, failure analysis, and productivity improvements
- Track record of innovation resulting in patents, publications, standards contributions, or architectural leadership
Hewlett Packard Enterprise Compensation & Benefits Highlights
-
Parental & Family Support — Parental leave is frequently highlighted as a standout, with extended fully paid time off and transition support for new parents. Additional offerings like backup childcare and family-care programs strengthen the family-friendly profile.
-
Retirement Support — Retirement programs, including employer-supported 401(k) matching, are consistently cited as solid components of the package. Feedback suggests these offerings contribute meaningful long-term financial support.
-
Wellbeing & Lifestyle Benefits — Work-life and wellness features such as Wellness Fridays, flexible/hybrid work, and volunteer time off are commonly emphasized. Feedback suggests these elements enhance balance and day-to-day experience.
Hewlett Packard Enterprise Insights
What We Do
In 1939, Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard, college friends turned business partners, started the original Silicon Valley startup in the space of a rented Palo Alto garage. Starting with audio oscillators, the friends built the foundation for a company that would grow to become a global leader in enterprise technology. More than 75 years later, our success is exemplified through our employees’ drive to advance ideas that bring meaningful innovations to life for our customers and partners around the globe. We are guided by our mission to help customers use technology to turn ideas into value, and empower them to transform industries, markets and lives. We simplify Hybrid IT, power the Intelligent Edge and provide the expertise to make it all happen.
Hewlett Packard Enterprise Offices
OnSite Workspace
