Automation Engineer

Company Description:
Nexthop AI is a team of industry-leading professionals with deep hardware and software expertise spanning silicon, systems, network operations and cloud development, dedicated to building innovative, bleeding-edge solutions for large-scale AI deployments. The team culture thrives on collaboration, creativity and fun while delivering foundational technologies for next-generation AI infrastructure.
Job Responsibilities:
Design, build, and own large-scale test automation frameworks for network devices using both open source and custom test frameworks, covering both physical and container-based topologies.
Architect and implement CI/CD pipelines that automatically deploy container topologies, execute test plans, and publish test reports and logs.
Develop and maintain configuration workflows and schemas, integrating with the NOS agnostic configuration services to generate, validate, and apply complex configurations across multi-DUT environments.
Automate end-to-end network feature and platform testing (L2/L3, BGP/EVPN, QoS, ACLs, platform health).
Integrate and automate traffic generators (IXIA / IXIA‑c, Spirent, Snappi/OTG) to validate forwarding behavior, convergence, and performance as part of regression and release test suites.
Establish and enforce automation best practices for test structure, logging, cleanup, reusability, and reliability across multiple engineering teams.
Collaborate closely with Software and Hardware Engineering teams to design test strategies for new features, platform bring-up, and regression suites; provide early feedback on design from an automation and testability perspective.
Use well defined metrics to track test execution, quality trends, and contribution impact; define and report automation metrics such as test coverage, CI/CD pipeline efficiency, and automation adoption rates.
Mentor and guide other engineers in Python development, network test automation, and modern DevOps practices, helping to grow a strong automation culture across Nexthop AI.
Qualifications:
We’re seeking individuals who thrive in a fast-paced, collaborative startup and possess exceptional problem-solving skills and a strong aptitude for taking initiative, learning, and driving high-quality automation. Additionally we value individuals who practice and instill empathy for both internal and external users of our test infrastructure. The following skills are essential for this role:
Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Electrical Engineering or a related field.
Minimum 15 years of experience in roles focused on test automation, SDET, DevOps, or network engineering, with significant responsibility for designing and operating automated test systems.
Expert-level Python skills, with deep experience building and maintaining pytest-based frameworks (fixtures, plugins, parametrization, markers) and shared test utilities.
Proficient in networking protocols and technologies such as BGP, OSPF, EVPN, VxLAN, MPLS, and modern data center architectures (Clos/leaf–spine, ECMP, overlay/underlay).
Extensive hands-on experience with network operating systems (NOS) such as SONiC, IOS, IOS‑XR, EOS, Junos, and similar, including automated configuration, show/parse cycles, and debugging.
Experience testing and automating SONiC (Software for Open Networking in the Cloud) or comparable open-network NOS; familiarity with config_db, YANG models, and SAI is highly desirable.
Proven ability to design and operate network test frameworks and to effectively debug and troubleshoot complex networking and system issues discovered by automated tests.
Significant experience with traffic generators (IXIA / IXIA‑c, Spirent, or similar) and programmatic control via APIs (Snappi/OTG or vendor SDKs), including automation of flows, sessions, and KPI validation.
Strong background in containerization and virtual topologies, including Docker, containerlab, Linux networking, and infrastructure-as-code patterns to describe and deploy test environments.
Demonstrated experience with CI/CD systems (GitHub Actions, Jenkins, GitLab CI, etc.), including building, optimizing, and maintaining pipelines for automated testing and reporting.
Hands-on experience with YAML/JSON configuration management, schema design, and integration with config translation/validation tools.
Significant experience in DevOps, Network Operations, or Network Engineering within a cloud provider or enterprise-level team, with a strong emphasis on automation and reliability.
Why Us:
Our company bolsters all the advantages of working at a startup with the expertise of a seasoned team who have successfully built startups into thriving companies. Here you’ll have the unique opportunity to collaborate and learn from top-tier engineers, while still working on mission critical projects. If you are excited to learn, solve hard problems at the forefront of computer systems, and be a part of shaping a burgeoning company, this is the place for you.

Employment type
Full-Time

Work arrangement
Yes