Principal QA Engineer

Join us as a Principal QA Engineer and take the lead in defining and executing quality assurance strategies for next-generation optical networking solutions. You will drive comprehensive test and automation initiatives for Optical DWDM platforms and critical protocols such as OTN, GbE, and DWDM, while ensuring robust system security and reliability. You will work across both manual and automated system testing, augmented with AI, ensuring robust validation, scalability, and continuous quality improvements. This is an opportunity to influence testing at a strategic level, collaborate with cross-functional teams, and contribute to delivering high-performance, reliable products in a fast-evolving technology landscape. As a Principal QA Engineer, you will lead the efforts for: Review the product feature requirements to estimate effort, equipment needs, and timelines for release commitments Analyze system requirements to develop comprehensive test strategies and plans that validate system features and customer deployment scenarios Validate complex system features and functionality within carrier-grade products to ensure high reliability Develop cross-functional test scripts aligned with system requirements and defined test plans Design, maintain, and execute automation frameworks and test suites, including thorough failure analysis Collaborate with system engineering teams on requirement reviews, definitions, and test plan validations Work closely with test, design, and architecture teams to understand feature implementation and ensure effective test coverage Provide detailed reporting on test execution, defect analysis, and resolution, while ensuring alignment with quality standards and customer expectations for feature deployment Must-have: Bachelor’s degree or higher in CSE, EEE, or ECE, with 12+ years of experience in testing and automation within optical networking domains Proven experience in certifying SONET/SDH/OTN/DWDM systems in a product development environment, with strong knowledge of relevant standards on OTN, DWDM, and Platform. Hands-on experience on different protocols like OTN, FlexO , FlexE , Fiber Channel, Ethernet, SONET/ Sdh , RSTP, etc , and interfaces like Netconf, Restconf , gRPC , etc. Strong expertise in L0/L1/Platform software design for network equipment Work experience in testing Microservices, Container container-based applications is strongly desired. Having experience in system control plane protocols such as OSPF, MPLS, LDP, and other L2/L3 protocols is a strong plus. Working with test traffic generators like Viavi, Spirent, Ixia, etc. and optical spectrum analyzers (OSA), along with programming/scripting skills in Python or similar languages Experience in system testing across multiple product releases as a Test technical leader and test architecture-related activities. Highly motivated with leadership qualities, committed to System Quality. Continuous Drive for Results and Optimization of Test Efforts. Nice-to-have: Collaborating with customer support teams to address field escalations during deployments Highly motivated with leadership qualities, committed to System Quality.