Software Principal Engineer

Principal Software Engineer – System Test & Release Validation (SONiC AI & Enterprise Networking)

Infrastructure Solutions Group (ISG) builds the products that power infrastructure, solutions, and data management our customers need most. Our teams design and develop the hardware and software that connect infrastructure, accelerate computational workloads, integrate across the stack, protect data continuity, and deliver the platforms, applications, and diagnostics our customers rely on every day at enterprise scale.

Some product builders follow the rules. Ours rewrite them.

Within ISG, innovation isn't just about creating new technology- it's about challenging assumptions and reimagining how work gets done. Engineers define intent, author precise specifications, and orchestrate AI agents that execute at speed and scale. AI is embedded throughout our development process, helping us move faster, learn quicker, and deliver greater impact. Yet the most important contribution remains uniquely human: deciding what to build, designing how it should work, and applying the judgment needed to earn our customers' trust. When your products power critical infrastructure around the world, that responsibility matters.

We move quickly toward the work that matters most. We reward experimentation, encourage bold thinking, and remove unnecessary barriers so great ideas can become reality faster. Our teams embrace a customer-first, first-to-market mindset, transforming rapid feedback into better products and better outcomes. We aren't looking for people who are content with the status quo- we look for builders who question it, improve it, and occasionally rewrite it.

If you're energized by solving complex systems challenges, excited to work alongside AI to amplify your impact, and motivated by the opportunity to shape what's next instead of simply maintaining what's been done before, you'll find your place here.

Join us to do the best work of your career and make a profound social impact as a Principal Software Engineer on our System Test Engineering Team in Chennai, India.

Qualifications

Take the first step towards your dream career

Every Dell Technologies team member brings something unique to the table. Here’s what we are looking for with this role:

Essential Requirements

• System and release validation: experience in system testing, release validation, and end-to-end verification of AI, data center, or enterprise networking solutions, including troubleshooting complex scale-up, scale-across, scale-out, and rack-scale networking and compute deployments.
• Networking technologies: VXLAN-EVPN, MLAG, EVPN-MH, ECMP, VRF, BGP, OSPF, IS-IS, SRv6, BFD, Layer 2 (VLAN, LACP, LLDP, STP), multicast (IGMP, PIM-SM, PIM-SSM, MLD), and enterprise services (DHCP, DNS, NTP, LDAP, RADIUS, TACACS+, 802.1X).
• Lossless fabric validation: RoCE, QoS, DCB (PFC/ECN), lossless Ethernet, link-level retransmission, latency, and performance, including collective traffic on GPU clusters.
• Automation and CI/CD: strong Python and test automation skills, with CI/CD validation pipelines, automated quality gates, scalable test frameworks, telemetry and northbound interfaces (CLI, REST, gNMI, NETCONF/YANG), and traffic generator testing (for example IXIA).
• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Engineering in CSE, ECE, EEE, IT, Computer Networks, Cloud Computing, or equivalent.

Desirable Requirements

• Hands-on SpyTest and network test automation, with experience in spec-driven or test-driven development (SDD/TDD), familiarity with server and storage environments, and software supply-chain practices (SBOM, CVE management).
• Experience building or using AI agents and AI-assisted workflows (AI models and tools, for example Claude, Devin, GitHub Copilot) for test development, automation, defect analysis, and troubleshooting.

Application Closing Date: 30 November 2026

Responsibilities

What you’ll achieve

As a Principal Software Engineer, you will validate and accelerate SONiC-based AI, data center, and enterprise networking releases across our network switch portfolio, including maintenance releases, hotfixes, and feature backports. As a successful candidate, you will be a technically savvy, passionate, and strongly self-driven engineer who drives the deliverables and objectives entrusted to you, your team, and scrums who works with engineering, architecture, and release teams to improve maintenance-release quality, automate quality gates, and deliver reliable software updates. Hiring at the Principal Software Engineer level or below, based on technical expertise, experience, and demonstrated impact.

You will:

• Develop focused validation strategies and test plans for maintenance releases, hotfixes, feature backports, customer-critical fixes, defect fixes, and architecture changes, translating specifications into test cases aligned with spec-driven and test-driven development (SDD/TDD).
• Build Python and SpyTest automation that combines change-impact analysis, defect triage and verification, automated quality gates, and CI/CD-driven validation at scale, and AI agents that improve execution efficiency, impact, and value.
• Validate release readiness across functional, interoperability, scale, performance, resiliency, and customer deployment scenarios.
• Test RoCE and lossless Ethernet under congestion, including QoS, PFC, ECN, link-level retransmission, and retransmit behavior, and track link health (error counters, link flaps, FEC and CRC trends).
• Analyze logs, telemetry, packet captures, and system behavior to identify root causes, close field escapes, and resolve complex issues, and continuously improve automation, quality signals, and release efficiency.