Software Principal Engineer - SONiC Community & System Validation

Principal Software Engineer – SONiC Community & System Validation

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 and help build the future of enterprise technology.

What you’ll achieve

As a Principal Software Engineer, you will represent Dell System Test Engineering in the SONiC open-source community, advancing SONiC-based AI and enterprise networking solutions through validation and upstream contributions. You will work with SONiC maintainers, developers, platform partners, and engineering teams to improve feature quality, testability, and solution readiness. As a successful candidate, you will be a technically savvy, passionate engineer who independently drives and defends technical positions backed by data, and strengthens Dell’s technical presence across the SONiC ecosystem.

You will:

• Represent Dell System Test Engineering in SONiC working groups, technical forums, design reviews, and community initiatives, influencing SONiC community discussions with data and validation results.

• Contribute validation expertise, automation, and test infrastructure to the SONiC ecosystem, and review specifications, RFCs, design proposals, and roadmaps from a validation and customer deployment perspective, with test plans aligned to spec-driven and test-driven development (SDD/TDD).

• Validate SONiC features across functional, scale, interoperability, resiliency, and lossless-fabric scenarios, including link-level retransmission (LLR) and retransmit behavior.

• Analyze complex issues, perform root cause analysis, and drive triage and closure with engineering and community contributors, using Python and SpyTest test strategies, automation, and AI agents that improve execution efficiency, impact, and value.

• Advocate best practices in system testing, automation, observability, and quality engineering, grounding every recommendation in data, quality, and customer impact.

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

• SONiC and open networking: strong knowledge of SONiC architecture and open, disaggregated networking across AI, data center, and enterprise solutions, with extensive system validation across VXLAN-EVPN, MLAG, EVPN-MH, ECMP, BGP, OSPF, IS-IS, SRv6, Layer 2, multicast, and enterprise services (DHCP, DNS, NTP, LDAP, RADIUS, TACACS+, 802.1X).

• Community leadership: experience in open-source communities, technical forums, or standards bodies, with strong technical leadership and communication skills to independently drive and defend technical positions using data.

• Lossless fabric validation: RoCE, QoS, DCB (PFC/ECN), lossless Ethernet, link-level retransmission, latency, performance, and resiliency across scale-up, scale-across, scale-out, rack-scale, and fabric-scale networking and compute environments.

• Automation and telemetry: strong Python and test automation skills, with CI/CD workflows, traffic generator testing (for example IXIA), packet analysis, telemetry, and northbound interfaces (CLI, REST, gNMI, NETCONF/YANG).

• 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 scalable network test automation, with experience in server and storage infrastructure or fabric orchestration solutions.

• Experience building or using AI agents and AI-assisted workflows (AI models and tools, for example Claude, Devin, GitHub Copilot) for test development, automation, analysis, specification reviews, and open-source contributions.

Who we are

We believe that each of us has the power to make an impact. That’s why we put our team members at the center of everything we do. If you’re looking for an opportunity to grow your career with some of the best minds and most advanced tech in the industry, we’re looking for you.

Dell Technologies is a unique family of businesses that helps individuals and organizations transform how they work, live and play. Join us to build a future that works for everyone because Progress Takes All of Us.

Dell Technologies is committed to the principle of equal employment opportunity for all employees and to providing employees with a work environment free of discrimination and harassment. Read the full Equal Employment Opportunity Policy here .