WiFi Validation Engineer (Onsite – Menlo Park, CA)

A visionary technology leader is actively seeking a highly skilled and dedicated WiFi Validation Engineer (Onsite – Menlo Park, CA) to join their innovative team. This contract position, located in the heart of Menlo Park, California, is crucial for ensuring the robust performance, security, and reliability of high-performance wireless networks. The ideal candidate will possess a deep understanding of Wi-Fi technologies, exceptional validation expertise, and a proactive, collaborative approach to problem-solving, aligning perfectly with the organization’s commitment to pushing the boundaries of connectivity.

WiFi Validation Engineer (Onsite – Menlo Park, CA)

Location: 1 Hacker Way, Menlo Park, CA 94025 – This is an Onsite role, requiring daily presence at the designated facility.

Employment Type: Contract

Pay Range: $55 – $60 per hour

Industry: Computer and Mathematical

What You’ll Be Doing: Core Responsibilities in Wireless Validation & Engineering

As a WiFi Validation Engineer, you will be instrumental in the end-to-end lifecycle of cutting-edge wireless network solutions, from initial design and rigorous testing to seamless integration and ongoing optimization. Your responsibilities will span architectural contributions, meticulous validation, and proactive support, ensuring the delivery of secure, high-performing Wi-Fi experiences.

• Designing High-Performance Wireless Networks and Secure Solutions: You will be a key contributor to the design of high-performance wireless networks and solutions. This involves more than just connectivity; it’s about crafting robust architectures that conform to the latest industry security standards and best practices. You’ll consider factors like capacity, coverage, interference mitigation, user density, and advanced security protocols to ensure optimal performance and resilience.
• Collaborating on User Requirements and Network Solutions: A critical aspect of your role involves collaborating closely with customers and diverse cross-functional teams. You will translate complex user requirements and various use cases into tangible, appropriate network solutions and their associated deliverables. This requires strong communication skills to bridge the gap between user needs and technical implementation, ensuring that engineered solutions truly solve real-world problems.
• Defining and Developing Evaluation Criteria for Wireless Platforms: You will take the lead in defining and developing comprehensive criteria for evaluating and selecting Wireless Platforms/Solutions. This involves establishing benchmarks for performance, scalability, security features, manageability, cost-effectiveness, and integration capabilities. These criteria will form the basis for rigorous testing and comparison of different OEM offerings to ensure the best fit for the client’s production environment.
• Executing Test Plans and Publishing Comparison Reports: Following the defined criteria, you will execute detailed test plans to rigorously assess various wireless platforms and solutions. Upon completion of testing, you will publish thorough comparison reports among participating OEMs. These reports will provide data-driven insights into performance metrics, feature sets, stability, and adherence to requirements, guiding critical decision-making processes for platform selection.
• Integrating OEM Platforms with Client Production Tooling Stack (FCAPS): You will be responsible for the seamless integration of OEM wireless platforms with the client’s existing production tooling stack. This includes ensuring compatibility and data flow for Fault, Configuration, Accounting, Performance, and Security (FCAPS) management. Your work will enable comprehensive monitoring, automated configuration, accurate resource accounting, performance analytics, and robust security posture management across the wireless infrastructure.
• Wireless Platforms Release Management (Comprehensive Oversight): You will oversee the intricate process of wireless platforms release management, ensuring smooth and secure updates across the network. This includes:
  • Creating a comprehensive list of use cases/scenarios to be tested for each new release, ensuring thorough validation.
  • Reviewing reports provided by manufacturers, including detailed release notes, identified dependencies, caveats, and affected bugs, and subsequently updating internal guidance for the network operations team.
  • Tracking new features on OEM Roadmaps to anticipate future capabilities and plan for adoption.
  • Tracking critical open issues and their fixes with OEM Technical Assistance Centers (TAC), driving resolution and ensuring stability.
  • Tracking open security vulnerabilities and their associated fixes, prioritizing patches to maintain a strong security posture.
  • Defining an upgrade cadence and comprehensive rollout plan for production, minimizing disruption.
  • Coordinating upgrades in the validation lab (e.g., Validation Chambers and Wireless LAN Controllers – WLCs) and managing the production rollout.
  • Setting up/writing automated Wi-Fi tests for Continuous Integration (CI) and release validation (bug scrub), enabling rapid and reliable testing.
• Providing Support and Guidance for Troubleshooting and Escalations: You will provide expert support and guidance to the wireless network operations team for troubleshooting critical issues on both the client (device) and network side. This includes acting as an L3 escalation point for complex problems, leveraging your deep knowledge to diagnose and resolve persistent wireless challenges.
• Process Improvement and Automation: You will actively participate in the development and continuous improvement of processes, metrics, tools, alerting, and scripts aimed at optimizing network performance and ensuring reliable operations. This includes identifying opportunities for automation solutions that enhance monitoring capabilities, streamline repetitive tasks, and significantly reduce human error, contributing to a more efficient and resilient network.
• Proactive Contribution to Technical/Training Documentation: You will proactively contribute to and maintain comprehensive technical and training documentation. This involves creating detailed guides, procedures, and knowledge base articles that empower the operations team and ensure efficient knowledge transfer, supporting long-term operational excellence.
• Advanced Network Design and Planning (IPv4/IPv6, Routing Protocols): Beyond wireless, you will contribute to developing detailed network architecture plans incorporating both IPv4 and IPv6 addressing schemes. This is crucial to accommodate current and future network requirements, meeting organizational needs and facilitating future growth. You will utilize advanced routing protocols such as BGP/MP-BGP (Border Gateway Protocol / Multiprotocol BGP), EVPN VXLAN (Ethernet VPN / Virtual Extensible LAN), and OSPF (Open Shortest Path First) for efficient, scalable, and resilient network routing.
• Installation, Configuration, and Problem Solving for Advanced Protocols: You will navigate and resolve difficult issues in supporting existing deployment teams, requiring a strong technical, strategic, and collaborative approach. This includes hands-on setting up network devices with advanced protocol features like BGP/MP-BGP and EVPN VXLAN. You’ll also configure DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol), supporting both IPv4 and DHCPv6 for IPv6 environments. Your responsibilities extend to configuring DNS (Domain Name System) for resolving domain names to both IPv4 and IPv6 addresses, and implementing both stateful and stateless firewalls to control network traffic based on predetermined security rules.
• Network Assessment, Planning, and Migration Execution: You will conduct thorough analysis of existing networks to identify areas for improvement or migration. This includes developing detailed migration plans, complete with timelines, resource allocation, and comprehensive risk assessments. You’ll create comprehensive documentation for both legacy and new network architectures. Your role involves configuring new hardware and software according to design specifications, performing rigorous testing to ensure functionality, performance, and compatibility, and executing the migration plan with minimal disruption to ongoing operations. Coordination with cross-functional teams will be vital to manage dependencies and resolve issues promptly during these critical transitions.
• Ongoing Maintenance and Support for Network Performance: You will be responsible for continuous maintenance and support utilizing various monitoring tools. This includes using SNMP (Simple Network Management Protocol), NetFlow/sFlow (network flow monitoring), ICMP (Internet Control Message Protocol), and syslog for vigilant monitoring and managing network performance. You’ll regularly update firewall rules and configurations to protect against emerging threats, and continually monitor both old and new network segments to ensure stability and optimal performance. Providing pre and post-migration support for network architectures will be a key aspect of your troubleshooting responsibilities.
• Comprehensive Security Management: You will implement robust security protocols such as IPSec (Internet Protocol Security) for secure network communications in both IPv4 and IPv6 environments. You will also employ RADIUS/PI servers for centralized authentication, ensuring secure access control across the network infrastructure.
• Lab and Pre-Field Testing and Validation: You will collaborate extensively with multiple client teams to perform setup, configuration, and testing in lab and pre-field environments for networking solutions. This work directly supports the crucial validation and acceptance testing phases before solutions are deployed into production, ensuring their readiness and reliability.

What’s Needed: Essential Qualifications and Expertise for Success

To excel in this highly specialized and impactful role, you’ll need a robust blend of academic knowledge, extensive practical experience, and deep technical proficiency in wireless and core networking.

• Educational Foundation: A Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, a relevant technical field, or equivalent practical experience is required. This academic or equivalent practical background provides the foundational knowledge necessary for complex network engineering and problem-solving.
• Industry Certifications (Strongly Preferred): While not explicitly stated as mandatory, the mention of CCNA, CCIE, or similar, and then the re-emphasis on CCNP or CCIE or equivalent, indicates a strong preference for high-level industry certifications. These certifications (e.g., Cisco Certified Network Professional, Cisco Certified Internetwork Expert, or equivalent certifications from other major network vendors) are critical for demonstrating advanced networking and wireless expertise.
• Extensive Enterprise Wi-Fi Experience: You must have significant experience in enterprise Wi-Fi design, deployment, and at-scale operation. This includes hands-on expertise in the configuration, monitoring, and troubleshooting of large-scale wireless networks. Experience with Tier 1 Wi-Fi vendor ecosystems such as Cisco, Meraki, Arista, Mist, and others is highly desirable. This experience should encompass system testing, RF Surveys, network optimization, familiarity with Wi-Fi Alliance (WFA) Certifications Lab processes, Test Automation, validation on commercial Residential/Enterprise Access Point/Controller products, and providing customer support for wireless issues.
• Deep Wi-Fi Protocol Knowledge: Thorough experience with Wi-Fi protocols as defined by the IEEE 802.11 family of standards (a/b/g/n/ac/ax) is essential. This includes understanding the nuances of each standard, their capabilities, and their practical application in high-density or performance-critical environments.
• Bluetooth Familiarity: Experience working with Bluetooth and familiarity with its various versions and applications is also required, indicating a broader understanding of wireless communication technologies.
• Comprehensive Wi-Fi Security Standards Expertise: You must possess a thorough understanding of Wi-Fi security standards, including WPA2 & WPA3, as well as Extensible Authentication Protocol (EAP). This knowledge is critical for designing and validating secure wireless networks that protect sensitive data and user privacy.
• Wi-Fi Supplicant and Client/Device Stack Experience: Hands-on experience with the implementation, configuration, and troubleshooting of Wi-Fi supplicant and client/device stacks, with a specific focus on Android and iOS Wi-Fi stacks, is crucial. This means understanding how mobile devices connect to and interact with wireless networks, and being able to diagnose connectivity or performance issues from the client perspective.
• Planning & Survey Tools Proficiency: Proficiency with industry-standard planning and survey tools such as AirMagnet and Ekahau is necessary for effective wireless network design, site surveys, and troubleshooting.
• Extensive Testing Tools Expertise: You must be proficient with a wide range of testing tools, including:
  • Spectrum Analyzer: For identifying and mitigating RF interference.
  • IxVeriwave, IxChariot traffic generator, iperf3: For performance testing and traffic generation.
  • Wireshark, Omnipeek: For packet capture and deep protocol analysis.
  • Spirent C-50, NetScout, Octoscope Box: For specialized network and wireless testing. Your ability to leverage these tools for rigorous validation and troubleshooting is paramount.
• Source Control and Bug Management Familiarity: Familiarity with Source Control Systems (Git) for code management and versioning, as well as Bug Management Tools such as Jira and Bugzilla, is expected for efficient project and issue tracking.
• Scripting and Automation Skills with DevOps Mindset: Familiarity and ability to code for scripting/automation using languages like Shell, Python, and Go is required. You should possess a DevOps CI/CD (Continuous Integration/Continuous Delivery) mindset for driving automation and achieving scale in network operations. The ability to “read code” as source documentation is also important for understanding automated processes.
• Platform Versatility: Experience working across various operating systems, including Windows, Linux, Android, and MacOS, demonstrates adaptability and a broad technical understanding.
• Core Networking Protocols Expertise: Deep subject matter expertise in core routing and switching protocols is essential, including:
  • TCP/IP fundamentals: In-depth understanding.
  • IPv4/v6: Proficiency in both addressing schemes.
  • BGP/MP-BGP, ISIS, OSPF, MPLS, EVPN VXLAN: Advanced understanding of these routing and overlay protocols, including their operation, configuration, and troubleshooting in complex network designs.
  • IP sub-netting and super-netting, hierarchical routing principles.
  • Routing protocol operation and routing policies at BGP peering points.
  • VPNs and associated tunneling technologies such as IPSEC, L2TP, MPLS, etc.
• Multi-Vendor Network Equipment Experience: Previous experience working with network equipment vendor products from leading providers like Juniper, Cisco, Arista, and other OEMs is expected. This demonstrates a broad understanding of different network operating systems and hardware platforms.
• Linux/UNIX Proficiency: Comfort working with Linux or other UNIX implementations, coupled with strong scripting skills, is a key technical requirement.
• Python/Ansible for Automation: Direct experience with Python scripting and Ansible for network scripting and automation is highly valued.

If you are a highly experienced and technically proficient WiFi Validation Engineer seeking a challenging and impactful contract opportunity in Menlo Park, CA, within a leading technology organization, we encourage you to explore this role. This is a chance to contribute to cutting-edge wireless solutions and directly influence the quality of connectivity for a broad user base.

To learn more and potentially join this innovative team, click “Apply Now.” A dedicated recruiter will promptly be in touch to discuss this outstanding opportunity in greater detail, answer any questions you may have, and guide you through the application and interview process. We eagerly anticipate connecting with you and exploring how your unique expertise can contribute to our continued success!