Senior Manager, Test Engineering- Networking background is a must

Role Overview

We are looking for a highly experienced Senior QA Manager to own end-to-end quality for SonicOS, the core operating system powering SonicWall’s next-generation firewall products. This is a high-impact leadership role where you will define quality strategy, drive automation and test infrastructure investments, and partner closely with Product Management, Development, Release Engineering, DevOps, and Support teams to ensure every release meets high standards of reliability, security, and customer trust.

You will be responsible not just for test execution, but for shaping how quality is built into the product lifecycle — from early design reviews and threat modelling to release readiness and post-release learning.

Key Responsibilities

Quality Strategy & Release Ownership

• Define and continuously improve the QA strategy for SonicOS across major releases, patches, and hotfixes
• Establish quality gates, entry/exit criteria, and clear release readiness standards
• Drive risk-based testing and shift-left practices to catch issues early
• Own go/no-go decisions for releases from a quality standpoint

Firewall Domain & Technical Leadership

• Provide strong technical leadership across firewall features such as:
• Stateful firewall, NAT, VPN (IPSec/SSL), routing, HA
• Security services like IPS, DPI-SSL, Gateway AV, App Control, Web Filtering
• Review PRDs, design documents, and architecture proposals with a quality & security mindset
• Define comprehensive test strategies covering:
• Functional correctness and complex E2E customer workflows
• Performance, scale, and stress (throughput, sessions, DPI impact)
• HA failover, upgrades/downgrades, config migrations, and long-run stability
• Champion security and negative testing to validate abuse cases and threat scenarios

Automation, CI/CD & Test Infrastructure

• Define the long-term automation vision (UI, API, CLI, E2E) and measurable coverage goals
• Partner with automation leads to build scalable, reliable frameworks integrated into CI/CD
• Drive stability and reliability of automated test suites (reduce flakiness, improve signal)
• Own strategy for testbeds spanning hardware appliances, virtual firewalls, and cloud deployments
• Work with infra teams to ensure availability, capacity planning, and reliability of test environments

Execution Excellence & Metrics

• Own and track key quality metrics: defect leakage, escape rate, regression effectiveness, automation ROI, flakiness trends
• Lead regular release readiness and quality reviews with senior stakeholders
• Drive deep root cause analysis for production escapes and systemic quality gaps
• Convert learnings from field issues into preventive quality improvements

People Leadership & Stakeholder Influence

• Build, mentor, and retain a strong leadership bench of QA managers, leads, and senior engineers
• Set clear expectations, career paths, and technical growth plans for the QA organization
• Influence engineering leadership and PMs to prioritize quality, reliability, and customer impact
• Represent QA in leadership forums, customer escalations, and cross-functional reviews

Required Skills & Experience

• 10+ years of total technical experience, including at least 2+ years in a management or leadership role
• Strong background in testing firewall / network security products or similar system software
• Deep understanding of networking and security fundamentals (TCP/IP, routing, NAT, VPN, HA, IPS/DPI concepts, authentication mechanisms)
• Experience owning quality for complex, large-scale system software releases
• Proven leadership experience managing and scaling QA teams across geographies
• Strong exposure to automation strategy and CI/CD-driven quality practices
• Excellent communication skills with the ability to influence senior technical stakeholders

Good to Have

• Prior experience with SonicOS or comparable firewall OS platforms
• Exposure to security compliance programs (FIPS, Common Criteria, SOC2)
• Experience testing in hybrid environments (hardware + virtual + cloud)
• Experience handling customer escalations and field issue RCA

What Success Looks Like

• Predictable, high-quality SonicOS releases with reduced Sev1/Sev2 customer issues
• Measurable improvement in automation coverage and test effectiveness
• Faster feedback cycles for Dev and PM through shift-left and CI/CD integration
• Strong QA leadership bench and high team engagement
• Improved customer trust and reduced critical escalations

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