Senior Software Engineer (SDET, Python)

About us:

One team. Global challenges. Infinite opportunities. At Viasat, we’re on a mission to deliver connections with the capacity to change the world. For more than 35 years, Viasat has helped shape how consumers, businesses, governments and militaries around the globe communicate. We’re looking for people who think big, act fearlessly, and create an inclusive environment that drives positive impact to join our team.

What you'll do:

We have an exciting opportunity for a Senior Software Engineer in Test (SDET) to join our Access Edge Automation Team in Chennai/Hyderabad.

This is a software engineering role focused on designing platforms, building production quality tooling, and driving intelligent automation (not traditional QA or test execution).

You will be a senior technical contributor on a team responsible for the automation infrastructure, CI/CD platforms, and tooling that validates Viasat's satellite broadband terminal software before it reaches production. Our software connects millions of users worldwide, from airline passengers and residential customers to government and enterprise clients across the US, Asia Pacific, and Europe. You will help shape technical direction, own key pieces of the platform architecture, and contribute to Viasat's broader push toward AI-assisted quality engineering and faster, more reliable software delivery.

You will work with a small, senior, technically ambitious team where your contributions are visible and your ideas matter. There is real room to grow here, both technically and professionally, as the team's scope and ambitions continue to.

The day-to-day:

Platform Engineering & Architecture

Design and own automation platforms supporting multiple generations of terminal software running on CentOS, OpenWrt, and virtualized environments across 4 or more labs and 10 or more active pipelines, with plans to scale significantly in the coming months

Develop Python libraries, services, scripts and reusable frameworks with the same rigor and care as product software, building solutions that improve how the entire team engineers and delivers

Help define how automation architecture evolves as we take on new platforms, new products, and new customers

CI/CD & Developer Productivity

Own and grow the CI/CD infrastructure and validation workflows that engineering teams across India and the US rely on every day

Build better visibility into pipeline health and software quality through metrics, dashboards, and reporting

Help teams ship faster and with more confidence by shortening feedback loops and reducing friction in the development process

Cross-Domain Debugging & Technical Leadership

Investigate complex failures that cut across software, networking, infrastructure, and hardware layers, working closely with groundside, networking, and systems engineering teams to find root causes

Champion Shift Left practices that help developers catch and fix issues earlier in the development cycle

Mentor engineers on the team, review code, and help raise the overall engineering bar across both India and US teams

AI & Intelligent Automation

Partner with Viasat's Data & AI and AN team to design and build Agentic AI solutions that reduce manual effort in test orchestration, debugging, root cause analysis, and operational workflows

Contribute to Virtualized M3 testing work that enables validation in virtualized lab environments and find places where intelligent tooling can make the team faster and the software better

Global Operations & Customer Impact

Work closely with US counterparts to keep operations running around the clock, covering India business hours for global customer support and pipeline execution

Support aviation connectivity customers across the US, Asia Pacific, and EU where uptime and reliability are directly tied to passenger experience

What you'll need:

8 years of experience in software engineering, software engineering in test (SDET), developer productivity engineering, or a closely related technical discipline with a strong software development foundation

A track record of building real software systems, production-quality libraries, frameworks, services, and platforms

Solid fundamentals in software engineering including object-oriented design, clean code, and software architecture

Strong Python skills including building frameworks and libraries that others on the team use and depend on

Experience building and running CI/CD pipelines using Jenkins, GitHub Actions, or similar tools

Strong Linux skills across configuration, debugging, scripting, and automation. Experience with CentOS or OpenWrt is a real plus

Strong networking knowledge including TCP/IP, UDP, HTTP/S, DNS, DHCP, Multicast, REST APIs and the ability to debug network-layer issues independently without specialist support

Familiarity with telecommunications, satellite communication, or wireless systems concepts sufficient to understand system behavior, interpret failures, and debug cross-layer problems

Strong debugging and troubleshooting skills that span software, network, infrastructure, and automation layers simultaneously

Excellent communication and collaboration skills with the ability to work effectively across global, cross-functional teams

Bachelor’s degree in computer science, Software Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Telecommunications, or a related technical discipline

Ability to travel up to 10%

Must be able to work out of our Chennai/Hyderabad office at least 3 days per week

What will help you on the job:

Experience with AI, ML, or Agentic AI applied to software development or test automation. We are actively building in this space with Viasat's Data and AI and AU teams and someone who has done this before will hit the ground running

Demonstrated experience as a technical lead or architect on automation, CI/CD, or platform engineering projects

Experience designing and building internal developer platforms or engineering productivity tooling that other engineers depend on

Knowledge of electrical engineering fundamentals or signal processing which will be useful for understanding terminal and SATCOM system behavior and debugging across hardware/software boundaries

Strong understanding of satellite communication systems, modem architectures, or SATCOM terminal ecosystems

Familiarity with test and automation frameworks: Robot Framework, Selenium, Cucumber, Gradle, Maven, Ant, or Webdriver

Experience with containerization and virtualization tools: Docker, Vagrant, VMware, or container orchestration platforms

Knowledge of wireless or RF communication systems or space/satellite architectures

Experience with Grafana or other dashboarding tools for monitoring and metrics

Experience with aviation connectivity or in-flight connectivity platforms

Familiarity with Agile and Scrum ways of working