Linux Device Driver Test Engineer

strategic Hardware Compatibility List (HCL) to support a wider range of hardware , including extending the lifecycle of older hardware up to 10 years . As part of this initiative, we are seeking a highly skilled NIC Device Driver Test Engineer to help build a modern, robust NIC device driver test suite .

The ideal candidate will have deep expertise in Linux NIC device drivers and enterprise virtualization networking . This role will focus on component-level device driver testing to ensure enterprise-grade stability , performance , and compatibility across evolving AHV Linux kernels and the Flow networking stack .

Key Responsibilities

• Design, develop, and execute a modern , component-level NIC device driver test suite , independent of monolithic AHV product testing .
• Ensure NIC device drivers are compatible with past , current , and custom-configured LTS AHV Linux kernels , including upstream backports and modernized kmalloc() structures .
• Validate drivers against Linux networking enhancements , including the netdev subsystem , page_pool APIs , GRO/GSO improvements , packet steering , and interrupt balancing .
• Test virtualization and Flow networking compatibility with Open vSwitch (OVS) , iptables/nftables , and Linux routing .
• Conduct enterprise readiness , load , and stress testing to ensure high reliability , performance , and health monitoring across multiple NIC hardware families .

Core Technical Requirements

• Extensive experience testing and validating Linux NIC device drivers in enterprise , hypervisor , or cloud environments .
• Deep understanding of the Linux networking stack and netdev subsystem , including:
• Receive Side Scaling (RSS)
• Ethtool
• RX ring/queue management APIs
• Strong knowledge of Linux kernel internals , particularly:
• Memory management
• Buffer ring allocations
• Memory leaks
• CPU affinity/pinning

Specific Test Coverage Experience

• Data Integrity: Validate behavior across varying packet sizes and dynamic MTU changes , including Jumbo Frames .
• Interrupt & Core Scaling: Validate MSI/MSI-X interrupts and RSS load distribution across multiple CPU cores .
• Hardware Offloads: Test:
• TCP/UDP Checksum Offload
• TSO (TCP Segmentation Offload)
• LRO (Large Receive Offload)
• Geneve Overlay Offloads
• Performance Testing: Proficiency with iperf3 , netperf , or similar traffic generation and stress testing tools to validate line-rate throughput and identify failure modes .

Preferred Qualifications (Nice-to-Have)

• Familiarity with Red Hat Hardware Certification Test Suite (redhat-certification) or VMware I/O Vendor Program (IOVP) .
• Experience developing automated test frameworks using Python or Bash .
• Experience working with AHV , KVM , or similar hypervisors .
• Understanding of backward compatibility and forward compatibility testing strategies for device drivers across multiple hardware generations .