Senior Hardware Validation Engineer – FPGA & Networking at Team Red Dog
Redmond, WA
$83–$95/hrfrom the description
Jul 5, 2026
Redmond, WA
Jul 21, 2026
What this job asks for AI summary
A contract role focused on validating FPGA and silicon-based networking hardware for large-scale cloud infrastructure. Day-to-day work involves building automated test frameworks, executing pre- and post-silicon validation, debugging failures, and performing root cause analysis across complex networking platforms. Best suited to a seasoned hardware validation engineer with deep FPGA and networking protocol knowledge and strong programming skills in C/C++, Python, and SystemVerilog.
Senior level · 10+ years · Remote · Bachelor's required · Contract
“or” means any one of them counts — you don't need all of them.
We read this from the posting text with AI. Skim the description below before ruling yourself out.
How this req sits in the market our data
Rare in this occupation — lead with these, and say what you built with them.
Most people in this occupation already list these. Still required — just not what gets you shortlisted.
What the occupation pays Median $138,970 (middle half $107,524–$175,762). This posting is about at that midpoint.
Estimated from BLS employment for this occupation and area, per-skill prevalence across our listing corpus, and published wage benchmarks — as of Jul 28, 2026. It is a model, not a headcount.
Why we read it this way (9)
SOC classification is Medium confidence: hardware validation engineering sits at the intersection of software development (test frameworks, automation, SystemVerilog) and a specialized hardware-testing occupation. 15-1252 Software Developers is the best fit given the heavy emphasis on writing validation software, automation frameworks, and testbench code; 15-1299 (Computer Occupations, All Other) is the runner-up given the hardware-validation specialization.
FPGA validation is listed under 'Top Required Skills (Must Haves)' but then softened to 'strongly preferred' in the qualifications section. Given the explicit 'Must Haves' framing in the top section, it is treated as a hard gate.
NIC/GPU cloud hardware validation experience is explicitly called 'preferred' in the qualifications section.
Assembly, SystemC, C#, and PowerShell are explicitly called 'a plus' in the qualifications section.
DTLS appears only in the qualifications narrative alongside the other networking protocols; the core protocol list (RDMA, SR-IOV, TCP/IP, UDP) is in the Must Haves block, so DTLS — appearing only in the secondary qualifications section — is treated as preferred.
The role is a W2 contract through 6/30/2027 with potential for extension, placed by staffing firm Team Red Dog on behalf of a client described as a leading cloud provider (consistent with Microsoft Azure).
Candidates must be authorized to work in the U.S. without sponsorship; no C2C arrangements accepted per the posting.
Posting is for a contract engagement — the market benchmarks below price full-time roles, so read the comp comparison with that in mind.
Caller marked this a fully-remote role — scored against the national candidate pool.
Read the full posting
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