Engineer III, Smart Switch Software Development

Department: Enterprise Engineering — Smart Switch Software Development
Employment Type: Full-time

About NETGEAR

NETGEAR has been pioneering advanced networking technology since 1996, delivering innovative products that connect people to the internet, power businesses, and enable digital experiences. Our Smart Switch product line serves small-to-medium businesses and enterprises worldwide, offering advanced L2/L3 managed switching with cloud-based management through NETGEAR Insight. We are building a new engineering center in Chennai to drive the next generation of our smart switch firmware platform.

About the Role

We are looking for an Engineer III to join our Smart Switch firmware team in Chennai. You will develop and maintain embedded Linux firmware for NETGEAR's smart switch product families — working across user-space applications, cloud integration agents, configuration management, and web-based management interfaces.

This role focuses on the application and integration layers of the firmware stack: system daemons, CLI, cloud agent, web UI backend, and the configuration subsystem that ties everything together. You will work on production firmware that ships to customers worldwide and collaborate daily with the various engineering teams.

We value engineers who actively use AI coding agents in their daily work — not just as autocomplete, but as collaborative tools for code generation, debugging, and accelerating feature delivery. Familiarity with agentic engineering practices is a strong plus.

This is an excellent role for a mid-career embedded or systems engineer who wants to deepen their expertise in networking firmware while taking ownership of meaningful features end-to-end.

What You Will Do

• Application Development: Develop and maintain user-space daemons and services (process management, event handling, polling, monitoring, file synchronization) that form the runtime environment of the switch firmware.

• Cloud Integration: Work on the Insight cloud agent subsystem — CloudAgent, ConfigAgent, DiscoveryAgent — including REST API handlers, device-to-cloud communication, SSL/TLS integration, and the Network Abstraction Layer (NAL) that bridges cloud commands to hardware operations.

• CLI & Configuration: Enhance and maintain the Cisco IOS-style CLI framework and the configuration database engine that manages startup-config and running-config. Implement new CLI commands for features and ensure configuration persistence and consistency.

• Web UI: Develop and maintain the web-based management interface (JavaScript, HTML/CSS) for switch configuration and monitoring. Work on both the legacy jQuery-based UI and the newer Bootstrap-based UI.

• SNMP: Implement and maintain SNMP MIB support (v1/v2c/v3) for network management system integration.

• Testing & Debugging: Write test cases, perform firmware validation on physical switch hardware, and debug issues using serial console, SSH debug shell, packet captures, and log analysis. Contribute to building the team's test automation capabilities.

• Cross-Team Collaboration: Work with the various engineering teams across time zones. Participate in code reviews, sprint planning, and technical discussions. Document your work clearly for the distributed team.

• AI-Augmented Development: Use AI coding agents (e.g., Claude Code, Cursor, GitHub Copilot) as part of your daily workflow to accelerate coding, debugging, and documentation tasks. Be open to evolving your development practices as AI tooling advances.

What We Are Looking For

Required:

• B.Tech/B.E. or M.Tech/M.E. in Computer Science, Electronics, or a related field

• 4–7 years of professional experience in embedded or systems software development

• Proficiency in C programming on Linux (user-space applications, shared libraries, IPC mechanisms — sockets, shared memory, signals)

• Working knowledge of networking fundamentals — TCP/IP, VLANs, Ethernet, ARP, DHCP; ability to use Wireshark or tcpdump for packet-level debugging

• Experience with at least one of: REST API development in C, embedded HTTP servers, or SSL/TLS integration

• Familiarity with JavaScript, HTML, and CSS for web-based interfaces (does not need to be primary skill)

• Experience with GNU Make build systems and cross-compilation for embedded targets (ARM or MIPS)

• Comfortable working with Git (branching, merging, submodules) in a multi-developer environment

• Active use of AI coding assistants or AI agents (e.g., Claude Code, Cursor, GitHub Copilot, Cline) in daily development work to improve productivity

Preferred:

• Experience with embedded Linux networking products (switches, routers, access points, or gateways)

• Familiarity with SNMP (net-snmp, MIB development) or CLI framework development

• Experience with any L2 networking protocol implementation (STP, LLDP, IGMP, LACP)

• Hands-on experience with cloud-device integration (REST, JSON-based configuration)

• Exposure to Docker-based build environments or CI/CD pipelines

• Experience debugging on resource-constrained embedded targets (serial console, remote GDB, core dumps)

• Familiarity with agentic engineering concepts — using AI agents for code generation, test creation, and iterative development under human guidance

Company Statement/Values:  

At NETGEAR, we are on a mission to unleash the full potential of connectivity with intelligent solutions that delight and protect. We turn ideas into innovative networking products that connect people, power businesses, and advance the way we live.  

We're a performance-driven, talented and connected team that's committed to delivering world-class products for our customers. As a company, we value our employees as the most essential building blocks of our success. And as teammates, we commit to taking our work to the Next Gear by living our values: we Dare to Transform the future, Connect and Delight our customers, Communicate Courageously with each other and collaborate to Win It Together. You’ll find our values woven through our processes, present in our decisions, and celebrated throughout our culture. 

We strive to attract top talent and create a great workplace where people feel engaged, inspired, challenged, proud and respected. If you are creative, forward-thinking, passionate about technology and are looking for a rewarding career to make an impact, then you've got what it takes to succeed at NETGEAR. Join our network and help us shape the future of connectivity. 

NETGEAR hires based on merit. All qualified applicants will receive equal consideration for employment. All your information will be kept confidential according to EEO guidelines.