Optical FW/SW Tech Lead - Embedded Systems

Asteralabs; San Jose (CA); On-site; USD 160,000 - 200,000; Full time

Job summary

Astera Labs in San Jose, CA, is seeking an Optical FW/SW Engineer, Tech Lead to design, develop, and validate embedded firmware and supporting software for optical engines and modules. You will work at the intersection of embedded systems, optics, and hardware, owning problems from architecture to production bring-up.

You will collaborate with optical, electrical, DSP, systems, and manufacturing teams; lead end-to-end firmware efforts, optimize latency and power, and contribute to a scalable

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, CS, Physics, or related field.
• 5-8 years embedded firmware/software for optical or high-reliability products.
• Strong C and Python, with experience developing software for microcontroller platforms.
• Experience with RTOS-based embedded development, embedded programming methods, hardware interfaces, and low-level device control.
• Proven experience with unit testing, version control, debugging, and hardware bring-up.

Responsibilities

• Architect, develop, and maintain production-quality embedded firmware for optical engines, PIC/EIC platforms, and optical modules.
• Implement software in C on embedded processors using bare-metal or RTOS-based designs.
• Develop Python scripts and tools for unit-testing, configuration, automation, characterization, manufacturing test, and data analysis.
• Develop control algorithms for modulator operation, automatic power control, temperature compensation, calibration, and link adaptation.
• Implement telemetry, diagnostics, monitoring, and fault-handling features that improve optical-link health, reliability, and serviceability.
• Optimize firmware for latency, power efficiency, control stability, and performance across evolving optical architectures.
• Lead firmware and hardware bring-up, including board initialization, peripheral integration, lab debugging, and root-cause analysis.
• Integrate firmware with photodetectors, TIAs, ADCs, DACs, sensors, drivers, DSPs, and hardware control interfaces such as I2C and SPI.
• Partner with optical, electrical, DSP, systems, and validation teams to characterize, tune, and qualify optical products.
• Establish unit-testing strategies and maintain automated tests that improve firmware quality, coverage, and release confidence.
• Apply disciplined version-control, code-review, documentation, and release practices throughout the development lifecycle.

Skills

C programming

Python programming

Embedded firmware development

Unit testing

Version control

Education

Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering / Computer Engineering / CS

Tools

RTOS

JTAG

Oscilloscopes

Logic analyzers

SPI/I2C

Job description

Astera Labs in San Jose, CA, is seeking an Optical FW/SW Engineer, Tech Lead to design, develop, and validate embedded firmware and supporting software for optical engines and modules. You will work at the intersection of embedded systems, optics, and hardware, owning problems from architecture to production bring-up.

You will collaborate with optical, electrical, DSP, systems, and manufacturing teams; lead end-to-end firmware efforts, optimize latency and power, and contribute to a scalable