Principal Applications Engineer - AI Infrastructure

Astera Labs; San Jose, Northern (CA, KY); Hybrid; USD 165,000 - 210,000; Full time

Job summary

Astera Labs seeks a Principal Product Applications Engineer for the Scorpio team, serving as the technical face of our switching portfolio to hyperscalers, OEMs, and partners. You will guide customers from initial evaluation through production deployment, leading design-in efforts and cross-functional initiatives in a high-impact, fast-growing semiconductor environment.

You will own on-site and remote bring-up, debug, and performance tuning of Scorpio platforms, translate customer requirements

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Computer Science or related field.
• 8+ years of experience in product applications, systems engineering, or post-silicon validation on high-speed connectivity or networking silicon.
• Strong understanding of physical layer and high-speed serial interfaces (PCIe, Ethernet, UALink, UCIe, or similar).
• Hands-on lab bring-up, debug, and system-level integration with scopes, BERTs, and protocol analyzers.
• Proven experience engaging directly with hyperscaler, cloud, or Tier-1 OEM/ODM customers on complex technical deployments.
• Excellent communication skills translating technical detail into customer-facing narratives.

Responsibilities

• Lead technical engagements with hyperscalers, ODMs, and AI system partners from architecture discussions through design-in and evaluation.
• Own on-site and remote bring-up, debug, and performance tuning of Scorpio-based platforms at customer sites.
• Translate customer requirements into actionable feedback for product, silicon, and firmware teams.
• Influence post-silicon validation plans and execute system-level integration on next-generation switching platforms.
• Debug complex multi-domain issues spanning protocol, signal integrity, firmware, and software stacks.
• Partner with hardware, firmware, and SI/PI teams to root-cause issues and deliver production-ready solutions.
• Mentor junior applications engineers and represent Astera Labs at industry events and customer reviews.
• Author white papers and technical collateral that scale the team's impact.

Skills

Excellent communication

Customer enablement

Leadership

Problem solving

Education

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

MS or PhD in Electrical Engineering or related

Job description

Astera Labs seeks a Principal Product Applications Engineer for the Scorpio team, serving as the technical face of our switching portfolio to hyperscalers, OEMs, and partners. You will guide customers from initial evaluation through production deployment, leading design-in efforts and cross-functional initiatives in a high-impact, fast-growing semiconductor environment.

You will own on-site and remote bring-up, debug, and performance tuning of Scorpio platforms, translate customer requirements