Principal Technical Recruiter

Astera Labs; San Jose (CA); On-site; USD 167,000 - 185,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Discretionary bonus

Incentives and benefits

Job summary

Astera Labs is scaling rapidly and seeks a Principal Technical Recruiter to own full-cycle recruiting for hardware and semiconductor roles. You will partner with engineering leaders to build high-impact teams for AI infrastructure initiatives.

You will influence hiring decisions with data, drive proactive sourcing, and champion inclusive hiring practices in a hyper-growth environment.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree or equivalent practical experience.
• 10+ years of full-cycle recruiting experience.
• Direct recruiting in hardware/semiconductor domains.
• Proven ability to source and close passive, hard-to-fill candidates.
• Strong partnership and influence with senior engineering leaders.

Responsibilities

• Lead end-to-end recruiting for hardware, silicon, and semiconductor roles across engineering functions.
• Source, engage, and close hard-to-find passive candidates in a competitive market.
• Manage the candidate pipeline with rigor to ensure speed, quality, and a top candidate experience.
• Partner with hiring managers to define role requirements and search strategies.
• Provide market insights on compensation and hiring trends to guide decisions.
• Develop proactive sourcing strategies and document recruiting processes and playbooks.

Skills

End-to-end recruiting

Hardware/semiconductor sourcing

Sourcing passive candidates

Consultative partnering

Data-driven interviewing

Education

Bachelor's degree or equivalent

Tools

Applicant Tracking System

Modern sourcing tools

Job description

Astera Labs (NASDAQ: ALAB) provides rack-scale AI infrastructure through purpose-built connectivity solutions. By collaborating with hyperscalers and ecosystem partners, Astera Labs enables organizations to unlock the full potential of modern AI. Astera Labs’ Intelligent Connectivity Platform integrates CXL®, Ethernet, NVLink, PCIe®, and UALink™ semiconductor-based technologies with the company’s COSMOS software suite to unify diverse components into cohesive, flexible systems that deliver end-to-end scale-up, and scale-out connectivity. The company’s custom connectivity solutions business complements its standards-based portfolio, enabling customers to deploy tailored architectures to meet their unique infrastructure requirements. Discover more at www.asteralabs.com.

Role Overview

Astera Labs is scaling at breakneck speed to power the next generation of rack-scale AI infrastructure, and our ability to hire exceptional silicon and hardware talent is what keeps us ahead. As a Principal Technical Recruiter, you will own full-cycle recruiting for highly specialized hardware and semiconductor roles, partnering directly with engineering leaders to build the teams designing purpose-built connectivity solutions for the world's most demanding AI workloads.

This is a high-impact, high-visibility role where every hire moves the business forward. You will act as a strategic talent advisor, bring deep market intelligence on the semiconductor landscape, and deliver a world-class candidate experience — all while helping shape how a hyper-growth company builds its most critical engineering teams.

Key Responsibilities

Full-Cycle Recruiting

• Lead end-to-end recruiting for hardware, silicon, and semiconductor roles across engineering functions.
• Source, engage, and close hard-to-find passive candidates in a highly competitive talent market.
• Manage the candidate pipeline with rigor, ensuring speed, quality, and an exceptional candidate experience at every stage.

Strategic Partnership

• Partner with hiring managers and engineering leaders to define role requirements, calibrate talent, and build tailored search strategies.
• Serve as a trusted talent advisor, bringing market insights on semiconductor and hardware hiring trends, compensation, and competitive intelligence.
• Influence hiring decisions with data, structured interviewing best practices, and a consultative approach.

Talent Strategy & Process Improvement

• Develop and execute proactive sourcing strategies to build talent pipelines for critical and niche silicon roles.
• Lead strategic workforce and hiring planning in partnership with leadership to anticipate future talent needs and align recruiting to business goals.
• Drive continuous process improvement, leveraging recruiting tools and analytics to increase efficiency, quality, and hiring outcomes.
• Author and maintain clear documentation, playbooks, interview guides, and process standards to scale recruiting best practices across teams.
• Champion inclusive hiring practices to attract and secure diverse, high-caliber technical talent.

Basic Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree or equivalent practical experience.
• 10+ years of full-cycle recruiting experience, with a strong track record of closing technical and engineering roles.
• Direct recruiting experience within the hardware, semiconductor, or broader silicon industry (or comparable experience recruiting for silicon-related technical fields).
• Demonstrated success sourcing and closing passive, hard-to-fill candidates in a competitive market.
• Strong partnership and consultative skills, with the ability to advise and influence senior engineering leaders.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience recruiting for analog, digital, firmware, verification, physical design, or system engineering roles.
• Deep understanding of the semiconductor and AI infrastructure talent landscape.
• Proficiency with applicant tracking systems and modern sourcing tools and analytics.
• Experience recruiting in a hyper-growth or fast-paced technology environment.
• Proven ability to lead strategic planning, process improvement initiatives, and author clear recruiting documentation and playbooks.
• Excellent communication skills and a passion for delivering an outstanding candidate experience.

Base salary range is $166,500 to $185,000 depending on experience, level, and business need. This role may be eligible for discretionary bonus, incentives and benefits.

We know that creativity and innovation happen more often when teams include diverse ideas, backgrounds, and experiences, and we actively encourage everyone with relevant experience to apply, including people of color, LGBTQ+ and non-binary people, veterans, parents, and individuals with disabilities.