(Sr.) Principal Engineer - Field Applications

Astera Labs; San Jose (CA); On-site; USD 205,000 - 260,000; Full time

Job summary

Astera Labs in San Jose is seeking a Sr. Principal Engineer - Field Applications to serve as a trusted technical partner for customers deploying high-speed connectivity solutions.

You will lead critical support for Ethernet and PCIe products, translating system requirements into production-ready designs and accelerating issue resolution across AI infrastructure platforms. Based onsite, you will work with sales, product management, design engineering, validation, and operations to shape

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Electrical/Computer Engineering.
• 8–20 years in field applications or related roles.
• Deep hands-on Ethernet and PCIe systems experience.
• Strong system-level bring-up and debug skills.
• Willingness to onsite in San Jose and travel.

Responsibilities

• Lead technical engagements with strategic customers from architecture to deployment.
• Develop system-level debug plans for Ethernet and PCIe issues.
• Collaborate with sales and product teams to capture requirements.
• Create technical collateral and enablement materials.
• Mentor Field Applications Engineers.

Skills

Customer leadership

High-speed interfaces

System debug

On-site travel

Education

Bachelor's in Electrical or Computer Engineering

Master's degree (preferred)

Tools

PCIe

Ethernet

Lab instrumentation

Oscilloscope

Job description

(Sr.) Principal Engineer - Field Applications

San Jose, California, United States

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

As a (Sr.) Principal Engineer - Field Applications Engineering, you will serve as a trusted technical partner to customers deploying Astera Labs’ high-speed connectivity solutions. You will lead the continuation of critical customer support for Ethernet and PCIe products, translating system requirements into reliable, production-ready designs and accelerating issue resolution across complex AI infrastructure platforms.

Based onsite in San Jose, you will work closely with customers and cross-functional teams across sales, product management, design engineering, validation, and operations. Your expertise in high-speed interfaces, physical-layer behavior, and system-level integration will help customers bring next-generation rack-scale AI architectures to market with confidence.

Key Responsibilities

• Customer Technical Leadership
  • Lead technical engagements with strategic customers from architecture definition through deployment and production support.
  • Own customer escalations, establish clear action plans, and drive issues to timely closure with measurable outcomes.
  • Present design recommendations, bring-up results, and technical tradeoffs to customer engineering and leadership teams.
• Ethernet and PCIe Product Support
  • Develop and execute system-level debug plans for Ethernet and PCIe connectivity issues, including link training, interoperability, compliance, and performance.
  • Analyze physical-layer behavior, signal-integrity symptoms, error logs, lab data, and system telemetry to isolate root causes.
  • Partner with engineering teams to reproduce field issues, influence product improvements, and communicate effective workarounds or corrective actions.
• Cross-Functional Enablement
  • Collaborate with sales and product management to capture customer requirements and shape application strategies for emerging AI infrastructure designs.
  • Create technical collateral, reference architectures, application notes, and enablement materials for customers and internal teams.
  • Mentor Field Applications Engineers and contribute to scalable processes for customer onboarding, issue tracking, and product adoption.

Basic Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, or a related technical field.
• 8–20 years of experience in field applications engineering, system engineering, product engineering, or a related domain.
• Deep hands‑on experience with Ethernetand/or PCIe systems, high-speed SerDes, link training, interoperability, and compliance.
• Strong understanding of physical-layer concepts, signal integrity, board-level bring-up, lab instrumentation, and system-level debug.
• Demonstrated ability to lead complex customer escalations, debug, and communicate technical concepts clearly to diverse audiences.
• Ability to work onsite in San Jose and travel to customer and partner locations as needed.

Preferred Qualifications

• Master’s degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, or a related field.
• Experience with PCIe Gen 5/6/7, high-speed Ethernet, retimers, redrivers, signal‑conditioning and scale-up, scale‑out solutions.
• Familiarity with server, accelerator, switch, NIC, storage, or other data‑center platform architectures.
• Experience developing reference designs, validation plans, interoperability strategies, or customer-facing technical documentation.
• Proven record of influencing cross-functional teams and mentoring technical professionals in a fast-moving, high‑growth environment.

Salary range is $205,000 to $260,000 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.

Voluntary Self-Identification

For government reporting purposes, we ask candidates to respond to the below self-identification survey.Completion of the form is entirely voluntary. Whatever your decision, it will not be considered in the hiringprocess or thereafter. Any information that you do provide will be recorded and maintained in aconfidential file.

As set forth in Astera Labs’s Equal Employment Opportunity policy,we do not discriminate on the basis of any protected group status under any applicable law.

If you believe you belong to any of the categories of protected veterans listed below, please indicate by making the appropriate selection.As a government contractor subject to the Vietnam Era Veterans Readjustment Assistance Act (VEVRAA), we request this information in order to measurethe effectiveness of the outreach and positive recruitment efforts we undertake pursuant to VEVRAA. Classification of protected categoriesis as follows:

A "disabled veteran" is one of the following: a veteran of the U.S. military, ground, naval or air service who is entitled to compensation (or who but for the receipt of military retired pay would be entitled to compensation) under laws administered by the Secretary of Veterans Affairs; or a person who was discharged or released from active duty because of a service-connected disability.

A "recently separated veteran" means any veteran during the three-year period beginning on the date of such veteran's discharge or release from active duty in the U.S. military, ground, naval, or air service.

An "active duty wartime or campaign badge veteran" means a veteran who served on active duty in the U.S. military, ground, naval or air service during a war, or in a campaign or expedition for which a campaign badge has been authorized under the laws administered by the Department of Defense.

An "Armed forces service medal veteran" means a veteran who, while serving on active duty in the U.S. military, ground, naval or air service, participated in a United States military operation for which an Armed Forces service medal was awarded pursuant to Executive Order 12985.