# Principal Electrical Design Engineer at Astera

> United States · Principal · Software engineering · open. Source: https://alderhq.app/jobs/greenhouse%3Aasteralabs%3A4731026005 (read 2026-11-05).

## Facts (observed)

- Company: [Astera](https://alderhq.app/companies/astera)
- Location text: San Jose, California, United States; San Jose
- Where it can be done from (inferred): United States (evidence: "Location: San Jose, California, United States; San Jose")
- Posted: 2026-09-04 (63 days ago)
- First seen by alder: 2026-11-02 · last verified: 2026-11-04
- Reposted: 0 times · edited: 0 times
- Apply on the employer's site: https://job-boards.greenhouse.io/asteralabs/jobs/4731026005
- Skills listed (inferred): Distributed systems

## Pay and sponsorship

- Posted pay: not posted
- Market band for similar posted roles (SF Bay Area, n 173): p25 $227k, median $270k, p75 $320k
- H-1B filings at this company for similar roles, FY26: 1 ([US DOL OFLC LCA disclosure data](https://www.dol.gov/agencies/eta/foreign-labor/performance))

## Description (the employer's text)

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.

### Job Description

### Principal Electrical Design Engineer

Board Hardware Engineering

### About the Role

We are seeking a Principal Electrical Design Engineer to define and drive the architecture, design, and technical strategy for advanced board-level hardware across next-generation networking and high-performance connectivity platforms. This role encompasses complex hardware systems including chassis boards, NIC cards, PCIe Gen6 platforms, and 800G Ethernet products.

This is a principal-level technical leadership role requiring deep domain expertise, strategic vision, and organizational influence. You will set the technical direction for board architecture, establish design methodologies, drive innovation in high-speed system design, and serve as the top technical authority across multiple programs. You will partner with and influence silicon, SI/PI, mechanical, firmware, manufacturing, system, and executive teams to deliver industry-leading products from concept through production and beyond.

### Key Responsibilities

### Technical Strategy and Architecture Leadership

- Define and own the board-level hardware architecture and technical roadmap across multiple product lines and platform generations
- Establish design standards, methodologies, and best practices that scale across the hardware engineering organization
- Drive architectural tradeoff decisions for complex multi-layer PCBs integrating high-speed digital, analog, and mixed-signal circuitry, balancing performance, cost, schedule, and manufacturability
- Get involved and drive discussions on stack-up strategy, impedance optimization and other SI relates development work
- Own power delivery architecture strategy including multi-rail regulation topologies, advanced sequencing schemes, transient response optimization, protection philosophies, and power budgeting across platform generations
- Define and evolve hardware implementation strategies for management and control interfaces such as I2C, SPI, GPIO, MDIO, and debug and observability architectures
### Electrical Design Ownership

- Own schematic capture and board-level design for complex multi-layer PCBs with high-speed digital, analog, and mixed-signal circuitry
- Serve as the technical authority for board-level hardware development across high-performance server and connectivity platforms, including NIC cards, PCIe add-in cards, and chassis-integrated hardware
- Provide technical oversight and approval for schematic capture and board-level designs across multiple designs
- Lead component strategy and qualification roadmaps in partnership with suppliers, sourcing, and manufacturing teams
- Drive design-for-excellence initiatives including DFT, DFM, and DFR to systematically improve manufacturability, yield, reliability, and production readiness across all programs
### Bring-Up, Validation, and Debug Leadership

- Define and own the bring-up and validation strategy for new hardware platforms, establishing frameworks that improve first-pass success rates across the organization
- Lead root-cause analysis of the most complex and escalated hardware issues across high-speed interfaces, power delivery, clocks, resets, and control paths
- Drive systemic improvements to debug methodologies, validation coverage, and failure analysis processes

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Data: alder (https://alderhq.app). Cite https://alderhq.app/jobs/greenhouse%3Aasteralabs%3A4731026005 and the date you read it. Observed facts come from the employer's own listing; location reach, level, family and skills are inferences.