---
title: 'Sr. Principal Product Applications Engineer – Custom Solutions at Astera Labs'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/sr-principal-product-applications-engineer-custom-solutions-astera-labs-san-gw1ff5zjed5b'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-09-11'
---

# Sr. Principal Product Applications Engineer – Custom Solutions at Astera Labs

- **Company:** Astera Labs
- **Location:** San Jose California, United States
- **Posted:** 2026-08-14
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-09-11
- **Apply:** https://job-boards.greenhouse.io/asteralabs/jobs/4723516005

## 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](http://www.asteralabs.com/).

As our Custom Solutions business continues to grow, we're seeking experienced engineers who thrive at the intersection of customer engagement, system architecture, and advanced silicon development.

The Opportunity

Astera Labs is seeking a Sr Principal Product Applications Engineer to serve as the technical bridge between our customers and engineering organization.

In this highly customer-facing role, you will work directly with hyperscalers, AI labs, and infrastructure partners to support custom silicon programs from early architecture discussions through production deployment. You'll partner with Product Management, Architecture, ASIC Design, Firmware, Validation, and Software Engineering to ensure customer requirements are translated into successful products while helping customers deploy next-generation AI infrastructure.

This is not a traditional pre-sales Field Applications Engineer role, nor is it an internal validation position. You will combine deep technical expertise with strong customer engagement, helping solve complex system-level challenges while influencing future silicon development.

Responsibilities:

- Serve as the primary technical interface for strategic customer programs.
- Develop trusted technical relationships with customer engineering teams and become a key advisor throughout the product lifecycle.
- Support customer engagements from architecture discussions through silicon bring-up, validation, production, and deployment.
- Lead complex customer debug efforts involving hardware, firmware, software, and system-level integration.
- Translate customer requirements, deployment challenges, and architecture feedback into actionable engineering requirements.
- Collaborate closely with Product Management, Architecture, ASIC Design, Firmware, Validation, and Software Engineering to drive customer success.
- Influence future silicon products by providing customer insights and technical feedback to engineering teams.
- Support customer design reviews, architecture discussions, technical training, and executive-level technical engagements.
- Develop technical collateral, application notes, reference designs, troubleshooting guides, and customer documentation.
- Support technical escalations and drive issues to resolution across cross-functional engineering teams.
- Develop automation and diagnostic tools using Python or C/C++ to improve engineering efficiency and customer support.
- Travel to customer sites as needed to support key design wins and strategic engagements.

Required Qualifications:

- BS or MS in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Computer Science, or a related technical discipline.
- 10+ years of experience in Product Applications Engineering, Systems Engineering, Customer Engineering, Field Applications Engineering, or a related customer-facing semiconductor role.
- Experience supporting advanced semiconductor or custom silicon products from architecture through production.
- Strong understanding of high-speed interconnect technologies, including Ethernet (through 800G), PCIe, PAM4, SerDes, DSPs, DAC, AEC, ACC, AOC, and related hardware technologies.
- Experience with silicon bring-up, post-silicon validation, and system-level debugging.
- Strong Linux debugging and troubleshooting experience.
- Experience writing Python or C/C++ scripts for automation, diagnostics, firmware validation, or lab workflows.
- Proven experience working directly with hyperscalers, AI labs, and infrastructure partners. Excellent communication, presentation, and technical leadership skills.

Preferred Qualifications:

- Experience supporting AI infrastructure platforms or high-performance computing systems.
- Familiarity with custom ASIC development and customer-specific silicon solutions.
- Experience with firmware, embedded software, or FPGA validation.
- Understanding of networking, storage, memory, or accelerator architectures.
- Experience creating customer-facing technical documentation, training materials, and application notes.
- Experience supporting executive customer reviews and technical design discussions.

The salary range is $205,000 to $260,000, depending on experience, level, and business needs. This role may be eligible for a 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.

## About Astera Labs

## Company Overview
- **One-liner**: Astera Labs designs and delivers semiconductor-based connectivity solutions purpose-built to unleash the full potential of cloud and AI infrastructure.
- **Entity Type**: Public (Nasdaq: ALAB)
- **Headquarters**: Santa Clara, California, United States
- **Founded**: 2017
- **Founders**: Jitendra Mohan, Sanjay Gajendra, Casey Morrison

## Core Business
- **Primary industry**: Semiconductor manufacturing / AI infrastructure connectivity
- **Target customers**: B2B, primarily hyperscale cloud providers and system OEMs (e.g., NVIDIA, AMD, Intel)
- **Mission statement**: To innovate, design, and deliver semiconductor-based connectivity solutions that are purpose-built to unleash the full potential of cloud and AI infrastructure.

## Products & Services
- **Aries PCIe®/CXL™ Smart DSP Retimers**: Silicon ICs, boards, and modules that digitally recover degraded high-speed signals to extend reach and enable higher PCIe/CXL data bandwidth between compute, storage, and network controllers.
- **Taurus Ethernet Smart Cable Modules™**: Hardware modules that increase network connectivity bandwidth between servers and switches over copper media, removing rack-level Ethernet bottlenecks.
- **Leo CXL Memory Connectivity Controllers**: ICs and boards that expand, share, and pool DRAM memory to overcome processor memory bandwidth bottlenecks for AI workloads.
- **Scorpio Smart Fabric Switches**: A family of PCIe 6 fabric switches ranging from 32 to 320 lanes, including the new 320-lane Scorpio X-Series Fabric Switch for AI scale-up fabrics.
- **COSMOS Software Suite**: A connectivity system management and optimization software that enables configuration, monitoring, troubleshooting, and predictive analytics for all Astera Labs products.

## Market Standing
- **Market Cap**: ~$11.6 billion (as of mid-2026)
- **Key Metric - Revenue**: $35 million (annual, reported)
- **Key Metric - Operating Income**: $173.4 million (2025)
- **Key Metric - Net Income**: $219.1 million (2025)
- **Total Funding**: ~$810.75 million (pre-IPO), with Series C ($50M, led by Fidelity) and Series D ($150M, led by Fidelity)
- **IPO Date**: March 20, 2024
- **Notable Investors/Partners**: Fidelity, NVIDIA, Advanced Micro Devices, Intel, major hyperscalers
- **Growth Signals**: 92% YoY headcount growth (675 employees); 144 active job postings (+260% YoY); expanded Taiwan operations with a new Cloud-Scale Interop Lab in 2026; shipping millions of devices across all major hyperscalers; 300+ design wins.

## Competitive Advantages
- **First-to-market innovation**: Pioneered first-to-market PCIe, Ethernet, and CXL connectivity products.
- **Patented software-defined platform approach**: Differentiates via a platform that combines silicon hardware with embedded COSMOS software, enabling flexibility, observability, and predictive analytics.
- **Deep hyperscaler relationships**: Trusted partner to the world’s largest cloud providers, with proven interoperability validated in their own Cloud-Scale Interop Lab.
- **Broad product portfolio**: Covers PCIe retimers, Ethernet cable modules, CXL memory controllers, and fabric switches—addressing the full spectrum of AI connectivity bottlenecks.
- **Strong IP and engineering talent**: 443 employees in technical roles; talent sourced from Intel (65), Marvell (37), Texas Instruments (40), AMD (22), and NVIDIA.

## Strategic Focus
- **Scaling AI infrastructure**: Expanding product portfolio and global footprint (12 countries) to meet surging demand for rack-scale AI.
- **Open standards leadership**: All products are grounded in open standards (PCIe, CXL, Ethernet), ensuring interoperability and broad adoption.
- **Taiwan expansion**: Growing engineering presence and Interop Lab in Taiwan to strengthen integration with leading AI platform providers and system manufacturers.
- **Continued innovation**: Shipping the new 320-lane Scorpio X-Series Fabric Switch and expanding the COSMOS software suite for fleet-level management and optimization.

## Why Work Here
- **Culture**: Described as collaborative, ownership-driven, and focused on solving complex problems together. The company emphasizes diversity and inclusion as drivers of creativity and innovation.
- **Growth**: Astera Labs supports non-linear career growth—employees can deepen expertise (“scale up”) or broaden into new areas (“scale out”). 92% YoY headcount growth signals rapid expansion and opportunity.
- **Remote/Hybrid**: Not explicitly stated, but global operations across 12 countries (including India, Canada, Israel, Taiwan, Vietnam) suggest a flexible, distributed work model.
- **Benefits**: Competitive medical, dental, and vision plans; flexible time off; family planning and parental leave; 401K and retirement plans.
- **Engineering culture**: Strong focus on cutting-edge semiconductor and AI infrastructure technology. High concentration of senior (24%) and specialist (19%) talent. Active internship and new graduate programs.
- **Employee ratings**: 4.5/5.0 on LinkedIn (124 reviews), with high marks for compensation (4.6), culture (4.4), and career development (4.4).

## Sources
1. [Astera Labs Careers Page](https://www.asteralabs.com/careers/)
2. [Astera Labs Official Website](https://www.asteralabs.com/)
3. [Astera Labs LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/company/astera-labs)
4. [Astera Labs Products Page](https://www.asteralabs.com/products/)
5. [Astera Labs S-1 Filing (SEC)](https://ir.asteralabs.com/static-files/7103a4cb-aa6b-4f11-a4b0-f179cd4c5bee)

## Other roles at Astera Labs

- [Senior STA Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-sta-engineer-astera-labs-ahmedabad-gujarat-c3v8grbhy8wn) — Ahmedabad Gujarat, India
- [Tech Lead, Physical Design](https://feeny.ai/job/tech-lead-physical-design-astera-labs-bengaluru-qf292d2t7tcg) — Bengaluru, India
- [Senior Digital Design Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-digital-design-engineer-astera-labs-toronto-msea5r66yqk1) — Toronto, Canada
- [Process Engineer Cleaning & Coating /Day Shift](https://feeny.ai/job/process-engineer-cleaning-coating-day-shift-astera-labs-aachen-north-rhine-gtbmag20fcd1) — Aachen North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany
- [Test Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/test-engineer-astera-labs-aachen-north-rhine-westphalia-9h3jrr7zeyxv) — Aachen North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany
- [Lead Logic Design for UALink IP/Subsystem Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/lead-logic-design-for-ualink-ip-subsystem-engineer-astera-labs-bengaluru-e1yyte8016v3) — Bengaluru, India
- [Principal Emulation Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/principal-emulation-engineer-astera-labs-san-jose-california-z7sj80tsjm8y) — San Jose California, United States
- [Principal Package Signal & Power Integrity](https://feeny.ai/job/principal-package-signal-power-integrity-astera-labs-san-jose-california-23vv9bk9kh0d) — San Jose California, United States
- [Senior Principal Automation Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-principal-automation-engineer-astera-labs-san-jose-california-9nrgfjvqqyqm) — San Jose California, United States
- [Tech Lead Automation Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/tech-lead-automation-engineer-astera-labs-san-jose-california-13cx0vpz7q9z) — San Jose California, United States