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
We are looking for an Optical FW/SW Engineer, Tech Lead for design, development, and validation of embedded firmware and supporting software for Astera Labs’ next-generation optical products. You will build software for optical engines, optical modules, and emerging near-packaged optics (NPO) and co-packaged optics (CPO) solutions, spanning real-time control, calibration, telemetry, diagnostics, and high-speed link optimization.
This role sits at the intersection of embedded systems, optics, and hardware. You will own critical technical problems from architecture through silicon and hardware bring-up to production readiness, partnering with optical, electrical, DSP, systems, and manufacturing teams. Your work will help enable reliable, scalable connectivity for rack-scale AI infrastructure as Astera Labs advances the transition to higher-bandwidth optical interconnects.
Key Responsibilities
- Optical Firmware Architecture and Development
- Architect, develop, optimize, and maintain production-quality embedded firmware for optical engines, PIC/EIC platforms, and optical modules.
- Implement software in C on embedded processors using bare-metal or RTOS-based designs.
- Develop Python scripts and tools for unit-testing, configuration, automation, characterization, manufacturing test, and data analysis.
- Optical Control and Performance Optimization
- Develop control algorithms for modulator operation, automatic power control, temperature compensation, calibration, and link adaptation.
- Implement telemetry, diagnostics, monitoring, and fault-handling features that improve optical-link health, reliability, and serviceability.
- Optimize firmware for latency, power efficiency, control stability, and performance across evolving optical architectures.
- Hardware Bring-Up, Product Validation, and Quality
- Lead firmware and hardware bring-up, including board initialization, peripheral integration, lab debugging, and root-cause analysis.
- Integrate firmware with photodetectors, TIAs, ADCs, DACs, sensors, drivers, DSPs, and hardware control interfaces such as I2C and SPI.
- Partner with optical, electrical, DSP, systems, and validation teams to characterize, tune, and qualify optical products.
- Establish unit-testing strategies and maintain automated tests that improve firmware quality, coverage, and release confidence.
- Apply disciplined version-control, code-review, documentation, and release practices throughout the development lifecycle.
Basic Qualifications
- Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Computer Science, Physics, or a related technical field.
- 5–8 years of experience developing embedded firmware or software for optical, photonics, communications, semiconductor, or other high-reliability products.
- Strong programming skills in C and Python, with experience developing software for microcontroller platforms.
- Experience with RTOS-based embedded development, embedded programming methods, hardware interfaces, and low-level device control.
- Proven experience with unit testing, version control, debugging, and hardware bring-up.
- Ability to analyze and resolve complex problems across firmware, hardware, optical control algorithms, and system-level behavior.
Preferred Qualifications
- Experience with optical module management, CMIS, telemetry, diagnostics, or control requirements.
- Experience with optical engines, pluggable optics, silicon photonics, PIC/EIC integration, NPO, or CPO.
- Knowledge of lasers, modulators, photodetectors, TIAs, thermal tuning, wavelength control, calibration, and high-speed optical link behavior.
- Familiarity with JTAG, oscilloscopes, logic analyzers, optical test equipment, and protocol analyzers.
- Demonstrated technical leadership, strong cross-functional collaboration, and the ability to drive an ambiguous problem from concept to production.
Salary range is $160,000 to $200,000 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.
Skills Required
- Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, or a related field
- 5+ years of digital design experience
- Experience taking at least one full chip from specification through tapeout
- Strong proficiency in Verilog and SystemVerilog
- Strong RTL coding and synthesis flow experience
- Hands-on experience with timing closure, CDC, and lint
- Experience with low-power design techniques
- Understanding of high-speed serial interfaces such as PCIe or Ethernet
- Understanding of SoC integration
- MS or PhD in Electrical Engineering or Computer Engineering
- Experience with PCIe Gen5 or Gen6, CXL, UALink, UCIe, or Ethernet MAC/PCS designs
- Familiarity with formal verification, emulation, or assertion-based methodologies
- Background in advanced process nodes including 7nm, 5nm, or below
- Strong debugging skills across pre-silicon and post-silicon environments
Astera Labs Compensation & Benefits Highlights
The following summarizes recurring compensation and benefits themes identified from responses generated by popular LLMs to common candidate questions about Astera Labs and has not been reviewed or approved by Astera Labs.
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Healthcare Strength — Health plans are described as competitive and employer-subsidized, covering medical, dental, and vision for employees and dependents. Company materials and listings consistently emphasize strong core healthcare coverage.
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Leave & Time Off Breadth — Flexible time off is highlighted alongside paid company holidays, with guidance indicating generous PTO when coordinated with teams. Documented policies also point to robust time-off structures across locations.
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Equity Value & Accessibility — Stock-based compensation is a meaningful part of total pay, with RSUs and an employee stock purchase plan noted as part of the package. Public-company status enhances perceived value and accessibility of equity components.
Astera Labs Insights
What We Do
Astera Labs Inc., a fabless semiconductor company headquartered in the heart of California’s Silicon Valley, is a leader in purpose-built connectivity solutions for data-centric systems throughout the data center. Partnering with leading processor vendors, cloud service providers, seasoned investors, and world-class manufacturing companies, Astera Labs is helping customers remove performance bottlenecks in data-intensive systems that are limiting the true potential of applications such as artificial intelligence and machine learning. The company’s product portfolio includes system-aware semiconductor integrated circuits, boards, and services to enable robust CXL, PCIe, and Ethernet connectivity.
