Role Overview
Altera is undergoing a high-velocity transformation to re-establish leadership in the FPGA market. Sustaining that velocity requires a tight operating system, sharp strategic synthesis, and disciplined executive communication across one of the largest engineering organizations in the company.
We are seeking a Senior Director, Chief of Staff to serve as the strategic and operational right hand to the Head of Hardware Engineering. This is a non-technical leadership role focused on running the operating cadence of the organization, driving the strategic agenda, owning executive communications, and ensuring decisions move fast with clarity and rigor.
This role operates as a peer to the Senior Director, Technical Program Enablement. The Chief of Staff owns how the organization runs, plans, communicates, and decides. Technical program execution is owned by Program Enablement.
What You Will Do
1. Own the Operating System of the Organization
- Run the staff meeting cadence, leadership offsites, quarterly business reviews, and operational rhythms.
- Design and maintain the planning calendar, annual planning, mid-year reviews, OKR cycles, and headcount cycles.
- Establish a single source of truth for organizational priorities, commitments, and decisions.
- Drive follow-through on executive decisions; close the loop on actions and ensure nothing falls through.
2. Drive the Strategic Agenda
- Partner with the Head of Hardware Engineering to shape the multi-year strategic narrative for the organization.
- Frame strategic decisions with clear options, tradeoffs, and recommendations.
- Build executive-level synthesis on market dynamics, organizational performance, and strategic bets.
- Pressure-test assumptions and challenge weak logic before decisions reach the leadership table.
3. Lead Executive Communications
- Own the executive communication portfolio: board materials, all-hands narratives, leadership memos, talking points, and customer/exec briefings.
- Translate complex organizational topics into crisp, decision-ready framing for senior audiences.
- Maintain consistency of voice, message, and positioning across leadership communications.
- Prepare the Head of Hardware Engineering for high-stakes internal and external engagements.
4. Organizational Effectiveness and Talent
- Partner with HR on talent reviews, succession planning, leadership development, and organizational design.
- Drive headcount planning and prioritization in coordination with Finance and HR.
- Surface organizational friction, layering issues, and span-of-control concerns; recommend structural improvements.
- Champion the culture standards of the organization - accountability, transparency, speed, and direct communication.
5. Cross-Functional Alignment
- Serve as the connective tissue between Hardware Engineering and Product, Business Units, Finance, HR, and corporate functions.
- Represent the Head of Hardware Engineering in cross-functional forums where appropriate.
- Resolve friction points across functional boundaries before they escalate.
6. Special Initiatives and Decision Support
- Lead high-priority initiatives that cut across the organization and do not fit cleanly within a single program or function.
- Run targeted strategic studies, market reviews, or organizational deep-dives as the agenda requires.
- Act as a critical thinking partner - challenge, refine, and sharpen recommendations before they go live.
Why This Role Matters
This role is not a coordinator or a scheduler. It is the strategic and operational backbone of Hardware Engineering.
You will shape how the organization plans, decides, communicates, and executes against its strategic agenda. If you operate well at the intersection of strategy, operations, and executive communication and you want a seat at the center of one of the most consequential organizations in the company.
Salary Range
The pay range below is for Bay Area California only. Actual salary may vary based on a number of factors including job location, job-related knowledge, skills, experiences, trainings, etc. We also offer incentive opportunities that reward employees based on individual and company performance.
$231,500 - $341,070 USD
We use artificial intelligence to screen, assess, or select applicants for the position. Applicants must be eligible for any required U.S. export authorizations.
Minimum Qualifications:
Strategic and Operational Range
- Proven experience as a Chief of Staff, business operations leader, or strategy lead for a large engineering, product, or technology organization.
- Track record of running the operating cadence of a complex, multi-functional org at scale.
- Demonstrated ability to drive strategic agendas without owning a P&L or a technical function.
Executive Communication
- Exceptional written communication, board materials, exec memos, leadership narratives.
- Strong verbal presence; comfortable representing senior leadership in cross-functional and external forums.
- Ability to compress complex topics into one-page, decision-ready framing.
Judgment and Influence
- High judgment under ambiguity; comfortable making calls with incomplete information.
- Influences without authority across senior leaders and cross-functional stakeholders.
- Direct, candid, and willing to push back on the principal when warranted.
Mindset
- High ownership and accountability.
- Structured thinker with strong attention to signal vs. noise.
- Discretion and trust: handles sensitive organizational and strategic information.
- Bias for action with disciplined follow-through.
Skills Required
- Proven experience as a Chief of Staff, business operations leader, or strategy lead
- Track record of running the operating cadence of a complex, multi-functional org at scale
- Exceptional written and verbal communication skills
- Ability to make decisions under ambiguity and influence senior leaders
- High ownership and accountability with strong attention to detail
Altera (altera.com) Compensation & Benefits Highlights
The following summarizes recurring compensation and benefits themes identified from responses generated by popular LLMs to common candidate questions about Altera (altera.com) and has not been reviewed or approved by Altera (altera.com).
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Retirement Support — Feedback suggests retirement programs are robust, with offerings such as a 401(k) and a pension. This breadth supports long-term financial security.
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Leave & Time Off Breadth — Feedback suggests time-off policies are generous, including PTO, paid sick days, and paid holidays. Wellness initiatives like gym memberships further support balance.
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Parental & Family Support — Feedback suggests parental leave is generous. Family-building support, including fertility benefits and adoption reimbursement, is highlighted as part of the package.
Altera (altera.com) Insights
What We Do
Altera: Accelerating Innovators Altera provides leadership programmable solutions that are easy-to-use and deploy in applications from cloud to edge, offering limitless AI possibilities. Our end-to-end broad portfolio of products including FPGAs, CPLDs, Intellectual Property, development tools, System on Modules, SmartNICs and IPUs provide the flexibility to accelerate innovation. Altera is helping to shape the future through pioneering innovation that unlocks extraordinary possibilities for everyone on the planet.
