Astera Labs

Open

Principal Electrical Engineer – Smart Cable Modules

Location
Shanghai Shi, China
Employment type
Contract
Posted
Jul 31, 2026
Last seen
Aug 20, 2026

About the role

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 .

We are looking for a Principal Electrical Engineer to take strategic ownership of our Smart Cable Module (SCM) hardware platform. This is a senior individual-contributor role that combines deep technical leadership with cross-organizational influence - you will define the electrical architecture of our next-generation active copper cable assemblies and pluggable modules in OSFP, QSFP-DD, and emerging form-factor enclosures targeting 400G, 800G, and beyond.

As a Principal Engineer you will set design direction, establish engineering standards, and serve as the primary technical authority on module hardware across the full product lifecycle - from concept and architecture through production release and sustaining engineering. You will partner with cross functional team, contract manufacturers, firmware teams, and hyperscale customers to deliver differentiated, high-reliability products for data center AI/ML fabric and high-performance computing applications.

Key Responsibilities

Architecture & Technical Leadership

  • Define and own the end-to-end electrical architecture for smart cable modules, including SerDes channel topology, power delivery strategy, and thermal budgeting for muti-Gig (112G PAM4 and 56G NRZ ) designs
  • Establish and maintain internal electrical design standards, PCB layout rules, and SI/PI guidelines that the broader hardware team
  • Lead technical reviews (architecture, schematic, layout, DVT) and provide authoritative sign-off on high-speed digital designs
  • Contribute to the module hardware roadmap in alignment with host ASIC platform generations, MSA form-factor evolution, and customer requirements
  • Evaluate and select components; engage directly with supplier engineering teams on reference design adaptation and silicon bring-up support

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