Astera Labs
Principal Engineer - Validation Engineering
$185K–$240K
San Jose, California, United States +1 · Principal · Full-time · Posted Sep 30, 2026
- Location
- San Jose, California, United States
California - Experience
- 8-12 years of experience in hardware, silicon, system, or product validation engineering.
- Education
- Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, or a related technical field.
About the job
Defines and leads validation strategies, automation, bring-up, and qualification for hardware and connectivity products, guiding cross-functional teams toward reliable product releases.
What you'll do
- Create validation plans, coverage goals, schedules, and release criteria from product requirements.
- Lead silicon, board, and system bring-up and build scalable lab infrastructure and automated testing.
- Drive root-cause analysis, coordinate issue resolution, and mentor engineers.
What they ask for
- Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, or a related technical field.
- 8-12 years of experience in hardware, silicon, system, or product validation engineering.
- Proven validation leadership for semiconductor, networking, connectivity, or data center products.
- Hands-on experience with validation plans, test cases, automation, coverage metrics, release criteria, and debugging across hardware, firmware, software, and lab instrumentation.
Nice to have
- Master's or PhD degree in a related field; high-speed interface validation experience.
- Knowledge of physical-layer fundamentals, signal integrity, protocol analysis, compliance, and interoperability; proficiency with Python, Linux, lab equipment, data analysis, and Microsoft Azure DevOps or comparable infrastructure.
Pay
$185,000 to $240,000 (USD, base salary)
Tools
Python, Linux, PCIe, CXL, Ethernet, Microsoft Azure DevOps
AI focus
Validates connectivity products supporting rack-scale AI infrastructure.
Model-written summary · the original posting is authoritative