Product Integration, Senior Principal - Active Electric Cable / Smart Cable Module Business

Astera Labs•San Jose, CA

About The Position

Astera Labs is seeking a Senior Principal Engineer, AEC Product Integration to serve as the senior technical integration leader for the Active Electrical Cable (AEC) product line. This is a deeply technical, hands-on individual contributor role responsible for ensuring all elements of an AEC product (silicon, firmware, PCB/substrate, cable assembly, connector, mechanical, thermal, and signal integrity) integrate into a validated, production-ready, customer-qualified product. The role involves being the single technical point of accountability for AEC product integration, identifying gaps, resolving cross-domain technical conflicts, and driving closure on complex integration challenges. The engineer will work at the intersection of hardware design, firmware, signal integrity, mechanical engineering, test, manufacturing, and customer applications to ensure products meet performance, quality, and reliability targets. Reporting to the AVP of AEC/SCM Hardware Engineering, this role requires leading through technical depth and cross-functional influence rather than managing a large organization.

Requirements

Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, or related technical discipline.
15+ years of experience in hardware product development, with substantial focus on high-speed interconnect, cable assembly, transceiver/module, or mixed signal/digital system integration.
Demonstrated track record as a technical integration leader — owning the full-product convergence across multiple engineering disciplines on complex hardware products.
Deep understanding of high-speed serial link design (56G/112G PAM4 or above), including signal integrity, channel modeling, equalization, and link budgeting.
Strong working knowledge of PCB/substrate design, cable assembly construction, connector technology, and mechanical packaging for high-speed interconnects.
Experience with firmware/hardware integration on products containing retimers, re-drivers, or PHY-layer silicon.
Proven ability to drive complex cross-functional debug and root-cause analysis spanning electrical, mechanical, firmware, and manufacturing domains.
Experience supporting customer integration, interoperability testing, and platform-level qualification.
Excellent communication skills — able to distill complex multi-domain trade-offs for both technical peers and executive audiences.
Willingness to travel (20–30%) to CM sites in Asia and customer locations as required.

Nice To Haves

Master's or Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering with emphasis on high-speed interconnects, signal integrity, or mixed-signal systems.
Direct hands-on experience with Active Electrical Cables (AEC), Active Copper Cables (ACC), Direct Attach Cables (DAC), or Smart Cable Modules (SCM).
Experience integrating products based on retimer or linear re-driver ASICs (e.g., Astera Labs Aries, Broadcom, Marvell, or equivalent).
Deep familiarity with relevant standards: IEEE 802.3ck (100G/lane), 802.3dj (200G/lane), OIF CEI-112G, CEI-224G, SFF-8636, CMIS, OSFP, QSFP-DD.
Experience with 224G/lane (1.6T) interconnect technology and next-generation cable/connector architectures.
Background in system-level integration for hyperscale data center or AI infrastructure applications.
Experience with contract manufacturers in Asia for cable assembly or module production.
Familiarity with environmental/reliability testing standards (GR-468, Telcordia, IEC) for interconnect products.
Mandarin language proficiency for direct technical engagement with Asian manufacturing partners.
Experience with simulation tools (HFSS, ADS, CST, or equivalent) and lab measurement equipment (oscilloscopes, BER testers, VNAs, TDR).

Responsibilities

Own the technical integration of AEC products across all constituent domains: ASIC/retimer silicon, firmware, PCB/flex circuit, cable assembly, connector interface, mechanical housing, thermal management, and signal integrity.
Define and maintain the AEC product integration plan, identifying all cross-domain interfaces, dependencies, risks, and validation checkpoints from early design through mass production release.
Serve as the central technical authority ensuring all subsystem specifications are mutually consistent, physically realizable, and collectively deliver target product performance.
Drive integration trade-off decisions when competing requirements across domains require resolution.
Own the AEC product-level specification, ensuring it flows coherently from system-level customer requirements down to component-level specifications for each engineering team.
Ensure end-to-end channel performance meets target specifications across the full AEC link.
Partner with Signal Integrity engineers to validate channel models, S-parameter budgets, eye diagram margins, and compliance to relevant standards.
Drive resolution of signal integrity issues that span multiple domains.
Define and enforce electrical interface specifications at every integration boundary.
Coordinate the physical integration of retimer silicon, passive components, flex circuits or PCBs, cable assemblies, and mechanical housings into a unified AEC product form factor.
Work with Mechanical Engineering to ensure connector mating, latching, strain relief, bend radius, thermal dissipation, and form factor compliance are achieved.
Drive resolution of mechanical-electrical conflicts.
Review and approve mechanical drawings, 3D models, tolerance stacks, and assembly sequences for AEC products.
Partner with Firmware Engineering to ensure retimer/re-driver firmware initialization, link training, equalization, and diagnostic features integrate correctly with the AEC hardware platform.
Define firmware-hardware interface requirements.
Drive debug and root-cause analysis of integration issues that span silicon, firmware, and hardware boundaries.
Ensure AEC products comply with relevant management interface standards.
Define the AEC product-level validation plan, ensuring comprehensive coverage across electrical performance, mechanical durability, environmental reliability, firmware functionality, and interoperability.
Partner with Test Engineering to specify end-of-line production test requirements.
Drive cross-domain failure analysis when product-level test failures cannot be attributed to a single subsystem.
Own the integration test phase during NPI, defining entry/exit criteria, managing issue trackers, driving closure, and making go/no-go recommendations for production readiness.
Serve as the senior technical interface for AEC product integration with customer platforms.
Drive interoperability testing and debug with customer hardware, resolving link-level issues.
Translate customer integration feedback into actionable engineering requirements and design improvements.
Support customer qualification activities by providing technical data packages, integration guides, and direct engineering engagement.
Lead cross-domain integration reviews and design reviews.
Identify and escalate integration risks early, proposing mitigation plans and driving pre-emptive resolution.
Establish and document integration best practices, lessons learned, and reusable frameworks.
Mentor engineers across disciplines on systems-level thinking and cross-domain integration methodology.
Partner with Manufacturing Engineering and NPI teams to ensure the integrated AEC product design is manufacturable, testable, and scalable at volume.
Participate in DFM/DFA/DFT reviews with a focus on integration-critical process steps.
Support production ramp by driving resolution of integration-related yield issues, process excursions, or field failures.
Define incoming inspection and in-process integration verification checkpoints.