Senior Principal Engineer, Security Architect (2026- 346)

Astera Labs•San Jose, CA

11d•$190,000 - $240,000•Onsite

About The Position

Astera Labs is building the connectivity backbone of the AI era, and the platforms we ship power the world's largest AI clusters. As Senior Principal Engineer, Security Architect, you'll be the most senior technical authority defining how security is designed into everything we build — from silicon and firmware to the cloud services, tools, and enterprise systems that support them. This is a hands-on, deeply technical architect role for someone who wants to shape security at a hyper-growth semiconductor company enabling rack-scale AI infrastructure. You'll set architectural direction, drive threat modeling and secure-by-design reviews across product and IT, and partner with engineering, product security, GRC, and IT leadership to raise the security bar in a fast-moving environment.

Requirements

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, or a related technical field
12+ years of progressive experience in security engineering and architecture across product and/or enterprise domains
Demonstrated expertise designing secure architectures spanning hardware/firmware, software, cloud, and enterprise IT
Deep knowledge of cryptography, identity and access management, network security, and modern threat models (e.g., MITRE ATT&CK)
Hands-on experience with cloud security architecture (Azure preferred) and Microsoft enterprise environments (Entra, M365, Active Directory)
Proven ability to influence engineering and executive stakeholders and drive complex, cross-functional security initiatives

Nice To Haves

Advanced degree (MS or PhD) in a security-related discipline
Industry certifications such as CISSP-ISSAP, SABSA, TOGAF, Azure Security Engineer/Architect, or equivalent demonstrated experience
Experience in the semiconductor, hardware, or hyperscale infrastructure industry, including familiarity with PCIe, CXL, or high-speed connectivity technologies
Experience with secure boot, hardware root of trust, attestation, confidential computing, and supply chain security
Familiarity with regulatory and industry frameworks such as SOC 2, ISO 27001, NIST, and data privacy regulations

Responsibilities

Define and own the end-to-end security architecture across product (silicon, firmware, systems) and enterprise (cloud, SaaS, IT) domains
Establish security reference architectures, design patterns, and standards that scale across teams and product lines
Partner with engineering and IT leaders to align architectural direction with business, product, and compliance priorities
Lead threat modeling, attack surface analysis, and security design reviews for new products, features, and platforms
Drive secure development lifecycle (SDL) practices, including requirements, design, implementation, and validation gates
Evaluate cryptography, key management, secure boot, attestation, and supply chain integrity approaches for hardware and firmware
Architect zero-trust, identity, network, and data protection controls across the Microsoft-centric enterprise (Azure, Entra, M365) and SaaS ecosystem
Guide secure design of build, CI/CD, developer, and EDA/tooling environments
Define standards for logging, telemetry, and detection engineering inputs in partnership with security operations
Serve as a trusted advisor to engineering, product, IT, and GRC leadership on complex security trade-offs
Translate architectural direction into pragmatic, prioritized roadmaps and measurable outcomes
Mentor engineers and architects across the organization, elevating security capability company-wide