Senior Principal Engineer- Field Applications

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 . Role Overview As a (Sr.) Principal Engineer - Field Applications Engineering, you will serve as a trusted technical partner to customers deploying Astera Labs’ high-speed connectivity solutions. You will lead the continuation of critical customer support for Ethernet and PCIe products, translating system requirements into reliable, production-ready designs and accelerating issue resolution across complex AI infrastructure platforms. Based onsite in San Jose, you will work closely with customers and cross-functional teams across sales, product management, design engineering, validation, and operations. Your expertise in high-speed interfaces, physical-layer behavior, and system-level integration will help customers bring next-generation rack-scale AI architectures to market with confidence. Key Responsibilities • Customer Technical Leadership • Lead technical engagements with strategic customers from architecture definition through deployment and production support. • Own customer escalations, establish clear action plans, and drive issues to timely closure with measurable outcomes. • Present design recommendations, bring-up results, and technical tradeoffs to customer engineering and leadership teams. • Ethernet and PCIe Product Support • Develop and execute system-level debug plans for Ethernet and PCIe connectivity issues, including link training, interoperability, compliance, and performance. • Analyze physical-layer behavior, signal-integrity symptoms, error logs, lab data, and system telemetry to isolate root causes. • Partner with engineering teams to reproduce field issues, influence product improvements, and communicate effective workarounds or corrective actions. • Cross-Functional Enablement • Collaborate with sales and product management to capture customer requirements and shape application strategies for emerging AI infrastructure designs. • Create technical collateral, reference architectures, application notes, and enablement materials for customers and internal teams. • Mentor Field Applications Engineers and contribute to scalable processes for customer onboarding, issue tracking, and product adoption. Basic Qualifications • Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, or a related technical field. • 8–20 years of experience in field applications engineering, system engineering, product engineering, or a related domain. • Deep hands-on experience with Ethernet and/or PCIe systems, high-speed SerDes, link training, interoperability, and compliance. • Strong understanding of physical-layer concepts, signal integrity, board-level bring-up, lab instrumentation, and system-level debug. • Demonstrated ability to lead complex customer escalations, debug, and communicate technical concepts clearly to diverse audiences. • Ability to work onsite in San Jose and travel to customer and partner locations as needed. Preferred Qualifications • Master’s degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, or a relat