Principal Product Application Engineer - Scorpio

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 Principal Product Applications Engineer at Astera Labs, you will be at the forefront of enabling the world's leading cloud service providers and server/network OEMs to successfully deploy connectivity solutions. This high-impact role sits at the intersection of cutting-edge silicon, firmware, and customer success—where you'll tackle complex technical challenges that push the boundaries of AI infrastructure connectivity. You will serve as a trusted technical advisor to strategic customers, guiding them through design-in, bring-up, and optimization of Astera Labs products. With a strong firmware orientation, you'll dive deep into embedded systems, debug intricate firmware-hardware interactions, and drive issues to resolution across the full stack. Your insights from the field will directly influence product roadmaps and engineering priorities, making you a critical bridge between customers and our R&D teams. This is an opportunity to work on industry-defining connectivity products that power next-generation data centers and AI platforms—all within a fast-paced, hypergrowth environment where your contributions have immediate and visible impact. Key Responsibilities • Customer Technical Engagement • Provide expert technical guidance to tier-1 customers throughout the design-in lifecycle, from early evaluation through production deployment • Build trusted relationships with customer engineering teams, serving as the go-to resource for product integration • Deliver technical presentations, training sessions, and design reviews to accelerate customer success • Firmware Debug & Issue Resolution • Investigate and reproduce customer-reported issues involving firmware, silicon, hardware design, and system-level interactions • Drive root cause analysis and coordinate cross-functional teams to deliver timely resolutions • Develop firmware-based tools, scripts, and utilities to streamline debug and validation workflows • Technical Collateral & Knowledge Sharing • Create high-quality application notes, integration guides, and technical documentation for internal and external audiences • Provide actionable feedback to product, firmware, and silicon teams to continuously improve products and customer experience • Contribute to the development of reference designs and best practices for product deployment • Lab Validation & Bring-Up • Execute hands-on silicon and system bring-up activities, including firmware validation and performance characterization • Utilize lab equipment such as protocol analyzers, high-speed oscilloscopes, and traffic generators to diagnose complex issues • Support interoperability testing across diverse customer platforms and configurations Basic Qualifications • Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, or related field • 8+ years of experience in product applications, field applications, or systems engineering roles supporting complex semiconductor products • Strong firmware development and debugging skills, including proficiency in embedded C and Python • Experience with high-speed interfaces such as PCIe Gen5/6/7 or Ethernet • Demonstrated ability to triage and resolve multi-layer issues spanning silicon, firmware, and system environments • Excellent written and verbal communication skills with a track record of producing clear technical documentation Preferred Qualifications • Master's degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, or related field • Experience with Ethernet products, retimers, or PCIe connectivity solutions • Hands-on experience with protocol analyzers, high-speed oscilloscopes, and BERTs • Background working directly with cloud service providers, server OEMs, or networking equipment manufacturers • Understanding of data center architectures including servers, AI platforms, JBOGs/JBODs, and network switches • Familiarity with physical layer concepts and signal integrity fundamentals The base salary range for this role is CAD 180,000 – CAD 205,000. Your base salary will be determined based on your location, experience, and the pay of employees in similar positions. You will also be eligible for a performance bonus, equity, and benefits. We know that creativity…