Active Electrical Cable Module FW Engineer – Tech Lead

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.

Active Electrical Cable Module FW Engineer - Tech Lead

We are looking for a Tech Lead Engineer to lead the design, development, and validation of embedded firmware for Astera Labs’ AEC and ACC smart cable modules used to extend connectivity in rack-scale AI systems.

This role combines low-level embedded software, hardware integration, and system-level debug. You will drive technical execution from firmware architecture and STM32 bring-up through validation and production release, partnering with ASIC firmware, systems, validation, manufacturing, and platform software teams. Your work will help customers deploy reliable, scalable interconnects as AI infrastructure expands beyond the limits of conventional cabling.

Key Responsibilities

• Smart Cable Module Firmware
• Architect, develop, optimize, and maintain production-quality MCU firmware for smart cable modules.
• Implement firmware in C on ARM-based STM32 or comparable microcontroller platforms using RTOS-based designs.
• Develop Python scripts and tools for test automation, configuration, characterization, manufacturing test, and data analysis.
• Module Control, Telemetry, and Link Management

• Implement firmware for module power, thermal behavior, device configuration, signal conditioning, calibration, and upgrade.

• Develop management, telemetry, diagnostics, fault-handling, and health-monitoring features for manufacturing and field deployments.
• Integrate firmware with retimers or signal-conditioning devices, drivers, ADCs, DACs, sensors, and hardware control interfaces such as I2C and SPI.
• Bring-Up, Debugging, Validation, and Quality
• Lead MCU, board, and module bring-up, including boot-sequence development, peripheral initialization, hardware diagnostics, and root-cause analysis.
• Debug firmware and system behavior to resolve issues across hardware, firmware, control algorithms, and high-speed links.
• Partner with electrical, systems, validation, ASIC FW, and manufacturing teams to characterize, tune, and qualify smart cable modules.
• Establish unit-testing strategies and maintain automated tests that improve firmware quality, coverage, and release confidence.
• Apply disciplined version-control, code-review, documentation, and release practices throughout the development lifecycle.

Basic Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Computer Science, or a related technical field.

• 5-10 years of experience developing embedded firmware or software for smart cables, networking, communications, semiconductor, or other high-reliability products.

• Strong programming skills in C and Python, with experience developing software for ARM-based STM32 or comparable microcontroller platforms.
• Experience with RTOS-based embedded development, embedded programming methods, hardware interfaces, and low-level device control.
• Proven experience with unit testing, version control, debugging, and hardware bring-up.
• Understanding of high-speed electrical physical-layer concepts, including signal integrity, channel behavior, equalization, and link training.
• Ability to analyze and resolve complex problems across firmware, hardware, control algorithms, and system-level behavior.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with active electrical cables, active copper cables, retimers, signal conditioners, optical modules, or related connectivity products.
• Experience with CMIS or other module-management standards, including telemetry, diagnostics, monitoring, and control requirements.
• Knowledge of high-speed link behavior, equalization, thermal management, power sequencing, and module calibration.
• Familiarity with JTAG, oscilloscopes, logic analyzers, protocol analyzers, and high-speed electrical test equipment.
• Demonstrated technical leadership, strong cross-functional collaboration, and the ability to drive an ambiguous problem from concept to production.
• Ability to work effectively with geographically diverse teams across different time zones.

Base salary range is $169,000 to $200,000 depending on experience, level, and business need. This role may be eligible for discretionary bonus, incentives and benefits.

We know that creativity and innovation happen more often when teams include diverse ideas, backgrounds, and experiences, and we actively encourage everyone with relevant experience to apply, including people of color, LGBTQ+ and non-binary people, veterans, parents, and individuals with disabilities.