Astera Labs Inc.
Principal Electrical Engineer – Smart Cable Modules
San Jose, California, United States · Principal
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odds of building a lasting career here
Sponsors, but it's cap-subject — you still face the weighted lottery (~61% per draw at Level IV). Good if you win; have a cap-exempt backup on your list.
Lottery odds assume a STEM candidate.
Personalize to your clock →H-1B wage level
the lottery is wage-weighted — each level is one more entry
$4,072 more — $189,072 — moves this role to Level III and 3 lottery entries. That figure is inside the range the employer already advertised.
Based on the DOL prevailing wage for this occupation and worksite, a base salary of $189,072 would place this position at wage Level III. That figure is within the posted range, and I'd like to target it. This role classifies under "Electrical Engineers" for prevailing-wage purposes.
DOL prevailing wage, 2026-27 wage year · Electrical Engineers (17-2071) · San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA. Wage level is derived by USCIS from the offered wage, occupation and worksite; the occupation shown is inferred from the job title.
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Sourced from Department of Labor LCA, PERM and prevailing-wage disclosure data. Employer matching is by name, so figures may be split across an employer's legal entities. Absence of a filing means none appears in our copy of the data, not that none exists.
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About the role
- Principal Electrical Engineer - Smart Cable Modules
- We are looking for a Principal Electrical Engineer to take strategic ownership of our Smart Cable Module (SCM) hardware platform.
- Review and recommendation on PCB stack-up, impedance targets, via structures, and differential-pair routing rules; review and approve layout execution with sufficient SI understanding to ensure first-pass compliance
Responsibilities
- Define and own the end-to-end electrical architecture for smart cable modules, including SerDes channel topology, power delivery strategy, and thermal budgeting for muti-Gig (112G PAM4 and 56G NRZ ) designs
- Establish and maintain internal electrical design standards, PCB layout rules, and SI/PI guidelines that the broader hardware team
- Lead technical reviews (architecture, schematic, layout, DVT) and provide authoritative sign-off on high-speed digital designs
- engage directly with supplier engineering teams on reference design adaptation and silicon bring-up support.
- Electrical Design Ownership
- Drive schematic capture and PCB design for complex multi-layer modules housing muti-Gig SerDes retimer or DSP ASICs in thermally and spatially constrained OSFP/QSFP-DD enclosures
- Own power delivery design including multi-rail regulation, hot-plug sequencing, brownout protection, and inrush management within MSA-defined power envelopes.
- Perform analog and mixed-signal sub-circuit design including clock distribution, oscillator selection, ESD protection, and supervisory logic
Requirements
- Bachelor's or Master's degree in electrical engineering or closely related field;
- 10-12+ years of progressive electrical engineering experience, with at least 5 years focused on high-speed SerDes-based interconnect, active copper cable, or optical/pluggable module products
- Demonstrated track record of architecting and delivering production hardware with 56G / 112G and faster SerDes interfaces (Ethernet, PCIe, or InfiniBand)
- Proficiency with EDA tools: industry-standard schematic capture (Cadence Allegro / OrCAD) and PCB layout review
- Hands-on experience with CMIS 5.x / SFF-8636 module management and I2C/MDIO interface design
Nice to have
- Working knowledge of host-side switching ASIC electrical interfaces and SerDes equalization schemes
- Participation in OIF, IEEE 802.3, or QSFP/OSFP MSA standards bodies
- Experience with PCIe Gen 5/6 retimer module designs
- Scripting fluency in Python for lab automation, measurement data reduction, or hardware characterization workflows
Skills
- Labs (NASDAQ:
- ALAB) provides rack-scale AI infrastructure through purpose-built connectivity solutions.
- Discover more at www.asteralabs.com.
Compensation
- Base salary range is $185,000 to $240,000 depending on experience, level, and business need.
This listing is sourced directly from Astera Labs Inc.'s careers page and normalized into a canonical job model.