Active Electrical Cable Module FW Engineer – Tech Lead
$169,000 - $200,000 USD yearly
Embedded firmware leadership for AEC and ACC smart cable modules on ARM-based STM32 microcontrollers.
Originally posted 28 August 2026 by the employer.
About the role
Astera Labs is looking for a Tech Lead Engineer to lead the design, development, and validation of embedded firmware for AEC and ACC smart cable modules used to extend connectivity in rack-scale AI systems. The role combines low-level embedded software, hardware integration, and system-level debug from firmware architecture and STM32 bring-up through validation and production release.
What you'll do
- Architect, develop, optimize, and maintain production-quality MCU 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.
- Implement firmware for module power, thermal behavior, device configuration, signal conditioning, calibration, diagnostics, telemetry, and upgrade.
- Integrate firmware with retimers or signal-conditioning devices, drivers, ADCs, DACs, sensors, and hardware control interfaces such as I2C and SPI.
- Lead MCU, board, and module bring-up, including boot-sequence development, peripheral initialization, hardware diagnostics, and root-cause analysis.
- Partner with electrical, systems, validation, ASIC FW, and manufacturing teams to characterize, tune, and qualify smart cable modules.
What you'll need
- 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.
Nice to have
- 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.
More semiconductor jobs: Astera Labs jobs · Hardware design jobs · San Jose jobs
This role has been open 0 days — well below the 46-day median for Hardware Systems Engineering roles.
Hardware Systems Engineering · AI ML Hardware
|
Open roles in category
1125
|
Median days open
46 d
|
Category median salary (all employers)
$150k
|
See the full market breakdown ▾Category comparison, and who else is hiring
| Metric | Astera Labs | All employers we track in this specialty (1125 roles · 109 employers) |
|---|---|---|
| Open roles in this specialty | 8 | 1125 |
| Open roles in the wider Software, Firmware & Systems family | 21 | 6554 · 156 employers |
| Median days open | 57 d | 46 d (+11 d vs this employer) |
| Median salary (USD postings) | — | $150k |
Who's hiring in this category
- Intel Corporation · 88 open roles · median 34 d
- KLA Corporation · 66 open roles · median 60 d
- Applied Materials · 59 open roles · median 40 d
- ASML · 59 open roles · median 18 d
- NVIDIA · 59 open roles · median 75 d
- Teradyne · 58 open roles · median 52 d
How we counted: 1125 open Hardware Systems Engineering (AI ML Hardware) roles from 109 employers tracked in the SemiconductorJobs index, counted 9 Nov 2026. Specialty figures count only roles carrying this exact specialty label, so an employer's related work in neighbouring specialties is not included there — it is counted in the wider Software, Firmware & Systems family row. Figures refresh nightly.