Hardware Design Engineering, Senior Director - Signal Connectivity Rack-Scale Platforms
Originally posted 3 June 2026 by the employer.
Lead the hardware engineering organization delivering Active Electrical Cables (AEC) and Smart Cable Modules (SCM) for rack-scale AI platforms.
About the role
Lead and scale the hardware design engineering organization across Active Electrical Cables (AEC), Smart Cable Modules (SCM), Silicon Evaluation Platforms (SVB/EVB), and rack-scale products. The role exercises ownership over electrical/PCB design, mechanical engineering, hardware validation, lab infrastructure, and OEM customer hardware enablement.
What you'll do
- Lead electrical/PCB design, mechanical engineering, hardware validation, lab operations, and customer hardware engineering teams. - Oversee schematic capture, high-speed PCB/flex/substrate layout, power delivery, connector design, thermal management, and form factor compliance. - Drive product-level electrical, mechanical, environmental, and reliability qualification and validation across all product lines. - Guide reference design support, design reviews, integration assistance, and technical engagement with OEM customers integrating silicon. - Define hardware technology roadmaps for AEC, SCM, Silicon Evaluation Platforms, and rack-scale platforms in alignment with silicon roadmaps. - Partner with silicon, firmware, signal integrity, NPI, manufacturing, quality, product management, and sales organizations.
What you'll need
- Hardware engineering leadership experience managing multidisciplinary teams across electrical, mechanical, and validation domains. - Demonstrated technical background in high-speed PCB/flex/substrate design, power delivery, and schematic capture. - Experience with product-level hardware validation, environmental qualification, and reliability testing. - Track record supporting OEM customers and system design partners with reference designs and silicon integration. - Direct experience delivering high-speed connectivity hardware, such as Active Electrical Cables, modules, or rack-scale platforms.
This role has been open 142 days — well above the 51-day median for Hardware Systems Engineering roles.
Hardware Systems Engineering · AI ML Hardware
|
Open roles in category
1017
|
Median days open
51 d
|
Median salary
$154k
|
See the full market breakdown ▾Category comparison, and who else is hiring
| Metric | Astera Labs | All employers we track in this specialty (1017 roles · 102 employers) |
|---|---|---|
| Open roles in this specialty | 4 | 1017 |
| Open roles in the wider Software, Firmware & Systems family | 16 | 6297 · 144 employers |
| Median days open | 139 d | 51 d (+88 d vs this employer) |
| Median salary (USD postings) | — | $154k |
Who's hiring in this category
- Intel Corporation · 75 open roles · median 36 d
- KLA Corporation · 63 open roles · median 50 d
- Teradyne · 61 open roles · median 36 d
- NVIDIA · 51 open roles · median 68 d
- Applied Materials · 48 open roles · median 67 d
- AMD · 43 open roles · median 53 d
How we counted: 1017 open Hardware Systems Engineering (AI ML Hardware) roles from 102 employers tracked in the SemiconductorJobs index, counted 24 Oct 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.