Principal Electrical Engineer – Smart Cable Modules - San Jose, California, United States
$185,000 - $240,000 USD yearly
Originally posted 27 August 2026 by the employer.
Design the electrical architecture for Smart Cable Modules.
About the role
This Principal Electrical Engineer role involves strategic ownership of the Smart Cable Module (SCM) hardware platform, defining the electrical architecture for active copper cable assemblies and pluggable modules in OSFP, QSFP-DD, and emerging form-factor enclosures targeting 400G, 800G, and beyond.
What you'll do
- Define the end-to-end electrical architecture for smart cable modules, including SerDes channel topology, power delivery strategy, and thermal budgeting.
- Establish internal electrical design standards, PCB layout rules, and SI/PI guidelines.
- Lead technical reviews (architecture, schematic, layout, DVT) and provide sign-off on high-speed digital designs.
- Drive schematic capture and PCB design for complex multi-layer modules housing multi-Gig SerDes retimer or DSP ASICs.
- Own power delivery design including multi-rail regulation, hot-plug sequencing, brownout protection, and inrush management.
- Author/co-author hardware bring-up strategies, debug plans, and acceptance test procedures for new module designs.
What you'll need
- 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).
- Expert-level understanding of signal integrity principles - impedance control, differential pair management, eye mask budgeting, channel loss allocation.
- Proficiency with EDA tools: industry-standard schematic capture (Cadence Allegro / OrCAD) and PCB layout review.
- Deep familiarity with OSFP, QSFP-DD800, and SFP-DD MSA mechanical, electrical, and management specifications.
- Hands-on experience with CMIS 5.x / SFF-8636 module management and I2C/MDIO interface design.
- Proven ability to lead hardware bring-up and debug complex mixed-signal failures using high-bandwidth oscilloscopes and protocol analyzers.
- Strong PDN design fundamentals: multi-rail sequencing, transient response, decoupling strategy, and thermal-electrical co-analysis.
Nice to have
- Experience at the architecture or lead engineer level on 800G or beyond module programs.
- Familiarity with co-packaged optics (CPO) or linear drive (LPO) module electrical architecture.
- 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: Smart Cable Module, SerDes channel topology, PCB design, signal integrity, power delivery
This role has been open 0 days — well below the 104-day median for Hardware Systems Engineering roles.
Hardware Systems Engineering · Serdes Highspeed
|
Open roles in category
86
|
Median days open
104 d
|
Median salary
$197k
|
See the full market breakdown ▾Category comparison, skills in demand, and who else is hiring
| Metric | Astera Labs | All employers we track in this specialty (86 roles · 33 employers) |
|---|---|---|
| Open roles in this specialty | 4 | 86 |
| Open roles in the wider Software, Firmware & Systems family | 13 | 5942 · 145 employers |
| Median days open | 18 d | 104 d (−86 d vs this employer) |
| Median salary (USD postings) | — | $197k |
Skills observed across this category: Smart Cable Module, SerDes channel topology, PCB design, signal integrity, power delivery
Who's hiring in this category
- NVIDIA · 13 open roles · median 173 d
- Qualcomm · 10 open roles · median 173 d
- AMD · 8 open roles · median 74 d
- Keysight Technologies · 5 open roles · median 131 d
- Lumentum · 4 open roles · median 1 d
- Astera Labs (this employer) · 3 open roles · median 25 d
How we counted: 86 open Hardware Systems Engineering (Serdes Highspeed) roles from 33 employers tracked in the SemiconductorJobs index, counted 29 Sept 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.