Principal Hardware NPI Program Manager - San Jose, California, United States
Originally posted 5 October 2026 by the employer.
Astera Labs provides rack-scale AI infrastructure through purpose-built connectivity solutions.
About the role
This Principal Engineering, Hardware NPI Program Manager leads complex hardware programs from design release through productization, validation, customer readiness, and launch, delivering purpose-built connectivity solutions for rack-scale AI infrastructure.
What you'll do
- Define PCBA program schedules, build quantities, milestones, budgets, dependencies, and readiness criteria.
- Lead prototype and new-product builds through PCB and PCBA fabrication, assembly, bring-up, validation, shipment readiness, and launch.
- Align product, hardware, systems, validation, manufacturing, quality, supply chain, finance, operations, and customer-facing teams around shared outcomes.
- Confirm bill of materials, part numbers, fabrication and assembly data, suppliers, and work instructions are complete before each build.
- Highlight and resolve manufacturing issues involving component sourcing, design for manufacturability, programming, assembly, rework, traceability, and hardware logistics.
- Improve program-management processes, documentation, repositories, reporting, and performance metrics.
What you'll need
- Bachelor’s degree in engineering, computer science, operations, or a related field.
- 8–12 years of experience in hardware NPI, technical program management, manufacturing engineering, or product operations.
- Experience guiding hardware products or builds through development, validation, manufacturing, or launch.
- Working knowledge of hardware development, PCB/PCBA manufacturing, bills of materials, engineering changes, supplier coordination, and manufacturing release.
- Demonstrated ability to manage integrated schedules, milestones, risks, action items, budgets, and cross-functional dependencies.
- Strong written and verbal communication skills.
Nice to have
- Experience with high-speed networking, PCIe Gen 6 or Gen 7, UALink, optical or cable connectivity, retimers, ASICs, compute platforms, data centers, or AI infrastructure hardware.
- Understanding of physical-layer considerations for high-speed interconnects, including signal integrity, board-level debug, prototype rework, BGA processing, X-ray review, or failure analysis.
- Experience with customer programs, product launches, strategic initiatives, cost and operational improvement programs, product lifecycle activities, quality, RMA, or EOL execution.
- Proficiency with Microsoft Excel, PowerPoint, Project, SharePoint, Power BI, and Teams.
- Experience building dashboards, data pipelines, workflow automation, or AI-assisted engineering tools.
- Experience managing prototype budgets, purchase requests, purchase orders, supplier quotes, or forecasts.
Skills: hardware NPI, program manager, PCBA manufacturing, supply chain, AI infrastructure
This role has been open 2 days — well below the 49-day median for Technical Program Management roles.
Technical Program Management · SOC Architecture
|
Open roles in category
157
|
Median days open
49 d
|
Median salary
$220k
|
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 (157 roles · 47 employers) |
|---|---|---|
| Open roles in this specialty | 5 | 157 |
| Median days open | 105 d | 49 d (+56 d vs this employer) |
| Median salary (USD postings) | — | $220k |
Skills observed across this category: hardware NPI, program manager, PCBA manufacturing, supply chain, AI infrastructure
Who's hiring in this category
- Qualcomm · 25 open roles · median 48 d
- AMD · 17 open roles · median 37 d
- NVIDIA · 16 open roles · median 46 d
- Synopsys · 13 open roles · median 48 d
- Arm Holdings · 10 open roles · median 74 d
- Astera Labs (this employer) · 5 open roles · median 105 d
How we counted: 157 open Technical Program Management (SOC Architecture) roles from 47 employers tracked in the SemiconductorJobs index, counted 8 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. Figures refresh nightly.