Sr. Principal Product Applications Engineer – Custom Solutions - San Jose, California, United States
$185,000 - $210,000 USD yearly
Originally posted 14 August 2026 by the employer.
About the role
This role serves as the technical bridge between customers and the engineering organization, supporting custom silicon programs from early architecture discussions through production deployment.
What you'll do
- Serve as the primary technical interface for strategic customer programs.
- Support customer engagements from architecture discussions through silicon bring-up, validation, production, and deployment.
- Lead complex customer debug efforts involving hardware, firmware, software, and system-level integration.
- Translate customer requirements, deployment challenges, and architecture feedback into actionable engineering requirements.
- Develop technical collateral, application notes, reference designs, troubleshooting guides, and customer documentation.
- Develop automation and diagnostic tools using Python or C/C++ to improve engineering efficiency and customer support.
What you'll need
- BS or MS in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Computer Science, or a related technical discipline.
- 10+ years of experience in Product Applications Engineering, Systems Engineering, Customer Engineering, Field Applications Engineering, or a related customer-facing semiconductor role.
- Experience supporting advanced semiconductor or custom silicon products from architecture through production.
- Strong understanding of high-speed interconnect technologies, including Ethernet (through 800G), PCIe, PAM4, SerDes, DSPs, DAC, AEC, ACC, AOC, and related hardware technologies.
- Experience with silicon bring-up, post-silicon validation, and system-level debugging.
- Strong Linux debugging and troubleshooting experience.
- Experience writing Python or C/C++ scripts for automation, diagnostics, firmware validation, or lab workflows.
- Proven experience working directly with hyperscalers, AI labs, and infrastructure partners.
Nice to have
- Experience supporting AI infrastructure platforms or high-performance computing systems.
- Familiarity with custom ASIC development and customer-specific silicon solutions.
- Experience with firmware, embedded software, or FPGA validation.
- Understanding of networking, storage, memory, or accelerator architectures.
- Experience creating customer-facing technical documentation, training materials, and application notes.
- Experience supporting executive customer reviews and technical design discussions.
Skills: hyperscalers, AI infrastructure, high-speed interconnect, PCIe, SerDes, silicon bring-up
This role has been open 44 days — below the 52-day median for Applications FAE roles.
Applications FAE · Serdes Highspeed
|
Open roles in category
78
|
Median days open
52 d
|
Median salary
$183k
|
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 (78 roles · 23 employers) |
|---|---|---|
| Open roles in this specialty | 15 | 78 |
| Median days open | 49 d | 52 d (−3 d vs this employer) |
| Median salary (USD postings) | — | $183k |
Skills observed across this category: hyperscalers, AI infrastructure, high-speed interconnect, PCIe, SerDes, silicon bring-up
Who's hiring in this category
- Astera Labs (this employer) · 15 open roles · median 49 d
- Synopsys · 14 open roles · median 13 d
- Qualcomm · 7 open roles · median 73 d
- Keysight Technologies · 6 open roles · median 31 d
- Broadcom · 4 open roles · median 59 d
- Microchip Technology · 4 open roles · median 44 d
How we counted: 78 open Applications FAE (Serdes Highspeed) roles from 23 employers tracked in the SemiconductorJobs index, counted 28 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. Figures refresh nightly.