Principal Product Technical Leader — AEC/SCM - San Jose, California, United States
$160,000 - $200,000 USD yearly
Originally posted 4 August 2026 by the employer.
This role focuses on Active Electrical Cables (AECs) and Smart Cable Modules (SCMs).
About the role
This role involves driving product integration for Active Electrical Cables (AECs) and Smart Cable Modules (SCMs) used in rack-scale AI infrastructure. You will serve as a technical owner across high-speed silicon and retimers, firmware, PCB or flex circuitry, cable assemblies, connectors, mechanical and thermal design, signal integrity, validation, manufacturing, and customers.
What you'll do
- Define product-level interfaces, integration plans, risks, validation checkpoints, and readiness criteria from design through production release.
- Influence architecture and design decisions across signal integrity, retimer and firmware integration, power, thermal performance, mechanical constraints, manufacturability, cost, and schedule.
- Lead product-level electrical compliance and system validation for AEC/SCM products, including channel performance, eye margins, jitter, equalization, link training, BER, and interoperability.
- Direct and review AEC/SCM hardware validation, including board-level probing, circuit verification, functional testing, and reliability/failure analysis.
- Partner with NPI, manufacturing, quality, and operations teams to transition products from development into volume production.
- Own technical investigations and corrective actions for complex failures, process excursions, production escapes, and field issues.
What you'll need
- Deep expertise in at least one relevant discipline (high-speed silicon, retimers, firmware, PCB or flex circuitry, cable assemblies, connectors, mechanical design, thermal design, signal integrity, validation, manufacturing).
- Working knowledge across adjacent domains (high-speed silicon, retimers, firmware, PCB or flex circuitry, cable assemblies, connectors, mechanical design, thermal design, signal integrity, validation, manufacturing).
- Experience translating system and customer requirements, engineering data, and field feedback into reliable, production-ready products.
- Ability to lead complex technical investigations and resolve cross-domain issues.
- Experience with root-cause analysis for issues spanning silicon, firmware, hardware, SI, mechanical, thermal, test, and manufacturing teams.
- Experience with DFM/DFA/DFT reviews, production-test development, test-coverage improvements, yield analysis, and manufacturability feedback.
Skills: RTL Design, Verilog/SystemVerilog, synthesis, timing closure, PCIe, CXL, Ethernet
This role has been open 75 days — well above the 60-day median for Digital/RTL Design roles.
Digital/RTL Design · RTL Design
|
Open roles in category
1037
|
Median days open
60 d
|
Median salary
$185k
|
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 (1037 roles · 103 employers) |
|---|---|---|
| Open roles in this specialty | 31 | 1037 |
| Open roles in the wider Digital Design & Verification family | 63 | 3201 · 115 employers |
| Median days open | 34 d | 60 d (−26 d vs this employer) |
| Median salary (USD postings) | — | $185k |
Skills observed across this category: RTL Design, Verilog/SystemVerilog, synthesis, timing closure, PCIe, CXL
Who's hiring in this category
- Qualcomm · 140 open roles · median 64 d
- Synopsys · 86 open roles · median 32 d
- AMD · 71 open roles · median 38 d
- Analog Devices · 47 open roles · median 50 d
- NVIDIA · 44 open roles · median 60 d
- NXP Semiconductors · 42 open roles · median 86 d
How we counted: 1037 open Digital/RTL Design (RTL Design) roles from 103 employers tracked in the SemiconductorJobs index, counted 18 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 Digital Design & Verification family row. Figures refresh nightly.