Distinguished Product Quality Engineer

Astera Labs (NASDAQ: ALAB) provides rack-scale AI infrastructure through purpose-built connectivity solutions. By collaborating with hyperscalers and ecosystem partners, Astera Labs enables organizations to unlock the full potential of modern AI. Astera Labs’ Intelligent Connectivity Platform integrates CXL®, Ethernet, NVLink, PCIe®, and UALink™ semiconductor-based technologies with the company’s COSMOS software suite to unify diverse components into cohesive, flexible systems that deliver end-to-end scale-up, and scale-out connectivity. The company’s custom connectivity solutions business complements its standards-based portfolio, enabling customers to deploy tailored architectures to meet their unique infrastructure requirements. Discover more at www.asteralabs.com.

Role Overview

As a Distinguished Product Quality Engineer, you will be responsible for ensuring the quality and reliability of Astera Labs’ advanced high-speed (SerDes PAM4 and optical-integrated) semiconductor products across their lifecycle — from design through high-volume semiconductor manufacturing. You will be the primary quality interface for integrated circuit (IC) NPI-related activities, including assessing test coverage, design quality risks, and other NPI quality considerations.

This NPI role will also lead the development and implementation of IC diagnostic test strategies, collaborate in defining diagnostic coverage metrics, and work with internal engineering teams to enable robust debug methodologies across leading-edge process technologies (16nm to <3nm) and packaging (monolithic, MCM, 3DIC, and optical). This role requires strong cross-functional leadership, deep technical expertise in high-speed interconnects, and the ability to influence design and operations teams to deliver industry-leading product quality.

Key Responsibilities

• Driving Product Quality Engineering: Work with operations, firmware, and other internal engineering teams to drive product quality improvements both as part of NPI activities and volume manufacturing. This role will participate in various NPI engineering reviews to ensure exit criteria are met, new product issues and learnings are addressed, and production issues are driven to root cause. Work with the operations engineering teams to build data systems and infrastructure to eliminate outliers, predict quality trends, and identify product quality opportunities that will improve customer outcomes. Develop signature analysis techniques to identify systemic root causes by leveraging advanced AI and/or ML techniques where appropriate.

• Leading NPI Quality-Related Validation & Issue Debugging: Lead the debugging of complex hardware, firmware, and software issues as part of quality team activities during NPI and high-volume production, leveraging diagnostic hooks and advanced debug tools. Develop and maintain automated diagnostic tools to scale and drive reuse across multiple product families. Partner with operations engineering to improve diagnostic efficiency, reduce overkill/retest, and improve product yield and quality. Integrate diagnostics into silicon lifecycle management, firmware release, and reliability tracking to proactively detect degradation or field reliability risks.

• Interoperability & System-Level Support: Work with field, firmware, and internal engineering teams to ensure interoperability, diagnostic transparency, and robust field debug capability.

• Diagnostic Test Development: Define and drive the deployment of diagnostic test plans, fixtures, tools, and methodologies needed for fault isolation of customer returns in PCIe, CXL, UCIe, Ethernet, and other high-speed switching products. Fan out the most successful tools for broader application in high-volume manufacturing and troubleshooting of NPI (New Products) qualification failures or field application issues.

• Embedded Silicon Agent Champion: Drive the external selection or internal development of embedded silicon agents to monitor temperature, voltage, noise, process, timing, etc., at the block level on-chip. Work with design teams on implementation. Collaborate with validation and design teams to debug these features in the lab during the post-silicon phase. Partner with firmware teams to leverage these features for real-time adaptive behavior. Partner with software teams to process the data and create accessible and actionable diagnostic conclusions.

• Design DFT Review: Work with design, operations engineering, and system validation teams to drive early Design-for-Testability (DFT) and diagnostic capabilities with design and product engineering teams. Coordinate block-by-block-level reviews to ensure no gaps in coverage and that all prior lessons learned are applied.

• Advanced Packaging Diagnostics: Develop diagnostic methodologies for MCM, 3DIC, and optical interconnect packages, including die-to-die and heterogeneous integration interfaces needed to diagnose, isolate, and ensure high-quality products.

Skills and Experience

• Deep experience with digital and SerDes high-speed protocols (PCIe Gen5/Gen6, CXL, UCIe, Ethernet/SerDes) and system-level validation methodologies.

• Direct and deep experience working with embedded silicon diagnostic agents.

• Experience working with engineering teams creating product characterization and test plans, test programs, and collaborating with the greater engineering community to obtain and analyze data across process, voltage, and temperature to evaluate semiconductor products.

• Hands-on experience with lab debug tools (protocol analyzers, oscilloscopes, BERTs, error injection frameworks).

• Proficiency in scripting and software development (Python, C/C++, Java, or similar) for diagnostic automation and data analysis.

• Proven ability to analyze complex test data, identify root causes, and implement systemic solutions.

• Familiarity with semiconductor test flows (ATE, system-level test, characterization, production validation).

• Experience with advanced packaging technologies (MCM, 3DIC, optical) and their diagnostic/test challenges.

• Strong communication skills for collaborating across design, product, test, and customer teams.

• Demonstrated ability to influence cross-functional decisions and drive quality improvements at the organizational level.

Preferred Qualifications

• Minimum of 5 years of experience leading a high-caliber product engineering team.

• Minimum of 10 years within a product or diagnostics engineering team with successful deployment of semiconductor devices into production.

• Strong academic/technical background in electrical engineering; Bachelor’s required, Master’s preferred. Experience with diagnostic firmware and test development methodologies.

• Knowledge of advanced techniques for anomaly detection in diagnostic/test data.

• Track record of leadership in new product introduction (NPI) for complex, high-speed semiconductor products.

We know that creativity and innovation happen more often when teams include diverse ideas, backgrounds, and experiences, and we actively encourage everyone with relevant experience to apply, including people of color, LGBTQ+ and non-binary people, veterans, parents, and individuals with disabilities.