Hardware Design Engineering, Director - AEC / SCM & China Customer Support - Shanghai

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 .

Director, Hardware Design Engineering — AEC / SCM & China Customer Support

Reports to:** Senior Director, Hardware Design Engineering

Location:** Shanghai, China — Astera Labs Shanghai Design Center

About Astera Labs

Astera Labs is the connectivity backbone of rack-scale AI infrastructure. Our Active Electrical Cables (AEC), Smart Cable Modules (SCM), Silicon Evaluation Platforms, and rack-scale products deliver purpose-built, high-speed connectivity for the world's most demanding AI clusters. As our AEC and SCM product lines scale rapidly to meet hyperscale AI infrastructure demand — and as China-based OEM customers, hyperscale cloud providers, and system integrators increasingly adopt Astera Labs silicon and connectivity products — we are establishing a Shanghai-based hardware design center to drive product development, manufacturing collaboration, and customer engineering support in close proximity to our manufacturing partners and China-based customers.

About the Role

We are hiring a Director of Hardware Design Engineering — AEC / SCM & China Customer Support** to establish and lead Astera Labs' Shanghai hardware design center. This role has dual mission ownership:

AEC & SCM Product Design** — Primary ownership of Active Electrical Cable and Smart Cable Module hardware design execution, from architecture through production release, leveraging proximity to China-based cable assembly and module contract manufacturers

China Customer Engineering Support** — Serving as Astera Labs' front-line hardware engineering partner for China-based customers (hyperscale cloud providers, server/switch OEMs, AI system integrators, cable/module manufacturers) who are integrating Astera Labs silicon into their own products or deploying Astera Labs AEC/SCM products in their infrastructure

Active Electrical Cables and Smart Cable Modules are the highest-volume, fastest-growing products in Astera Labs' portfolio — connecting GPUs, switches, and accelerators across AI clusters at 112G and 224G per lane. Simultaneously, China represents one of the world's largest and fastest-growing markets for AI infrastructure, with a dense ecosystem of OEM customers who require local, responsive hardware engineering support.

You will build and lead a multidisciplinary hardware engineering team in Shanghai — spanning electrical/flex/substrate design, mechanical engineering, hardware validation, and customer applications engineering — driving AEC/SCM product design excellence while serving as the trusted technical partner for Astera Labs' China customer base.

Reporting to the Senior Director of Hardware Design Engineering, you'll operate with significant autonomy on AEC/SCM product execution and China customer engagement while maintaining strategic alignment on technology roadmap, design standards, and customer priorities with the global engineering organization.

Key Responsibilities

Shanghai Design Center Leadership

Establish, build, and lead Astera Labs' Shanghai hardware design center as the company's primary hub for AEC/SCM product design and China customer engineering support

Recruit, hire, and develop a high-caliber multidisciplinary engineering team in Shanghai, including:

High-speed electrical/flex/substrate design engineers

Mechanical engineers (connector, housing, thermal, cable interface)

Hardware validation engineers

Customer applications/hardware support engineers

Lab/test engineers

Define organizational structure, hiring roadmap, and operating model for the Shanghai center — balancing product design execution, customer support responsibilities, and global alignment

Establish lab infrastructure in Shanghai to support AEC/SCM prototype bring-up, characterization, validation, failure analysis, and customer demonstration/interoperability testing

Drive engineering culture that emphasizes design rigor, manufacturing awareness, customer responsiveness, and tight collaboration with Santa Clara headquarters and the Taiwan design center

Serve as the senior Astera Labs engineering leader in China — representing the company with customers, manufacturing partners, suppliers, and industry stakeholders in the region

AEC Hardware Design

Electrical & Substrate Design:**

Own the electrical design of Active Electrical Cable products — including retimer integration on flex circuits or rigid-flex substrates, high-speed differential pair routing, power delivery, and passive component placement within severely constrained cable module form factors

Design high-speed interconnect substrates/flex circuits supporting 112G and 224G PAM4 signaling — achieving target insertion loss, return loss, crosstalk, and impedance control within compact AEC geometries

Drive power delivery network design for AEC products — ensuring clean, stable power to retimer silicon under all operating conditions within minimal board area and thermal constraints

Define and enforce AEC-specific design rules — including trace width/spacing, via structures, impedance targets, stackup configurations, and material selection for high-speed flex/rigid-flex substrates

Collaborate with Signal Integrity engineering to validate channel performance through simulation and measurement correlation across the full AEC link path

Mechanical Design:**

Direct mechanical design for AEC products — including connector mating interfaces (OSFP, QSFP-DD, or proprietary), housing/shell design, latching mechanisms, cable strain relief, overmold geometry, and cable-to-substrate transition structures

Drive thermal management design for AEC modules — ensuring retimer silicon remains within thermal limits across all deployment environments within compact housings

Ensure AEC mechanical designs meet relevant form factor and pluggable interface specifications with full dimensional compliance

Optimize mechanical designs for high-volume manufacturing — considering overmolding processes, housing injection molding, automated assembly compatibility, and cable handling requirements

Manage bend radius, strain relief, and cable exit geometry to ensure mechanical reliability under repeated plugging cycles and cable routing stresses

Cable Interface & Assembly Design:**

Define cable-to-substrate attachment methodologies — including soldering, welding, crimping, or other termination approaches that maintain signal integrity and mechanical reliability at high speed

Collaborate with cable suppliers and contract manufacturers on cable construction specifications — conductor gauge, dielectric materials, shielding architectures, and cable bundle configurations optimized for AEC applications

Design for cable assembly manufacturability — ensuring termination processes, alignment tolerances, and quality inspection points are compatible with high-volume production at CM sites

SCM Hardware Design

Electrical & Module Design:**

Own the electrical design of Smart Cable Module products — integrating retimer/re-driver silicon with advanced management, diagnostic, and monitoring capabilities on module-level substrates

Design SCM circuits that support intelligent link management features — including CMIS-compliant register interfaces, temperature/voltage monitoring, link health diagnostics, and firmware-driven equalization tuning

Ensure SCM electrical designs accommodate the additional complexity of management interfaces (I2C/I3C, SPI, UART) alongside high-speed data paths without compromising signal integrity

Drive power management design for SCM products — including voltage regulation, power sequencing, power monitoring, and power reporting capabilities

Mechanical & Form Factor Design:**

Direct mechanical design for SCM products — ensuring compliance with target pluggable form factors while accommodating additional components for smart/managed functionality

Design enhanced thermal solutions for SCM modules where additional silicon increases power dissipation beyond baseline AEC products

Ensure SCM mechanical designs maintain backward compatibility with standard connector interfaces while enabling differentiated functionality

Smart/Managed Feature Integration:**

Collaborate with Firmware Engineering to ensure SCM hardware designs support all required management features — including adequate GPIO, communication interfaces, non-volatile storage, and sensor connectivity

Design hardware hooks for manufacturing calibration, field diagnostics, and firmware update capabilities

Ensure SCM designs enable differentiated customer value through hardware features that support link health monitoring, predictive maintenance, and fleet-level cable management

China Customer Engineering Support

Customer Design Enablement:**

Serve as the primary hardware engineering interface for China-based customers who are integrating Astera Labs silicon (retimers, re-drivers, connectivity ASICs) into their own products — including server/switch OEMs, AI system integrators, cable/module manufacturers, and hyperscale cloud providers

Provide expert-level design review support for customer hardware designs — reviewing schematics, PCB/flex layouts, stackups, power delivery networks, thermal solutions, and signal integrity for products incorporating Astera Labs silicon

Deliver hands-on technical engagement during customer design cycles — from initial architecture consultation through prototype bring-up, debug, and production readiness

Develop China-specific reference design packages, application notes, and design guides — supplementing global collateral with region-specific considerations (local component availability, CM process capabilities, customer platform requirements)

Conduct design training workshops and technical seminars for customer engineering teams adopting Astera Labs silicon

Customer Integration & Debug Support:**

Support customer hardware bring-up, debug, and troubleshooting when integration challenges arise with Astera Labs silicon or AEC/SCM products — providing rapid, same-timezone technical response

Coordinate with internal teams (silicon, firmware, SI, validation) to provide root-cause analysis and corrective guidance for customer-reported issues

Support customer interoperability testing — helping customers validate Astera Labs AEC/SCM products or silicon within their specific platform configurations

Travel to customer sites across China to provide on-site design review, bring-up support, debug assistance, and integration guidance for critical programs

Maintain customer issue tracking, resolution timelines, and escalation processes — ensuring timely and high-quality support

Customer Product Deployment Support:**

Support China-based hyperscale customers deploying Astera Labs AEC/SCM products in production AI infrastructure — providing technical guidance on cable routing, thermal considerations, interoperability, and link optimization

Assist customers with AEC/SCM product qualification activities within their platforms — providing characterization data, reliability reports, and integration documentation

Help customers resolve field issues encountered during deployment scaling — coordinating with product engineering and manufacturing teams for rapid corrective action

Provide technical training for customer operations and deployment teams on AEC/SCM product handling, installation best practices, and link health monitoring

Customer Relationship & Ecosystem Development:**

Build deep, trust-based technical relationships with hardware engineering teams at key China-based customers — becoming their preferred and trusted technical partner for Astera Labs solutions

Partner with Sales, FAE, and Product Management teams to identify high-value customer engagements and prioritize hardware engineering support resources in China

Participate in customer roadmap discussions — providing hardware engineering perspective on future product requirements, platform evolution, and technology migration paths

Capture customer design challenges, feature requests, deployment feedback, and competitive intelligence — feeding these back into product roadmap, reference designs, and silicon requirements

Support joint development programs with strategic China-based partners — including co-designed products, custom form factors, and platform-specific optimizations

Engage with the China AI infrastructure ecosystem — attending industry events, building supplier relationships, and monitoring local market/technology trends that inform Astera Labs' strategy

Cable/Module Manufacturer Enablement:**

Support China-based cable and module manufacturers who are building AEC/SCM products using Astera Labs silicon under license or partnership agreements

Provide design guidance and technical support to manufacturing partners developing their own AEC/SCM product designs incorporating Astera Labs retimer silicon

Conduct design reviews and qualification support for partner-designed AEC/SCM products to ensure they meet Astera Labs' performance, quality, and interoperability standards

Build the Astera Labs ecosystem of qualified cable/module manufacturing partners in China

Design for Manufacturing (DFM) Excellence

Leverage Shanghai proximity to cable assembly and module CMs to drive manufacturing-aware design practices:

Conduct regular on-site DFM reviews with contract manufacturers during design phases — validating assembly sequence feasibility, process capability alignment, and test access provisions

Optimize designs for specific CM process capabilities — considering SMT placement accuracy, reflow profiles, flex handling constraints, overmolding tooling, and automated optical inspection coverage

Design AEC/SCM products with explicit consideration for yield-critical process steps — minimizing sensitivity to manufacturing variation while maintaining electrical/mechanical performance

Establish rapid prototyping workflows leveraging CM proximity — enabling fast-turn builds, early process learning, and iterative design refinement

Partner with Manufacturing Engineering and NPI teams to ensure smooth design-to-production transitions with minimal yield loss or production holds

Participate in CM process development activities — providing design expertise for new manufacturing technologies

Validation & Qualification

Define and execute hardware validation strategies for AEC and SCM products — covering:

Electrical performance: high-speed link testing (BER, eye diagrams, S-parameters), power delivery characterization, jitter/noise analysis

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