Astera Labs
Technology
Director,HardwareDesignEngineering—AEC/SCM&ChinaCustomerSupport
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“Director, Hardware Design Engineering — AEC / SCM & China Customer Support at Astera Labs. Skills: Hardware Design Engineering, AEC/SCM Product Design, China Customer Support, High-speed interconnects. Establish Shanghai hardware design center. Lead Shanghai hardware design center”
What You'll Achieve.
Drive product design excellence; Serve as trusted technical partner; Deliver AEC/SCM product design; Achieve design success with customers
Industry & Context.
Failure analysis
Based in Shanghai, Travel to customer sites, Travel to CM facilities, Travel to US/Taiwan offices
What They're Looking For.
Must Have
Native or fluent Mandarin Chinese, Professional proficiency in English, Based in Shanghai, Willingness to travel to customer sites and CM facilities across China (30-40%), Willingness to travel to US/Taiwan offices periodically
Nice to Have
Master's or Ph. D. in Electrical Engineering, Direct experience designing Active Electrical Cables (AEC), Direct experience designing Smart Cable Modules, Experience designing products at 224G/lane, Experience with optical transceiver module design, Familiarity with relevant form factor specifications, Experience with relevant signal integrity standards, Track record of successful customer engineering support in China, Established relationships with China-based hyperscale customers, Established relationships with China server/switch OEMs, Track record delivering cable/module products to hyperscale customers, Experience at a leading active cable company, Experience at a leading optical transceiver company, Experience at a leading high-speed interconnect company, Background in retimer/re-driver ASIC integration, Experience with flex circuit design tools, Experience with rigid-flex PCB technologies, Knowledge of cable construction engineering, Experience establishing and scaling engineering operations in China, Familiarity with EDA tools, Understanding of China-specific regulatory requirements, Understanding of China-specific compliance requirements, Understanding of China-specific procurement requirements
What You'll Do.
Establish Shanghai hardware design center
Lead Shanghai hardware design center
Recruit multidisciplinary engineering team
Hire multidisciplinary engineering team
Develop multidisciplinary engineering team
Define organizational structure
Define hiring roadmap
Define operating model
Establish lab infrastructure
Support AEC/SCM prototype bring-up
Support AEC/SCM characterization
Support AEC/SCM validation
Support AEC/SCM failure analysis
Support customer demonstration
Support interoperability testing
Drive engineering culture
Emphasize design rigor
Emphasize manufacturing awareness
Emphasize customer responsiveness
Emphasize collaboration with headquarters
Serve as senior engineering leader in China
Represent company with customers
Represent company with manufacturing partners
Represent company with suppliers
Represent company with industry stakeholders
Own electrical design of Active Electrical Cable products
Integrate retimers on flex circuits
Integrate retimers on rigid-flex substrates
Route high-speed differential pairs
Design power delivery
Place passive components
Design high-speed interconnect substrates
Design high-speed interconnect flex circuits
Achieve target insertion loss
Achieve target return loss
Achieve target crosstalk
Achieve target impedance control
Drive power delivery network design
Ensure clean power to retimer silicon
Define AEC-specific design rules
Enforce AEC-specific design rules
How You'll Work.
Team & Collaboration
Global engineering organization; Santa Clara headquarters; Taiwan design center; China-based cable assembly manufacturers; China-based module contract manufacturers; China-based customers; Hyperscale cloud providers; Server/switch OEMs; AI system integrators; Cable/module manufacturers; Manufacturing partners; Suppliers; Industry stakeholders
Communication Scope
Customer engagement; Team leadership; Ecosystem development; Global communication; Cross-site collaboration; Documentation
Process & Methodology
Product design execution, Hiring roadmap, Operating model definition
Full Job Description
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 owne
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