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Optical Firmware Engineer, Principal

Astera Labs - San Jose, California, United States

Posted May 15, 2026

Benefits

Parental leave
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Non-birth-parent leave
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Family-building benefits
  • Fertility benefits: Not verified
  • Adoption assistance: Not verified
  • Surrogacy assistance: Not verified
Mental health support
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Relocation assistance
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Childcare support
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Learning budget
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Verification
Not verified checked Jun 7, 2026
Salary
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401(k) match
Reported from DOL Form 5500 industry filing (not employer-specific)

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Market context

U.S. role benchmark (BLS OEWS)
$116,543 U.S. median for this role
Projected growth (BLS Employment Projections)
+9.8% - Much faster than average

Matched to SOC 15-1252 - Software Engineering aggregate by role bucket.

Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, OEWS, May 2024 and Employment Projections, 2024-2034.

Role

Role function
Engineering From the posting source checked Jun 20, 2026
Seniority
Principal From the posting source checked Jun 20, 2026

Schedule

Shift type
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Weekend work
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Company

Company stage
Public-company From the posting source checked Jun 20, 2026
Equity
Offered Verified - SEC 10-K source checked Jun 20, 2026

Application

Cover letter
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Assessment
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Deadline
Not stated

Where they hire

State eligibility is not yet verified.

About this role

Optical Firmware Engineer, Principal San Jose, California, United States 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 . We are seeking to hire an Optical Firmware Engineer, Principal develop, optimize, and maintain embedded firmware for optical engines, photonic integrated circuits (PICs) optical modules. This includes control of lasers, modulators, photodetectors, thermal management, calibration, and high-speed link optimization in silicon photonics systems. The role sits at the intersection of embedded systems, photonics, and hardware. Key Responsibilities: - Design, develop, and debug real-time firmware for optical transceivers or PIC/EIC engines (e.g., in C/C++ for microcontrollers or embedded processors). - Implement algorithms for laser control, automatic power control (APC), temperature compensation, wavelength locking, and link training/adaptation. - Integrate firmware with hardware (DSP, drivers, ADCs/DACs) and higher-level software (e.g., via I2C, SPI, or custom interfaces). - Develop diagnostic, calibration, and telemetry features for manufacturing test, field monitoring, and reliability. - Optimize for low latency, power efficiency, and high reliability in high-speed (400G/800G/1.6T+) optical links. - Collaborate with optical, electrical, DSP,

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