Firmware Engineering Director/ Manager

About this role

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.

Job Overview

As a Firmware Engineering Director/ Manager, you will lead and scale firmware development efforts for Astera Labs’ SoC and systems products used in data-center and AI infrastructure. You will be responsible for technical direction, people leadership, and execution across core firmware, bare-metal software, and device driver development.

Firmware is a first-class differentiator at Astera Labs. In this role, you will build, mentor, and guide high-performing firmware teams while partnering closely with hardware, silicon architecture, validation, product, and customers to ensure successful delivery of complex firmware programs.

This role supports two leadership levels:

• Firmware Engineering Manager

• Firmware Engineering Director

Key Responsibilities

• Own the firmware execution strategy across one or more SoC or systems programs, ensuring alignment with product and silicon roadmaps.

• Lead and manage firmware teams responsible for bare-metal firmware, RTOS-based firmware, and device drivers.

• Provide technical oversight and architectural guidance without being the primary implementer.

• Partner closely with hardware architecture, RTL design, validation, and systems teams to define HW/SW interfaces, development milestones, and integration plans.

• Drive SoC bring-up readiness, firmware validation strategy, and risk mitigation across pre-silicon and post-silicon phases.

• Establish development processes, coding standards, and quality metrics to ensure predictable and scalable execution.

• Support customer engagements as needed, including escalation handling, technical reviews, and roadmap alignment.

• Communicate status, risks, and tradeoffs clearly to executive leadership and cross-functional stakeholders.

• Director scope: own multi-team delivery, long-term roadmap planning, hiring strategy, and cross-org alignment across multiple product lines.

Firmware Domains Under Management

Teams under this role may span one or more of the following areas:

• PCIe Firmware: PCIe switch and controller firmware (Gen3+), including link training, enumeration, error handling, and performance optimization.

• Ethernet Firmware: Embedded firmware for high-speed Ethernet systems (100G–400G+), including PHY/MAC interaction and link bring-up.

• UCIe / Chiplet Firmware: Firmware for chiplet-based SoC architectures, including die-to-die interconnect initialization and advanced packaging enablement.

Required Experience

• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, or Computer Science.

• 10+ years of experience developing or supporting firmware for SoC, silicon, or systems products in compute, networking, or storage domains.

• 5+ years of experience in a people-management role, leading firmware or low-level software teams.

• Strong understanding of bare-metal firmware, RTOS environments, and firmware development lifecycles.

• Experience managing teams working on complex SoCs and high-speed interfaces such as PCIe, Ethernet, DDR, NVMe, or similar.

• Proven ability to lead execution across ambiguous, fast-moving environments with multiple stakeholders.

• Strong communication skills, executive presence, and customer-facing professionalism.

• Authorization to work in the U.S.

Preferred Experience

• Prior experience managing firmware teams delivering PCIe or Ethernet switch products.

• Experience with UCIe, chiplet architectures, or advanced packaging ecosystems.

• Track record of scaling teams through hiring, onboarding, and mentorship.

• Experience working with or supporting customers during bring-up, deployment, or escalations.

• Participation in…