Senior Principal Engineer - FW/SW Development

The role

You will architect and develop firmware and software for AI infrastructure connectivity solutions. This role involves working from low-level embedded firmware to higher-level software tools and frameworks.

What you will do

• Architect and develop production-quality embedded firmware for connectivity ASICs
• Design and implement host-side software, drivers, and SDK components
• Define firmware/software architecture strategies
• Partner with ASIC design and verification teams to define hardware-firmware interfaces
• Drive technical decisions for firmware, diagnostic tools, manufacturing software, and customer-facing utilities
• Collaborate with applications and field engineering teams to resolve system-level issues
• Establish and evolve firmware/software development processes, coding standards, and CI/CD practices
• Lead design and code reviews
• Mentor and guide engineers across multiple teams
• Evaluate emerging technologies and contribute to product roadmap discussions

Required qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, or a related field
• 12+ years of experience in firmware and/or software development for semiconductor or systems companies
• Strong proficiency in C and C++ for embedded and systems-level programming
• Experience developing firmware for ARM-based SoCs or custom ASIC platforms
• Deep understanding of hardware-software interfaces, register programming, and low-level debug techniques
• Experience with high-speed interconnect protocols such as PCIe, CXL, or Ethernet at the firmware/driver level

Nice to have

• Master's degree in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, or related field
• Experience with RTOS-based and bare-metal firmware development environments
• Proficiency in Python for automation, tooling, and test development
• Familiarity with Linux kernel development, device drivers, or platform firmware (UEFI/BIOS)
• Track record of leading firmware/software efforts from architecture through production across multiple product generations
• Experience in the data center, AI/ML infrastructure, or high-performance computing domains

Benefits

• Discretionary bonus
• Incentives
• Benefits

About the company

Astera Labs provides rack-scale AI infrastructure through purpose-built connectivity solutions. The company's Intelligent Connectivity Platform integrates semiconductor-based technologies with the COSMOS software suite.