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Principal Emulation Engineer

Astera Labs

Responsibilities

  • partner closely with design, verification, firmware, and systems engineers to model hardware-software interactions, exercise high-speed protocols, and isolate issues across RTL, transactors, test environments, and code. Your hands-on leadership will turn difficult debug problems into actionable fixes and improve confidence in each product milestone.
  • Astera Labs is accelerating the infrastructure behind AI by delivering purpose-built connectivity solutions for rack-scale systems. In this role,
  • help
  • validate
  • the switching, PCIe, Ethernet, memory, and storage interfaces that
  • connect
  • the
  • fabric—enabling faster bring-up, stronger interoperability, and more reliable platforms as the company scales.
  • Emulation and Prototyping
  • Architect, build, and

maintain

  • emulation environments for complex ASICs and SoCs.
  • Integrate RTL, transactors, protocol models, software, and test infrastructure to enable meaningful

hardware-software

  • co-simulation.
  • Enable verification teams to stress-test designs with scalable, repeatable emulation workflows.
  • Develop reusable models, utilities, and debug methodologies that accelerate pre-silicon validation.
  • Protocol and SoC Verification
  • Verify

hardware-software

  • interfaces and system behaviors in partnership with logic designers, firmware engineers, and verification teams.
  • NVMe, SPI, I2C/I3C, and similar interfaces.
  • Analyze protocol behavior, functional coverage, performance, and corner cases across complex
  • server
  • Translate system requirements into practical emulation scenarios, tests, checkers, and measurable verification goals.
  • Debug and Technical Leadership
  • Debug design, environment, transactor, software, and test-code issues across the emulation stack.

Identify

  • software and hardware co-simulation limitations and apply effective isolation and debug techniques.
  • Partner with cross-functional teams to prioritize a dynamic workload, resolve issues quickly, and drive risks to closure.
  • Provide technical leadership, communicate clearly, and
  • operate

Preferred

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

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

Principal Emulation Engineer — San Jose, CA

Role Overview

As a Principal Emulation Engineer, you will build and operate emulation environments that let verification teams stress-test complex ASICs before silicon.

you’ll

compute

Key Responsibilities

  • Exercise and debug PCI Express Gen 3 and above, Ethernet, DDR,
  • , storage, and networking systems.
  • effectively with minimal guidance and supervision.

Basic Qualifications

  • Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Computer Science, or a related technical field.
  • 8–12 years of experience supporting or developing complex SoC or silicon products for server, storage, or networking applications.
  • Experience working with logic designers to architect, specify, and verify hardware-software interfaces on complex SoCs.
  • Working knowledge of PCI Express Gen 3 or later, CXL,
  • UALink, Ethernet, DDR,
  • NVMe, SPI, I2C/I3C, or similar communication protocols.

High proficiency in

  • SystemVerilog and hardware verification environments.
  • Experience understanding software and hardware co-simulation limitations and applying effective debug methods.
  • Programming and scripting experience in Python, Perl, C, or similar languages.
  • Professional, entrepreneurial, and open-minded approach with a can-do attitude, strong prioritization skills, and a customer-focused mindset.
  • Authorized to work in the United States and available to start immediately

Preferred Qualifications

  • a related technical field.
  • Hands-on experience with Palladium, Zebu, Veloce,

Every job at Astera Labs