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Semiconductor, AI Infrastructure, Cloud Computing, Hardware

Director, Product Line Management - Custom Silicon

San Jose, CAOnsiteFull TimePrincipal$195,000–$250,000 /yrPosted 2 months agoVisa sponsorship available

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Required skills

  • custom silicon
  • hyperscalers
  • AI infrastructure
  • semiconductor
  • Ethernet
  • 800G
  • PCIe
  • PAM4
  • SerDes
  • DSPs

Nice to have

  • high-performance computing
  • custom ASIC development
  • customer-specific silicon
  • embedded software
  • FPGA validation
  • networking

Role summary

Astera Labs is seeking a Principal Product Applications Engineer to act as a technical liaison between customers and their engineering teams, focusing on custom silicon programs. This customer-facing role involves supporting hyperscalers and AI infrastructure providers from architecture through production. Responsibilities include leading debug efforts, translating customer requirements into engineering specifications, and influencing future product development. The ideal candidate will have a BS/MS in a technical discipline, 10+ years of relevant experience, strong knowledge of high-speed interconnect technologies, and proficiency in Python or C/C++ for automation. Experience with AI infrastructure platforms and custom ASIC development is preferred.

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.

About the Role

Astera Labs is seeking an experienced Director, Product Line Management - Custom Silicon to lead strategic customer engagements for our growing Custom Solutions business. This is a senior individual contributor role, equivalent in scope to a Director-level position, with no direct people management responsibility.

This is not a traditional product management role focused on a single merchant product line. You will serve as the business and technical leader for custom silicon opportunities—partnering directly with hyperscalers, AI labs, and emerging AI infrastructure companies to understand their architectures, identify opportunities, define engagement and commercial models, and guide programs from concept through production.

What You’ll Do

  • Own product and business strategy for Astera Labs’ Custom Solutions portfolio.
  • Build trusted relationships with hyperscalers, AI infrastructure providers, AI labs, and other strategic customers.
  • Understand customer architectures and translate technical and business requirements into differentiated custom silicon solutions.
  • Define solution roadmaps, product strategies, and customer engagement models for custom silicon programs.
  • Lead customer roadmap discussions, executive business reviews, and technical strategy sessions.
  • Partner with Architecture, ASIC Design, Firmware, Software, Validation, Product Applications, Sales, Marketing, and Operations to execute customer programs.
  • Develop business cases, commercial frameworks, pricing strategies, and lifecycle plans for custom engagements.
  • Drive competitive analysis, market intelligence, and positioning across the custom silicon landscape.
  • Create customer-facing materials, including solution briefs, white papers, executive presentations, and technical messaging.
  • Identify and cultivate new opportunities that expand Astera Labs’ presence across hyperscale, AI, and cloud infrastructure customers.
  • Influence cross-functional execution from initial opportunity assessment through production ramp, without direct people-management responsibility.

    • What Success Looks Like in the First Year

  • Secure multiple custom silicon design wins.
  • Build a strong pipeline of qualified strategic customer opportunities.
  • Expand Astera Labs’ footprint with hyperscalers, AI companies, and emerging infrastructure providers.
  • Establish durable customer relationships that create opportunities for repeat business.
  • Leverage Astera Labs’ existing silicon IP and platform capabilities to win increasingly complex custom programs.

    • Required Qualifications

  • BS or MS in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Computer Science, or a related technical discipline.
  • 12+ years of experience in semiconductor product management, product line management, technical marketing, applications engineering, business development, or a similar customer-facing technical leadership role.
  • Experience leading custom silicon or advanced semiconductor products from concept through production.
  • Strong understanding of semiconductor architectures and AI infrastructure, networking, compute, storage, or memory technologies.
  • Experience working directly with hyperscalers, AI companies, cloud service providers, or major system OEMs.
  • Demonstrated success developing custom silicon opportunities and securing semiconductor design wins.
  • Strong understanding of competitive positioning, market analysis, product strategy, and commercial models.
  • Exceptional communication, executive presentation, and customer-engagement skills.
  • Demonstrated ability to influence technical and commercial stakeholders across functions without direct reporting authority.

    • Preferred Qualifications

  • Experience with custom ASICs, AI accelerators, networking silicon, storage silicon, memory silicon, SmartNICs, DPUs, XPUs, or other custom infrastructure silicon.
  • Knowledge of chiplet architectures, HBM, advanced packaging, heterogeneous computing, and high-performance semiconductor design.
  • Experience developing customer-facing technical collateral and strategic messaging.
  • Experience developing commercial structures, pricing strategies, and business cases for semiconductor programs.
  • MBA or advanced engineering degree.

    • Salary range is $195,000 to $250,000 depending on experience, level, and business need. This role may be eligible for discretionary bonus, incentives, and benefits.

    We know that creativity and innovation happen more often when teams include diverse ideas, backgrounds, and experiences, and we actively encourage everyone with relevant experience to apply, including people of color, LGBTQ+ and non-binary people, veterans, parents, and individuals with disabilities.

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