# Optical FW/SW Engineer – Tech Lead at Astera Labs

- Company: Astera Labs
- What the company does: Astera Labs: Purpose-Built Connectivity for Rack-Scale AI.
- Company website: https://www.asteralabs.com
- Type: Startups
- Level: Senior
- Location: San Jose, California, United States
- Work setup: On-site
- Pay: $160K to $200K base salary per year (USD)
- Posted: 2026-08-21
- Apply by: 2026-10-12
- Apply: https://job-boards.greenhouse.io/asteralabs/jobs/4724132005
- Page: https://www.1752.vc/careers/jobs/astera-labs-optical-fw-sw-engineer-tech-lead/

## About the role

We are looking for an Optical FW/SW Engineer, Tech Lead for design, development, and validation of embedded firmware and supporting software for Astera Labs’ next-generation optical products. You will build software for optical engines, optical modules, and emerging near-packaged optics (NPO) and co-packaged optics (CPO) solutions, spanning real-time control, calibration, telemetry, diagnostics, and high-speed link optimization.

## What they're looking for

- Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Computer Science, Physics, or a related technical field
- 5–8 years of experience developing embedded firmware or software for optical, photonics, communications, semiconductor, or other high-reliability products
- Strong programming skills in C and Python, with experience developing software for microcontroller platforms
- Experience with RTOS-based embedded development, embedded programming methods, hardware interfaces, and low-level device control
- Proven experience with unit testing, version control, debugging, and hardware bring-up
- Ability to analyze and resolve complex problems across firmware, hardware, optical control algorithms, and system-level behavior

Tags: Signal Connectivity Group