Senior Principal Engineer, Security Architect

Full Job Description

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.

Senior Principal Engineer, Security Architect (2026- 346)

Location: San Jose, CA

Role Overview

Astera Labs is building the connectivity backbone of the AI era, and the platforms we ship power the world's largest AI clusters. As Senior Principal Engineer, Security Architect, you'll be the most senior technical authority defining how security is designed into everything we build — from silicon and firmware to the cloud services, tools, and enterprise systems that support them.

This is a hands-on, deeply technical architect role for someone who wants to shape security at a hyper-growth semiconductor company enabling rack-scale AI infrastructure. You'll set architectural direction, drive threat modeling and secure-by-design reviews across product and IT, and partner with engineering, product security, GRC, and IT leadership to raise the security bar in a fast-moving environment.

Key Responsibilities

Security Architecture & Strategy

Define and own the end-to-end security architecture across product (silicon, firmware, systems) and enterprise (cloud, SaaS, IT) domains

Establish security reference architectures, design patterns, and standards that scale across teams and product lines

Partner with engineering and IT leaders to align architectural direction with business, product, and compliance priorities

Threat Modeling & Secure-by-Design

Lead threat modeling, attack surface analysis, and security design reviews for new products, features, and platforms

Drive secure development lifecycle (SDL) practices, including requirements, design, implementation, and validation gates

Evaluate cryptography, key management, secure boot, attestation, and supply chain integrity approaches for hardware and firmware

Enterprise & Cloud Architecture

Architect zero-trust, identity, network, and data protection controls across the Microsoft-centric enterprise (Azure, Entra, M365) and SaaS ecosystem

Guide secure design of build, CI/CD, developer, and EDA/tooling environments

Define standards for logging, telemetry, and detection engineering inputs in partnership with security operations

Partnership & Technical Leadership

Serve as a trusted advisor to engineering, product, IT, and GRC leadership on complex security trade-offs

Translate architectural direction into pragmatic, prioritized roadmaps and measurable outcomes

Mentor engineers and architects across the organization, elevating security capability company-wide

Basic Qualifications

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, or a related technical field

12+ years of progressive experience in security engineering and architecture across product and/or enterprise domains

Demonstrated expertise designing secure architectures spanning hardware/firmware, software, cloud, and enterprise IT

Deep knowledge of cryptography, identity and access management, network security, and modern threat models (e.g., MITRE ATT&CK)

Hands-on experience with cloud security architecture (Azure preferred) and Microsoft enterprise environments (Entra, M365, Active Directory)

Proven ability to influence engineering and executive stakeholders and drive complex, cross-functional security initiatives

Preferred Qualifications

Advanced degree (MS or PhD) in a security-related discipline

Industry certifications such as CISSP-ISSAP, SABSA, TOGAF, Azure Security Engineer/Architect, or equivalent demonstrated experience

Experience in the semiconductor, hardware, or hyperscale infrastructure industry, including familiarity with PCIe, CXL, or high-speed connectivity technologies

Experience with secure boot, hardware root of trust, attestation, confidential computing, and supply chain security

Familiarity with regulatory and industry frameworks such as SOC 2, ISO 27001, NIST, and data privacy regulations

Salary range is $190,000 to $240,000 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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