Platform Solutions Thermal Engineer NCG

Platform Solutions Thermal Engineer

About Astera Labs

The Role and Its Impact

What You’ll Do

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor’s or master’s degree in Mechanical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, Chemical Engineering, or a related thermal, mechanical, or energy discipline.
• Coursework, project, research, or laboratory experience in heat transfer, thermodynamics, fluid mechanics, thermal management, or related engineering fundamentals.
• Working knowledge of structured problem solving, measurement, data analysis, and technical documentation.
• Ability to interpret system requirements, mechanical or electrical drawings, specifications, test results, and thermal data.
• Experience with Python, MATLAB, or another scripting language for automation, analysis, or engineering workflows.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to explain technical findings and tradeoffs clearly.
• Collaborative mindset, learning agility, ownership, and the ability to execute effectively in a cross-functional environment.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with thermal modeling, computational fluid dynamics, finite-element analysis, or other engineering simulation methods.
• Hands-on experience with temperature sensors, thermocouples, data-acquisition systems, thermal chambers, infrared imaging, airflow measurement, or similar laboratory equipment.
• Familiarity with heat sinks, cold plates, heat pipes, thermal interface materials, fans, airflow management, or other cooling technologies.
• Experience correlating simulation or analytical predictions with hardware measurements and updating models based on test data.
• Exposure to high-speed connectivity, semiconductor devices, retimers, switches, NICs, servers, or AI-infrastructure platforms.
• Experience building automated test flows, analyzing large data sets, or improving laboratory and validation processes.
• Prior internship, co-op, capstone, research, or project experience involving thermal, mechanical, semiconductor, networking, computing, or data-center systems.
• Compensation
• The base salary range for North Carolina NCG roles is $130,000–$150,000. Compensation details will be provided as part of the offer process and determined in accordance with applicable company guidelines.
• Equal Opportunity
• Astera Labs is committed to equal employment opportunity and to building an inclusive workplace. Employment decisions are based on qualifications, skills, experience, and business needs.

Compensation

Equal Opportunity

Responsibilities

• Analyze thermal performance of connectivity products and platform-level systems across representative operating conditions and use cases.
• Apply fundamentals of heat transfer, thermodynamics, fluid mechanics, and thermal management to identify risks and opportunities for improvement.
• Develop and execute thermal characterization and validation plans, including test setups, instrumentation, data collection, and repeatable procedures.
• Correlate analytical or simulation results with laboratory measurements and use data to identify root causes and guide design decisions.
• Investigate thermal issues across the hardware and system boundary, including temperature limits, cooling constraints, airflow, heat spreading, and system integration factors.
• Partner with mechanical, electrical, silicon, firmware, system validation, applications, and ecosystem teams to resolve issues and deliver integrated solutions.
• Support platform bring-up, product integration, customer or partner evaluations, and technical debug activities.
• Develop scripts and test utilities—such as Python- or MATLAB-based automation—to improve data collection, analysis, repeatability, and engineering efficiency.
• Document test methods, assumptions, results, limitations, design tradeoffs, and recommendations in clear technical reports.
• Participate in design reviews, technical discussions, issue-tracking workflows, and cross-functional problem-solving activities.