Tech Lead Optical Test Engineer

About the role

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.

Job Summary

We are seeking a motivated and hands-on Tech Lead – Optical Test Engineer to contribute to the development and deployment of optical test solutions for silicon photonics devices and optical modules. This role will support definition of test methodologies, drive key portions of test development, and lead technical efforts within a broader test organization.

The ideal candidate has solid experience in optical testing, strong problem-solving skills, and the ability to collaborate across teams to enable efficient characterization, validation, and production testing.

Key Responsibilities

- Define and implement optical test architectures and test flows across optical wafer probe test, package level test & characterization and optical module validation.

- Execute characterization and qualification testing of CPO components and assemblies.

- Perform high-speed optical measurements including insertion loss, return loss, extinction ratio, eye diagram analysis, BER testing, and optical modulation amplitude (OMA).

- Characterize optical performance parameters such as wavelength accuracy, channel spacing, spectral linearity, and crosstalk for WDM-based CPO architectures.

- Design and build optical test stations incorporating fiber alignment systems, optical switches, tunable lasers, optical spectrum analyzers, high-speed oscilloscopes, and BER testers.

- Develop test automation software, automated test scripts & frameworks using Python, LabVIEW, MATLAB, or similar platforms.

- Implement high-throughput test solutions suitable for wafer-scale and production-level testing.

- Analyze large-scale optical test data to identify trends, failure modes, and yield-limiting factors.

- Generate statistical reports (Cpk, GR&R, SPC) to monitor process stability and test repeatability.

- Collaborate with design and process engineering teams to provide feedback for performance optimization.

- Create and maintain test documentation, SOPs, and knowledge base articles.

- Interface with external suppliers and foundries on silicon photonics wafer-level test requirements.

- Participate in design reviews to ensure testability and provide DFT (Design for Test) recommendations.