Position Summary: Application Engineer - Active Cable ProductsLocation: Santa Clara, CAWe are seeking a highly skilled and customer-focused Application Engineer to support leading data center, AI networking, and high-performance computing customers in the qualification, deployment, and optimization of Amphenol active external cable and transceiver products. This role will focus on high-speed interconnect products including redriver-based Active Copper Cables and retimer-based Active Electrical Cables for 112G, 224G, 336G, and beyond.
The ideal candidate will have strong hands-on lab experience, solid understanding of high-speed active cable architectures, and the ability to work directly with customers to debug, optimize, and qualify products in system-level environments. This position will be based in the Silicon Valley area and will require customer visits, lab support, and close collaboration with internal engineering, product, validation, and sales teams.
RESPONSIBILITIES: - Customer Technical Support and Qualification
- Support end customers through product evaluation, qualification, bring-up, interoperability testing, and deployment of active cable products.
- Work closely with customers to understand system requirements, test conditions, qualification criteria, and technical issues.
- Visit customer sites as needed to provide hands-on debug, lab support, technical training, and issue resolution.
- Support customer qualification activities for ACC and AEC products across 112G, 224G, 336G, and future high-speed generations.
- Lab Debug and Product Optimization:
- Work in the lab to debug and optimize active cable performance, including link bring-up, BER, FEC, SNR, eye margin, link training, power, thermal, EEPROM, and CMIS-related issues.
- Use high-speed test equipment and system platforms to reproduce customer issues and support root-cause analysis.
- Help tune and optimize retimer/redriver-based cable products for customer-specific platforms and channel conditions.
- Analyze failures related to signal integrity, power integrity, firmware, management interface, interoperability, and system configuration.
- Interoperability and System-level Support:
- Support interoperability testing across customer systems including switches, NICs, servers, GPUs, AI platforms, and data center infrastructure.
- Work with internal teams to validate compatibility across different host platforms, firmware versions, system configurations, and link environments.
- Assist in identifying system-level issues that may involve host behavior, cable/module firmware, DSP configuration, link training, or management interface interaction.
- Interoperability experience with major switches, NIC, GPU, and server platforms is strongly preferred.
- Collaboration:
- Collaborate with signal integrity, hardware, firmware, validation, product management, sales, quality, and manufacturing teams to resolve customer issues.
- Provide clear technical summaries, debug reports, customer feedback, and recommended corrective actions.
- Support new product introduction by helping define customer qualification requirements and early field validation needs.
- Help improve application engineering processes, lab procedures, debug guides, and customer-facing technical documentation.
QUALIFICATIONS: - Education: Bachelor's or Master's degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, or a related field.
- Experience:
- 5+ years of experience in application engineering, field application engineering, validation, system debug, interoperability testing, or product engineering.
- Experience with high-speed interconnect products such as retimer/redriver-based cable assemblies.
- Hands-on experience supporting customer qualification or system-level validation for data center, networking, AI, or high-performance computing applications.
- Experience working directly with customers in technical debug, qualification, or field support situations.
- Technical Skills:
- Strong understanding of high-speed serial links, signal integrity, link training, equalization, BER, FEC, eye margin, SNR, and system-level link performance.
- Knowledge of retimer and redriver architectures and how they are used in active cable products.
- Familiarity with EEPROM, I2C, CMIS, module management interfaces, firmware logs, and cable/module configuration.
- Experience with Ethernet, PCIe, or other high-speed interface standards.
- Familiarity with lab equipment such as oscilloscopes, BERTs, VNAs, TDRs, protocol analyzers, power supplies, thermal chambers, and high-speed switch/server/NIC test platforms.
- Soft Skills:
- Strong analytical and problem-solving skills.
- Excellent communication and collaboration abilities.
- Ability to work in cross-functional and dynamic team environments.
- Preferred Qualifications:
- Experience with 112G PAM4, 224G PAM4, 336G, 448G, or next-generation high-speed interconnect technologies.
- Experience with AI fabric, GPU interconnect, switch/NIC interoperability, or hyperscale data center qualification.
- Familiarity with CMIS 5.x, optical module management, DSP tuning, and retimer firmware behavior.
- Experience supporting products through NPI, qualification, and customer deployment.
- Knowledge of active cable thermal, power, firmware, and manufacturing considerations.
- Experience developing debug procedures, application notes, customer training material, or qualification reports.
The base salary range for this position is $100,750 - $168,870 USD annually. In determining rate of pay, Amphenol considers a variety of nondiscriminatory factors, including but not limited to geographic location, relevant industry experience, qualifications, skills, and education. It would be rare for an individual to be hired at or near the top of the range for a given role. Base salary is one facet of Amphenol's total rewards package which includes participation in our comprehensive benefits program with medical, dental, and vision benefits effective day 1, vacation, sick leave, personal days, paid holidays, life insurance, short/long term disability, and matching 401K. Our Mechanical Application Development Engineers are also eligible to participate in an annual incentive bonus program.
