Senior Principal Engineer, Offensive Security (2026-345)Location: San Jose, CA
Role OverviewAstera Labs is building the connectivity fabric powering rack-scale AI, and securing that fabric is mission-critical. As Senior Principal Engineer, Offensive Security, you'll be our most senior technical authority on adversarial testing - proactively finding, exploiting, and helping remediate weaknesses across our silicon, firmware, systems, cloud, and corporate environments before adversaries can.
This is a hands-on, deeply technical role for a proven offensive security leader who wants outsized impact at a hyper-growth semiconductor company enabling the world's largest AI clusters. You'll set the technical direction for red teaming, penetration testing, and offensive research, partner closely with product and IT security teams, and help harden the platforms that hyperscalers rely on.
Key Responsibilities- Offensive Security Strategy & Execution
- Define and lead Astera Labs' offensive security strategy across hardware, firmware, software, cloud, and enterprise IT
- Plan and execute red team, penetration testing, and adversary emulation engagements against production and pre-production assets
- Establish scope, rules of engagement, and success metrics for offensive programs in partnership with security leadership
- Technical Depth & Research
- Conduct advanced vulnerability research and exploit development across hardware/firmware, embedded systems, and cloud/SaaS environments
- Drive threat modeling, attack surface analysis, and adversary simulation aligned to real-world threat actors (e.g., MITRE ATT&CK)
- Prototype tooling and automation to scale offensive testing and continuous validation of controls
- Partnership & Remediation
- Partner with product security, engineering, IT, and GRC teams to prioritize findings, drive remediation, and validate fixes
- Communicate complex technical risk clearly to engineering leaders and executives, translating exploits into actionable business impact
- Contribute to secure-by-design reviews, threat models, and architecture guidance for new products and platforms
- Leadership & Culture
- Mentor security engineers and elevate offensive security capability across the organization
- Represent Astera Labs' security posture with customers, partners, and (as appropriate) the broader research community
- Champion a builder mindset that pairs rigorous adversarial testing with pragmatic, engineering-friendly remediation
Basic Qualifications- Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, or a related technical field
- 12+ years of experience in offensive security, including red teaming, penetration testing, and/or vulnerability research
- Demonstrated expertise in at least two of the following domains: hardware/firmware security, embedded systems, cloud (Azure preferred) and SaaS security, network and application penetration testing, or Active Directory / Microsoft enterprise environments
- Proficiency with offensive tooling and exploit development in languages such as Python, C/C++, and assembly
- Deep understanding of modern attacker tradecraft, TTPs, and frameworks such as MITRE ATT&CK
- Proven track record of driving remediation and measurable security improvements in partnership with engineering teams
Preferred Qualifications- Advanced degree (MS or PhD) in a security-related discipline
- Industry certifications such as OSCP, OSEP, OSED, GXPN, GPEN, or equivalent demonstrated experience
- Experience in the semiconductor, hardware, or hyperscale infrastructure industry, including exposure to PCIe, CXL, or high-speed connectivity technologies
- Published research, CVEs, conference talks (Black Hat, DEF CON, etc.), or notable open-source contributions
- Familiarity with secure development lifecycle, threat modeling methodologies, and product security programs
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.
