Principal Technical Recruiter

Role Overview

Astera Labs is scaling at breakneck speed to power the next generation of rack-scale AI infrastructure, and our ability to hire exceptional silicon and hardware talent is what keeps us ahead. As a Principal Technical Recruiter, you will own full-cycle recruiting for highly specialized hardware and semiconductor roles, partnering directly with engineering leaders to build the teams designing purpose-built connectivity solutions for the world's most demanding AI workloads.

This is a high-impact, high-visibility role where every hire moves the business forward. You will act as a strategic talent advisor, bring deep market intelligence on the semiconductor landscape, and deliver a world-class candidate experience — all while helping shape how a hyper-growth company builds its most critical engineering teams.

Key Responsibilities

Full-Cycle Recruiting

• Lead end-to-end recruiting for hardware, silicon, and semiconductor roles across engineering functions.
• Source, engage, and close hard-to-find passive candidates in a highly competitive talent market.
• Manage the candidate pipeline with rigor, ensuring speed, quality, and an exceptional candidate experience at every stage.

Strategic Partnership

• Partner with hiring managers and engineering leaders to define role requirements, calibrate talent, and build tailored search strategies.
• Serve as a trusted talent advisor, bringing market insights on semiconductor and hardware hiring trends, compensation, and competitive intelligence.
• Influence hiring decisions with data, structured interviewing best practices, and a consultative approach.

Talent Strategy & Process Improvement

• Develop and execute proactive sourcing strategies to build talent pipelines for critical and niche silicon roles.
• Lead strategic workforce and hiring planning in partnership with leadership to anticipate future talent needs and align recruiting to business goals.
• Drive continuous process improvement, leveraging recruiting tools and analytics to increase efficiency, quality, and hiring outcomes.
• Author and maintain clear documentation, playbooks, interview guides, and process standards to scale recruiting best practices across teams.
• Champion inclusive hiring practices to attract and secure diverse, high-caliber technical talent.

Basic Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree or equivalent practical experience.
• 10+ years of full-cycle recruiting experience, with a strong track record of closing technical and engineering roles.
• Direct recruiting experience within the hardware, semiconductor, or broader silicon industry (or comparable experience recruiting for silicon-related technical fields).
• Demonstrated success sourcing and closing passive, hard-to-fill candidates in a competitive market.
• Strong partnership and consultative skills, with the ability to advise and influence senior engineering leaders.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience recruiting for analog, digital, firmware, verification, physical design, or system engineering roles.
• Deep understanding of the semiconductor and AI infrastructure talent landscape.
• Proficiency with applicant tracking systems and modern sourcing tools and analytics.
• Experience recruiting in a hyper-growth or fast-paced technology environment.
• Proven ability to lead strategic planning, process improvement initiatives, and author clear recruiting documentation and playbooks.
• Excellent communication skills and a passion for delivering an outstanding candidate experience.

Base salary range is $166,500 to $185,000 depending on experience, level, and business need. This role may be eligible for discretionary bonus, incentives and benefits.