Platform Solutions Engineer Intern (MechE)

<p class="p8i6j01 paragraph"></p> <h1>Platform Solutions Engineer Intern (CE)</h1> <p><strong>Location:</strong> Cary, North Carolina, United States</p> <h2>About the role</h2> <p>Astera Labs is seeking a Platform Solutions Engineer Intern to help translate customer, partner, and system requirements into practical computer-engineering platform solutions. You will work at the intersection of computer architecture, platform software, firmware, diagnostics, system validation, product applications, and ecosystem integration.</p> <p>You will gain hands-on experience understanding server and rack-scale architectures, integrating hardware and software, evaluating connectivity and management workflows, supporting platform demonstrations, and communicating technical recommendations. You will own a scoped project that produces a reusable analysis, diagnostic workflow, automation improvement, integration artifact, or technical presentation.</p> <h2>What you will do</h2> <ul> <li>Study server, AI infrastructure, and rack-scale architectures, including CPU, GPU, memory, storage, networking, accelerators, and the connectivity paths between them.</li> <li>Translate customer, partner, product, and system requirements into platform assumptions, architecture diagrams, interface requirements, configuration options, and technical questions.</li> <li>Analyze how hardware, firmware, SDKs, command-line tools, management interfaces, and platform integrations work together to deliver a usable system solution.</li> <li>Support device discovery, initialization, configuration, firmware updates, link management, telemetry collection, error reporting, event logging, and diagnostic workflows.</li> <li>Work with connectivity technologies such as PCIe, CXL, Ethernet, and related high-speed interconnects; help analyze link state, health, performance, and recovery behavior.</li> <li>Support platform reference designs, application block diagrams, evaluation kits, proof-of-concept builds, interoperability activities, and technical readiness reviews.</li> <li>Develop or improve Python, C/C++, shell, SDK, CLI, spreadsheet, or other automation for configuration checks, test execution, data collection, log parsing, result reporting, or technical analysis.</li> <li>Collect and analyze firmware logs, telemetry, performance counters, error events, link traces, protocol data, and system behavior to support root-cause investigations.</li> <li>Help reproduce system issues, document expected and observed behavior, track action items, and coordinate technical follow-up across engineering teams and ecosystem partners.</li> <li>Prepare concise technical summaries, comparison tables, presentations, diagrams, FAQs, integration guides, and other materials that make complex platform behavior easier to understand.</li> <li>Maintain structured trackers for supported configurations, validation status, software and firmware versions, open issues, and upcoming milestones.</li> <li>Collaborate with Product & Platform, Hardware Engineering, Firmware, Platform Software, System Validation, Sales Engineering, Marketing, Business Development, and ecosystem partners to turn technical findings into actionable recommendations.</li> <li>Document the completed project, analysis, methodology, results, and recommendations; present the outcome to engineering and cross-functional stakeholders.</li> </ul> <h2>What you bring</h2> <ul> <li>Enrollment in a bachelor’s, master’s, or Ph.D. program in computer engineering, electrical engineering, computer science, or a related field.</li> <li>Coursework, research, or project experience in computer architecture, operating systems, embedded software, networking, digital hardware, systems, or hardware/software integration.</li> <li>Foundational understanding of processors, memory, I/O, operating systems, firmware, device drivers, or high-speed interfaces.</li> <li>Programming, scripting, data analysis, or automation experience with Python, C, C++, shell, spreadsheets, or a comparable toolset.</li> <li>Familiarity with Linux development environments, Git, command-line tools, APIs, debugging, and technical documentation.</li> <li>Ability to learn complex technical systems, organize ambiguous requirements, analyze tradeoffs, and communicate practical recommendations.</li> <li>Strong written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to explain technical concepts to engineering, product, and business audiences.</li> <li>Strong ownership, curiosity, practical judgment, and willingness to collaborate across functions.</li> </ul> <h2>Preferred qualifications</h2> <ul> <li>Familiarity with PCIe, CXL, Ethernet, SerDes, UALink, NVLink, or other high-speed connectivity technologies and standards.</li> <li>Experience with firmware, SDKs, CLIs, device diagnostics, hardware bring-up, lab validation, interoperability testing, or platform debug.</li> <li>Familiarity with telemetry, link monitoring, error injection, performance counters, event logs, RAS, secure boot, firmware updates, or recovery workflows.</li> <li>Exposure to OpenBMC, Redfish, PLDM, gNMI, cloud-native APIs, Kubernetes, or other platform-management and integration technologies.</li> <li>Experience building dashboards, comparison frameworks, configuration trackers, data analyses, or technical presentations.</li> <li>Familiarity with CPU, GPU, memory, storage, networking, rack-scale, or AI infrastructure architectures and their system-level performance considerations.</li> </ul> <h2>Internship experience and compensation</h2> <p>This is a paid, hourly U.S. internship. The applicable hourly rate is determined as part of the offer process and specified in the offer letter, depending on education level ranges from $35/hour to $55/hour. U.S. interns currently receive a $500-per-week housing/relocation stipend for the duration of the internship. Interns participate in Early Career programming, including technical and professional-development sessions, community events, and an end-of-program project presentation.</p> <h2>Equal opportunity</h2> <p>Astera Labs is an equal opportunity employer committed to fostering a diverse and inclusive workplace. We encourage anyone with relevant experience to apply.</p>