Digital Design Engineering Intern

About the role

Astera Labs is seeking a Digital Design Intern to contribute to the development of ASIC and digital hardware blocks. You will gain hands-on experience with RTL implementation, design-quality checks, simulation and elaboration, clock-domain crossing analysis, synthesis, and the collaboration required to move a design from specification toward verification and physical-design handoff.

You will work on a scoped digital-design project with guidance from experienced engineers. Your work will combine learning the design methodology with making practical contributions to readable, reusable, and verifiable RTL.

What you will do

• Learn the project RTL structure, coding methodology, build flow, design tools, and review process.
• Implement, modify, and review synthesizable Verilog or SystemVerilog RTL for digital logic blocks and interfaces.
• Translate block requirements into clear module structure, state machines, datapaths, control logic, registers, and interfaces.
• Generate or update RTL, filelists, register-related collateral, and configuration files using the project flow.
• Create or improve directed simulations, simple testbenches, assertions, and checks to exercise block functionality and corner cases.
• Run compile and elaboration, lint, clock-domain crossing, and synthesis flows; inspect reports and summarize issues.
• Analyze CDC crossings involving synchronizers, handshakes, asynchronous FIFOs, resets, clocks, and quasi-static signals.
• Debug RTL, tool warnings, constraint issues, and simulation mismatches with support from design and verification mentors.
• Apply coding guidelines, naming conventions, hierarchy rules, reset practices, and reusable design-IP conventions during implementation and review.
• Collaborate with design verification, physical design, DFT, firmware, and systems engineers on interfaces, assumptions, debug visibility, and handoff readiness.
• Document design decisions, test results, open issues, and handoff information; present the completed project and lessons learned.

What you bring

• Enrollment in a bachelor's, master's, or Ph.D. program in electrical engineering, computer engineering, computer science, or a related field.
• Coursework, research, or project experience in digital logic, computer architecture, embedded systems, ASIC design, FPGA design, or hardware description languages.
• Programming or hardware-description-language experience with Verilog, SystemVerilog, VHDL, C, C++, Python, or a comparable language.
• Familiarity with digital design concepts such as flip-flops, finite-state machines, clocks, resets, datapaths, registers, timing, and interfaces.
• Familiarity with Linux development environments, Git, command-line tools, debugging, and technical documentation.
• Ability to reason carefully about requirements, waveforms, tool reports, and corner cases.
• Strong ownership, curiosity, practical judgment, and willingness to collaborate across engineering functions.

Preferred qualifications

• Experience writing synthesizable RTL, simulation testbenches, SystemVerilog assertions, or reusable design IP.
• Exposure to lint, CDC, synthesis, formal verification, timing, or other design-quality and signoff checks.
• Familiarity with tools such as VCS, SpyGlass, Design Compiler, PrimeTime, or comparable EDA tools.
• Understanding of clock-domain crossing patterns, including synchronizers, handshakes, asynchronous FIFOs, gray-coded pointers, and CDC constraints.
• Experience with CSR or register-map generation, parameterized modules, configuration variants, or debug and observability features.
• Experience reading waveforms and reports, triaging failures, and communicating a clear technical recommendation.

Pay and benefits

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.