Platform Applications Engineer Intern (Tools Development Engineer - COSMOS Platform Software)

Location: Vancouver, B.C, Canada
Employment type: Internship/Co-op

About the role

At Astera Labs, we design cutting-edge connectivity solutions that power the world’s largest cloud service providers, server manufacturers, and networking OEMs.

As a Tools Development Engineer Co-op, you will help shape COSMOS, Astera Labs’ unified software platform for monitoring, managing, debugging, and validating connectivity products. You will build the tools that customers and engineers use to configure devices, collect telemetry, investigate issues, validate behavior, and improve developer productivity.

This role sits at the intersection of software, hardware, and systems engineering. You may contribute to intuitive desktop applications, command-line utilities, automation frameworks, SDK integrations, and supporting infrastructure. You will work with experienced engineers to solve complex problems that bridge applications, systems, and silicon.

If you enjoy building high-quality software, learning how hardware and software work together, and creating tools that make engineering workflows more effective, we’d love to hear from you.

What you’ll do

• Develop and improve software tools that support product configuration, monitoring, diagnostics, debugging, and validation.

• Contribute to command-line and desktop applications used to interact with Astera Labs products and platform software.

• Build automation and validation workflows that improve repeatability, coverage, and engineering efficiency.

• Work with APIs, SDKs, telemetry, logs, configuration data, and diagnostic information to help identify and resolve technical issues.

• Collaborate with software, firmware, hardware, systems, and validation engineers to understand requirements and investigate problems.

• Use Linux development environments, Git, debugging tools, and testing practices to deliver maintainable, reliable code.

• Participate in hands-on lab work with hardware and test equipment as needed to reproduce issues and validate solutions.

• Document technical decisions, usage instructions, test results, and lessons learned.

• Present the results of your co-op project and the reusable tools, improvements, or documentation you deliver.

Basic qualifications

• Pursuing or recently completed a bachelor’s or higher degree in Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Computer Science, or a related field.

• Programming experience in several of the following:

  • C#

  • C

  • C++

• Familiarity with Linux command-line tools, Git, debugging, testing, and modern object-oriented software development.

• Basic understanding of computer architecture and platform components, such as CPUs, GPUs, memory, storage, and PCIe devices.

• Ability to learn unfamiliar technical systems, troubleshoot methodically, and communicate technical findings clearly.

Preferred experience

• Experience with lab equipment such as oscilloscopes, protocol analyzers, or traffic generators.

• Basic understanding of desktop application technologies such as Avalonia, WPF, MAUI, WinUI, or Qt.

• Experience with test automation, validation frameworks, or internal engineering tools.

• Exposure to SDKs, APIs, command-line interfaces, device diagnostics, telemetry, or hardware/software integration.

• Familiarity with PCIe, CXL, high-speed connectivity, firmware, or platform management concepts.

• Experience delivering a software, hardware, systems, or automation project through coursework, research, personal projects, or prior co-op experience.

Equal opportunity

Astera Labs is an equal opportunity employer committed to fostering a diverse and inclusive workplace. We encourage anyone with relevant experience to apply.

Compensation and benefits

The applicable hourly pay range is $35 - $55 per hour. Final rate will be specified in the offer letter. Compensation and benefits for this Vancouver, Canada internship will be determined under applicable Canadian programs and specified in the offer letter.