Director of Business Acceleration

Role Overview

Astera Labs is seeking a highly experienced and commercially driven Director of Business Acceleration to accelerate customer engagement, revenue growth, and strategic business execution across our product portfolio.

This high-visibility individual contributor role operates at the intersection of sales, engineering, product management, operations, and customer engagement. The Director will work closely with hyperscalers, AI platform providers, and strategic customers to drive strategic commercial engagements, lead high-visibility negotiations, structure complex commercial agreements, and convert opportunities into long-term agreements and business relationships.

The ideal candidate combines deep contracting and negotiation experience, strong customer-facing leadership, commercial acumen, semiconductor industry expertise, and a strong understanding of cloud and AI infrastructure ecosystems. Success in this role requires the ability to influence complex customer engagements, navigate cross-functional decision-making processes, and lead critical negotiations and long-term customer agreements that advance Astera Labs' strategic objectives.

This position is based in San Jose, California and requires regular in-person collaboration and customer travel.

Key Responsibilities

• Partner closely with sales teams and strategic customers to advance opportunities from early engagement through commercial alignment, negotiations, long-term agreements, contracts, and purchase orders.
• Lead customer engagement strategies and support complex commercial discussions involving business terms, commitments, partnership structures, and long-term collaboration frameworks.
• Develop customer and market insights that help shape engagement strategies, competitive positioning, and revenue growth initiatives.
• Collaborate with Product Management and business leaders to ensure customer engagements align with broader product and business objectives.
• Create customer segment, and regional playbooks that strengthen sales execution and improve win rates.
• Influence cross-functional teams to align around customer priorities, business goals, and operational execution.
• Drive process improvements that help scale the organization and support rapid business growth.
• Provide visibility and recommendations to executive leadership on key customer opportunities, strategic partnerships, and critical commercial decisions.
• Lead strategic customer deal pipelines from opportunity identification through commercial alignment, contract negotiation, long-term agreement structuring, and revenue conversion.
• Drive critical customer engagements and commercial alignment efforts that support long-term agreements and business growth.
• Partner with sales, Product Management, and executive leadership to structure and advance complex customer opportunities.
• Develop customer, segment, and regional playbooks covering relationship mapping, customer insights, competitive analysis, solution positioning, and negotiation strategies.
• Conduct win/loss analyses and market assessments to improve commercial effectiveness and customer engagement.
• Collaborate across sales, operations, product management, finance, and executive leadership to accelerate strategic customer opportunities.
• Support executive-level customer interactions and negotiations, helping drive alignment toward mutually beneficial business outcomes.
• Drive business process innovation through identification and implementation of operational improvements, tools, and scalable business practices.
• Monitor market trends, customer requirements, and competitive dynamics within cloud and AI infrastructure markets.

Basic Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Engineering, Supply Chain, Business, Marketing, or a related field.
• 12+ years of experience in product management, sourcing, supply chain, operations, sales, business management, business development, or other customer-facing roles within the semiconductor industry.
• Must have strong contracting and negotiation expertise, including experience structuring and negotiating long-term commercial agreements with customers.
• Demonstrated success influencing customer decision-making and leading negotiations resulting in strategic agreements, contracts, purchase orders, or long-term partnerships.
• Strong strategic thinking and analytical skills, with the ability to translate customer challenges into business opportunities and actionable engagement strategies.
• Excellent communication and presentation skills, with the ability to influence both technical and business stakeholders, including executive leadership.
• Ability to collaborate across cross-functional teams and drive alignment within complex organizations.
• Proven ability to operate effectively in a fast-paced, high-growth environment.
• Willingness to travel as required for customer meetings, industry events, and business engagements.

Preferred Qualifications

• Deep experience leading high-visibility customer negotiations and structuring complex long-term commercial agreements.
• Experience negotiating strategic commercial agreements involving technology adoption, supply commitments, product roadmaps, or long-term business partnerships.
• Demonstrated ability to develop customer strategies, competitive analyses, and go-to-market frameworks.
• Broad understanding of high-speed connectivity technologies, including PCIe®, Ethernet, CXL®, NVLink™, UALink™, and related industry standards.
• Experience working with hyperscalers, cloud service providers, AI platform companies, or large enterprise customers.
• Experience driving business transformation, operational scale, or process improvement initiatives.
• Track record of influencing executive stakeholders and leading complex cross-functional programs.

Base salary range is $200,000 to $260,000 depending on experience, level, and business need. This role may be eligible for discretionary bonus, incentives and benefits.