Senior Leader, Data Analytics Engineering, Distinguished Engineer

Company Description

At Western Digital, our vision is to power global innovation and push the boundaries of technology to make what you thought was once impossible, possible.

At our core, Western Digital is a company of problem solvers. People achieve extraordinary things given the right technology. For decades, we’ve been doing just that—our technology helped people put a man on the moon and capture the first-ever picture of a black hole.

We offer an expansive portfolio of technologies, HDDs, and platforms for business, creative professionals, and consumers alike under our Western Digital®, WD®, WD_BLACK™ Professional brands.

We are a key partner to some of the largest and highest-growth organizations in the world. From enabling systems to make cities safer and more connected, to powering the data centers behind many of the world’s biggest companies and hyperscale cloud providers, to meeting the massive and ever-growing data storage needs of the AI era, Western Digital is fueling a brighter, smarter future.

Today’s exceptional challenges require your unique skills. Together, we can build the future of data storage.

Job Description

The Advanced Analytics Office (AAO) within the Information Technology organization, is missioned with accelerating advanced Data and Analytics solutions across the Enterprise to unlock business value and create competitive advantage. These solutions target key operational metrics, such as, reducing cost, improving capital & asset efficiency, and improving operational efficiency. The Analytics solutions also target improving our market position by enabling business agility, reducing time-to-market to develop new products, and improving customer 360 experience.

The solutions use cutting edge technologies and are delivered through a platform approach to enable rapid scaling across the Enterprise. These solutions span both Operational data and Big data platforms using both Cloud and On-premise environments. The solutions leverage the latest in analytics technologies, such as, Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning (AI/ML), Digital Twin Simulations, and Operations Research based Optimization methods to deliver to business outcomes.

We partner with over dozen factories across US and Asia that manufacture our Hard Disk Drive and Flash drives; these factories generate vast amounts of manufacturing and test data with tremendous amount of information. Apart from manufacturing data, our enterprise functions generate operational data which spans Business units, Sales & Marketing, Finance, Supply chain, Logistics, Procurement, and many other supporting functions. We continually seek to connect this data across the enterprise to enable rapid decision making. This journey is already in full swing, and we expect to continue to accelerate. The goal is to connect End-to-end enterprise information that enables rapid evaluation of next best decisions and optimize Enterprise resources and our position in the market.

We are looking for a dynamic Senior leader (Distinguished Engineer role equivalent) who will play a pivotal role in helping accelerate the overall IT Connected Enterprise vision. We are looking for a leader who will take an enterprise view to understand complex cross-functional business processes and then take a hands-on approach to define, prioritize and lead implementation of foundation components required to connect the Enterprise. These components can span infrastructure review, Data fabric design, platform choices, Software stack and applications, and integration decisions.

ESSENTIAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES 

• Lead technology direction with business focus
• Evaluate emerging technologies and trends and assess their relevance to the WDC organization and recommend adoption strategies.
• Collaborate with business leaders, IT teams, and other stakeholders to develop a point of view on architectural underpinnings for enabling an incremental and prioritized process towards achieving an end-to-end connected enterprise.
• Develop and champion the organization's enterprise architecture that continuously strengthens technology, application, data & analytics, and security posture.
• Ensure enterprise architecture modernization effort remains aligned with the organization's strategic goals and objectives and make recommendations for adjustments as necessary.
• Champion and execute for business agility
• Embrace and champion Agile methodologies within IT organization to promote collaboration, flexibility, and continuous improvement through short development cycles (sprints) and iterative development.
• Integrate development (Dev) and operations (Ops) to automate processes, improve deployment speed, and enhance collaboration between development and IT operations teams.
• Integrate security practices throughout the development lifecycle (DevSecOps) to identify and address vulnerabilities and protect against security threats

Enable the API economy mindset

• Develop and implement an API strategy aligned with the organization's business objectives, identifying opportunities to leverage APIs for growth and innovation.
• Establish and champion API governance standards, including design, security, and documentation, to ensure consistency, quality, and compliance.
• Collaborate with software development teams to design, develop API strategy that enable seamless integration and data exchange between systems, both internally and externally.

Drive to Cloud and modern Software practices

• Build Cloud-native applications taking advantage of cloud services like AWS, Azure, or Google Cloud for scalability, reliability, and cost-efficiency.
• ·Champion best practice of decomposing complex applications into smaller, loosely coupled microservices, and leverage containerization (e.g., Docker) for scalability, portability, and isolation.
• Utilize open-source software and libraries to accelerate development and promote code reusability. Contribute back to open-source communities when possible.

Improve customer experience and create new opportunities

• Prioritize user experience (UX) by involving users in solution design process, define usability testing, and continuously gathering feedback for iterative improvements.
• Partner with Sales and Business unit functions to explore new opportunities, such as, implement strategies to monetize APIs, API marketplaces, subscription models, or partnerships, to create new revenue streams.

Qualifications

REQUIRED

• Desirable to have Master’s or higher degree in a relevant field such as Computer Science, Engineering, or applied Sciences
• Proven experience in technology leadership roles, with a track record of successfully implementing technology strategies aligned with organization goals and objective. A strategic mindset to identify opportunities for technological innovation to create competitive advantage.
• 15+ years of proven experience in building scalable platforms that supports complex cross-functional business processes, leverages modern Software principles, and incrementally builds and expands the API economy.
• Familiarity and understanding of challenges around cross-functional business processes, such as, Design to Build, Plan to Fulfill, Order to Cash, Procure to Pay, Record to Report, etc. Experience in enabling solutions and their integration to meet business needs.
• Have partnered with leaders of Enterprise business functions, such as, Finance, Sales and Marketing, Business Units, Supply Chain, Procurement etc. and have helped enabled cross-functional applications to support their business processes.
• Extensive technical knowledge and proficiency in IT systems, software development, cybersecurity, cloud computing, and emerging data and analytics technologies Understanding of various programming language paradigms and software development methodologies to provide mentorship and guidance to development teams
• Experience with cloud platforms (e.g., AWS, Azure, Google Cloud) and containerization technologies (e.g., Docker, Kubernetes).

SKILLS

• Strong understanding of software development methodologies (e.g., Agile, Scrum) and DevOps practices.
• Familiarity with industry-specific technologies and trends, such as, artificial intelligence, Internet of Things (IoT), AI/ML, and Gen AI.
• Proficiency in designing, developing, and leading the API delivery approach. This includes knowledge of API protocols (e.g. REST, SOAP, GraphQL), API security, and version control. Familiarity with programming languages commonly used in API development (e.g. JavaScript, Python, Java, and Ruby). Familiarity with API management platforms and tools (e.g., Apigee, AWS API Gateway, Azure API Management) used to create, publish, and manage APIs.
• ·Knowledge of Technology Stack covering wide range of technologies, including infrastructure, software development, databases, and cloud computing. Understanding of data modeling, data governance, and data integration principles. Expertise in integrating disparate systems and applications within the enterprise. Knowledge of security best practices and the ability to design secure architectures.

Additional Information

Western Digital is committed to providing equal opportunities to all applicants and employees and will not discriminate against any applicant or employee based on their race, color, ancestry, religion (including religious dress and grooming standards), sex (including pregnancy, childbirth or related medical conditions, breastfeeding or related medical conditions), gender (including a person’s gender identity, gender expression, and gender-related appearance and behavior, whether or not stereotypically associated with the person’s assigned sex at birth), age, national origin, sexual orientation, medical condition, marital status (including domestic partnership status), physical disability, mental disability, medical condition, genetic information, protected medical and family care leave, Civil Air Patrol status, military and veteran status, or other legally protected characteristics. We also prohibit harassment of any individual on any of the characteristics listed above. Our non-discrimination policy applies to all aspects of employment. We comply with the laws and regulations set forth in the "Know Your Rights: Workplace Discrimination is Illegal” poster. Our pay transparency policy is available here.

Western Digital thrives on the power and potential of diversity. As a global company, we believe the most effective way to embrace the diversity of our customers and communities is to mirror it from within. We believe the fusion of various perspectives results in the best outcomes for our employees, our company, our customers, and the world around us. We are committed to an inclusive environment where every individual can thrive through a sense of belonging, respect and contribution.

Western Digital is committed to offering opportunities to applicants with disabilities and ensuring all candidates can successfully navigate our careers website and our hiring process. Please contact us at [email protected] to advise us of your accommodation request. In your email, please include a description of the specific accommodation you are requesting as well as the job title and requisition number of the position for which you are applying.

Based on our experience, we anticipate that the application deadline will be 08/22/2025(3 months from posting), although we reserve the right to close the application process sooner if we hire an applicant for this position before the application deadline. If we are not able to hire someone from this role before the application deadline, we will update this posting with a new anticipated application deadline.

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Compensation & Benefits Details

• An employee’s pay position within the salary range may be based on several factors including but not limited to (1) relevant education; qualifications; certifications; and experience; (2) skills, ability, knowledge of the job; (3) performance, contribution and results; (4) geographic location; (5) shift; (6) internal and external equity; and (7) business and organizational needs.
• The salary range is what we believe to be the range of possible compensation for this role at the time of this posting.  We may ultimately pay more or less than the posted range and this range is only applicable for jobs to be performed in California, Colorado, New York or remote jobs that can be performed in California, Colorado and New York.  This range may be modified in the future.
• You will be eligible to participate in Western Digital’s Short-Term Incentive (STI) Plan, which provides incentive awards based on Company and individual performance.  Depending on your role and your performance, you may be eligible to participate in our annual Long-Term Incentive (LTI) program, which consists of restricted stock units (RSUs) or cash equivalents, pursuant to the terms of the LTI plan. Please note that not all roles are eligible to participate in the LTI program, and not all roles are eligible for equity under the LTI plan. RSU awards are also available to eligible new hires, subject to Western Digital’s Standard Terms and Conditions for Restricted Stock Unit Awards.
• We offer a comprehensive package of benefits including paid vacation time; paid sick leave; medical/dental/vision insurance; life, accident and disability insurance; tax-advantaged flexible spending and health savings accounts; employee assistance program; other voluntary benefit programs such as supplemental life and AD&D, legal plan, pet insurance, critical illness, accident and hospital indemnity; tuition reimbursement; transit; the Applause Program, employee stock purchase plan, and the Western Digital Savings 401(k) Plan.
• Note: No amount of pay is considered to be wages or compensation until such amount is earned, vested, and determinable. The amount and availability of any bonus, commission, benefits, or any other form of compensation and benefits that are allocable to a particular employee remains in the Company's sole discretion unless and until paid and may be modified at the Company’s sole discretion, consistent with the law.