Western Digital Technologies

Principal Technical Recruiter

Western Digital Technologies • $135K — $160K *
San Jose, CA 95123In-Person
Staffing
8 - 10 years of experience
Today
Be an Early Applicant
Job Overview by Ladders

Qualifications

  • 8+ years of full-cycle technical recruiting experience in product, IT, or corporate strategy disciplines
  • Strong presentation skills to engage senior leaders and influence hiring strategies
  • Proficient in data analysis for compensation, pipeline health, and market availability
  • Experience in building recruitment programs and improving processes
  • Fluency in modern recruiting tools and AI integration in workflows
  • Ability to thrive in complex, global environments with ambiguity
  • Consultative mindset to understand business context behind hiring needs

Responsibilities

  • Own the complete recruitment lifecycle for mid to senior-level technical roles
  • Develop tailored hiring strategies in partnership with hiring managers and HRBPs
  • Ensure high candidate quality and experience reflecting the employer brand
  • Manage requisition loads with urgency, meeting time-to-fill and quality benchmarks
  • Serve as a subject matter expert on talent supply and demand dynamics
  • Leverage labor market data to provide actionable insights to stakeholders
  • Identify and lead recruitment programs to enhance TA effectiveness

Benefits

  • Comprehensive medical, dental, and vision insurance
  • Paid vacation and sick leave
  • Tuition reimbursement and employee assistance programs
  • Employee stock purchase plan and 401(k) savings plan
  • Flexible spending and health savings accounts
  • Diversity of voluntary benefit programs including pet insurance and legal plans
Full Job Description
Job Description

The Opportunity

We are seeking a Principal Technical Recruiter to join our Global Talent Acquisition organization, reporting directly to the Director of Talent Acquisition - Product, IT & Strategy. This is a high-impact, full-cycle recruiting role designed for a seasoned talent professional who operates at the intersection of strategic advisor, delivery expert, and transformation leader.

As a Principal-level contributor, you will own the end-to-end recruitment experience for some of WD's most critical and complex technical disciplines-including Product Management, Software Engineering, Data & Analytics, IT Infrastructure, Corporate Strategy, and New Business Ventures. You will be expected to not only close requisitions, but to elevate how we recruit through data intelligence, stakeholder influence, and innovative program ownership.

Essential Duties & Responsibilities:

1. Full-Cycle Talent Delivery
  • Own the complete recruitment lifecycle-from intake and sourcing strategy through offer negotiation and close-for mid to senior-level technical and strategic roles across Product, IT & Strategy.
  • Partner deeply with hiring managers, HRBPs, and business leaders to develop tailored hiring strategies aligned to approved headcount plans and workforce priorities
  • Maintain a high bar for candidate quality and experience, ensuring every interaction reflects WD's employer brand and values
  • Proactively manage requisition loads with urgency and precision, consistently meeting or exceeding time-to-fill, offer acceptance, and quality-of-hire benchmarks
  • Navigate ambiguous, fast-moving, and highly specialized talent markets with confidence and adaptability

2. Market Intelligence & Data-Driven Recruiting
  • Serve as the subject matter expert on talent supply and demand dynamics for your assigned business units, including compensation benchmarking, competitor talent mapping, and skills availability analysis
  • Leverage labor market data platforms (LinkedIn Talent Insights, Lightcast, Radford/Mercer) to deliver actionable intelligence to hiring managers and HR partners
  • Use data to identify pipeline gaps, forecast hiring outcomes, and drive accountability across the funnel
  • Present structured, data-backed hiring updates and market insights to business leaders and TA leadership on a regular cadence

3. Strategic Talent Advisor
  • Function as a trusted advisor and thought partner to senior business stakeholders-including VPs and Directors-on hiring strategy, workforce planning, and talent market realities
  • Challenge and influence hiring decisions through consultative dialogue, including calibrating role requirements, leveling discussions, and competitive positioning
  • Partner with HRBPs and Total Rewards to build compelling, competitive offer packages that win in the current market
  • Develop and champion proactive talent pipelines for critical capability areas, reducing dependency on reactive hiring cycles
  • Represent TA in business planning conversations and contribute to longer-term workforce strategy initiatives

4. Program Management & TA Transformation
  • Identify, design, and own recruitment programs and process improvement initiatives that elevate the effectiveness and scalability of the Global TA function
  • Lead or co-lead projects such as: hiring manager enablement programs, structured interviewing frameworks, diversity sourcing strategies, candidate experience improvements, or new role intake process design
  • Apply project management discipline to TA initiatives-defining scope, milestones, stakeholders, and success metrics-and drive cross-functional execution from ideation to adoption
  • Serve as an internal champion for TA innovation, bringing external best practices inside and advocating for changes that improve speed, quality, and equity in hiring
  • Document and socialize process improvements to ensure scalability and knowledge transfer across the TA team

5. Tools, Technology & AI Integration
  • Demonstrate fluency across the modern recruiting technology stack, including ATS platforms, CRM tools, sourcing platforms, and productivity suites
  • Actively incorporate AI-powered tools into daily recruiting workflows-including candidate sourcing and outreach personalization, resume screening, market research, job description drafting, and pipeline analytics
  • Evaluate and pilot emerging TA technologies; provide structured feedback and recommendations to TA leadership on adoption and integration
  • Mentor peers on effective and ethical use of AI and automation in recruiting workflows
  • Stay current on developments in recruiting technology, generative AI, and people analytics as they apply to talent acquisition


Qualifications

This Role Is For You If...
  • You have 8+ years of full-cycle technical recruiting experience and a proven track record placing talent across product, material science, hardware, firmware, software, IT, or corporate strategy disciplines
  • You are energized by owning the room with senior leaders-presenting market data, pushing back on unrealistic expectations, and earning a seat at the strategic table
  • You see data as your first language-you're not guessing on compensation, pipeline health, or market availability; you're pulling the numbers and telling the story
  • You've gone beyond your requisition list to build programs, fix broken processes, or launch initiatives that made your TA team better
  • You live in the tools-Workday, LinkedIn Recruiter, sourcing platforms, and AI-assisted workflows are part of your daily rhythm, not occasional experiments
  • You thrive in complex, matrixed, global environments where ambiguity is the norm and self-direction is required
  • You bring a consultative mindset to every search-understanding the business context behind every hire, not just the job description in front of you

You're Probably Not a Fit If...
  • You'd rather take orders than give counsel-this role requires you to challenge, advise, and influence, not just execute what you're told
  • You treat data as someone else's job-if you can't build a pipeline report, benchmark a comp package, or speak to talent market dynamics, this isn't the right seat for you
  • You've spent your career working reqs and nothing else-we need someone who sees program ownership and process transformation as core to the role, not a distraction from it
  • You're still figuring out what AI tools exist, let alone how to use them-this team moves fast and expects fluency, not curiosity from scratch
  • You need a fully defined playbook to operate effectively-ambiguity, shifting priorities, and white-space problem solving are features here, not bugs
  • You get uncomfortable pushing back on a VP or a hiring manager-if you default to agreement to avoid conflict, the strategic impact of this role won't be realized
  • You think candidate experience ends at the offer-we care deeply about the full arc of every interaction, from first outreach to close, and so should you


Preferred Qualifications
  • Experience recruiting within the semiconductor, data storage, hardware, or enterprise technology sectors
  • Prior agency or executive search background combined with in-house corporate experience
  • Exposure to workforce planning, organizational design, or HR business partnering conversations
  • Proficiency with platforms such as LinkedIn Recruiter, Beamery, SeekOut, Gem, Tableau, or Power BI


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.
  • If your position is non-exempt, you are eligible for overtime pay pursuant to company policy and applicable laws. You may also be eligible for shift differential pay, depending on the shift to which you are assigned.
  • You will be eligible to be considered for bonuses under either WD's Short Term Incentive Plan ("STI Plan") or the Sales Incentive Plan ("SIP") 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 WD'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 WD 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.

About Western Digital Technologies

Western Technology Investment is a venture capital firm that specializes in offering acquisition financing to revenue-generating firms. The firm provides debt and lease financing to venture capital backed technology companies.

Western Digital Technologies Careers

Join the innovative world of Western Digital Technologies, a leader in data storage solutions, where we are committed to empowering our global team of professionals. This is an unparalleled opportunity to advance your career with a company at the forefront of technological innovation and digital storage.

Work You’ll Do

At Western Digital Technologies, you will be part of a dynamic team that drives data innovation across various industries. Our commitment to excellence and leadership in the technology sector provides a unique platform for professionals to influence the future of digital storage and management solutions.

Explore Job Opportunities and Growth

Western Digital Technologies offers a variety of job opportunities that cater to a range of skills and experiences. Whether you’re looking for an entry-level position or a more senior role, our company is eager to support your professional growth through challenging projects and continuous learning opportunities.

Internship Programs

Kickstart your career with Western Digital Technologies through our internship programs. These positions are designed to give you hands-on experience and insights into our day-to-day operations, preparing you for a full-time role in our company. Interns at Western Digital Technologies gain invaluable industry knowledge, networking opportunities, and professional skills under the guidance of experienced mentors.

Benefits and Culture

We pride ourselves on a culture that fosters diversity, innovation, and leadership. Western Digital Technologies is dedicated to providing employees with a supportive work environment where everyone is encouraged to be their best. Our benefits package is comprehensive, including health, dental, and vision insurance, employee wellness programs, and significant career development opportunities.

Join Our Team

We are continuously hiring creative, curious, and motivated individuals who are ready to drive innovation in the technology space. Explore open positions that match your skills and interests on our careers page. At Western Digital Technologies, we value diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees.

Professional Development and Training

Advance your career with Western Digital Technologies through our professional development programs. We offer a range of training and development options, including leadership training, skills enhancement workshops, and diversity training sessions to help you grow as a leader and innovator in our industry.

Stay Connected

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Apply Now

Ready to take the next step in your career? Submit your resume, prepare for your interview, and join a team that’s redefining the future of technology. At Western Digital Technologies, your future is waiting.

SEARCH WESTERN DIGITAL TECHNOLOGIES JOBS

Join us at Western Digital Technologies, where your career growth is integrated with innovation and leadership, empowering you to reach new heights in the technology industry.
Learn more about Western Digital Technologies
Size
65,600 employees
Market Cap
$9.9 billion
Industry
Enterprise Technology
Net Income
$167 million
Founded
1970
5 Year Trend
-0.3%
Revenue
$16.3 billion
NASDAQ
WDC
* Ladders Estimates

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