Western Digital Technologies

Senior Storage Architect

Western Digital Technologies • $130K — $180K *
San Jose, CA 95123In-Person
Enterprise Technology
8 - 10 years of experience
Today
Be an Early Applicant
Job Overview by Ladders

Qualifications

  • Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, or Computer Science.
  • 8-15 years of experience in storage architecture or systems engineering with full lifecycle project ownership.
  • Experience in defining and owning storage architecture specifications.
  • Proven track record of cross-functional collaboration with Engineering teams.
  • Excellent communication skills for presenting technical information effectively to diverse audiences.

Responsibilities

  • Understand and assess the customer’s storage system architectures and their impact on WD products.
  • Lead technical engagements with key customers, focusing on design validation and performance analysis.
  • Collaborate with Engineering and Sales to capture the customer's technical needs in design reviews.
  • Create and update technical documentation to help customers quickly develop new products.
  • Translate customer challenges into actionable architecture requirements for product management.

Benefits

  • Paid vacation and sick leave.
  • Comprehensive medical, dental, and vision insurance.
  • Life and disability insurance.
  • Tuition reimbursement programs for ongoing education.
  • Employee stock purchase plan as well as retirement savings options.
Full Job Description
Job Description

The Customer Technical Sales & Support team at Western Digital is the primary technical bridge between WD's Engineering and our enterprise customers, hyperscalers, and OEM partners. As a Storage Architect on this team, you own the understanding our customer's architecture and how they utilize HDDs to delivery solutions to their end customers to provide input to our Engineering teams to improve our products or propose new opportunities for WD. You bring 7-10 years of hands-on storage system experience, an informed perspective on where the industry is heading, and the ability to communicate to other engineers and the executive team. This is a senior individual contributor role with significant cross-functional influence across firmware, software, hardware, and product management.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities
  • Understand storage system software and hardware architectures in the data center and the trade offs possible between the various solutions and how they impact the requirements for WD products.
  • Lead pre-sales and post-sales technical engagements with key customers and OEM partners - including design reviews, proof-of-concept builds, and performance validation - ensuring HDD products meet customer workload requirements.
  • Partner with Engineering, Product Management and Sales teams to ensure clear understanding of how the HDD is utilized and represent the customer's technical perspective in internal design reviews.
  • Develop and maintain customer-facing technical documentation including architecture white papers, integration guides, and application notes, that reduce customer time-to-production of new products and technologies.
  • Translate customer pain points and deployment challenges into actionable architecture requirements with measurable outcomes; feed structured input into product management and firmware roadmap planning cycles.
  • Educate engineers on the CTS and Sales team and broader engineering organization on system architectures and storage applications.


Qualifications

Required Qualifications
  • Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, or Computer Science.
  • 8-15 years of experience in storage architecture, systems engineering, or a closely related field, with demonstrated ownership of end-to-end storage system design through production deployment.
  • Demonstrated experience defining and owning storage architecture specifications - not just contributing to them.
  • Proven cross-functional collaboration with Engineering teams across multiple product programs.
  • Excellent communication skills with demonstrated ability to present architecture decisions, trade-off rationale, and technical recommendations to customer engineering teams and executive stakeholders.

Preferred Qualifications
  • Master's or PhD in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Computer Science, or a related field.
  • Expertise with data center and hyperscaler storage workflows, applications and deployment environments.
  • Knowledge of storage technologies and the trade offs in using them in various storage solutions
  • Prior customer-facing or solutions architecture experience in a field application, or solutions engineering.

Skills
  • Systems-level storage architecture: ability to evaluate design decisions from specification through customer production deployment, with specific accountability for trade-offs across protocol, performance, reliability, and cost objectives.
  • Technical communication: ability to translate architecture complexity into clear written and verbal form for customer engineers, firmware teams, product managers, and executive audiences without losing precision.
  • Cross-functional influence: track record of aligning firmware, software, hardware team in delivering products or solutions to customers.


Additional Information

Based on our experience, we anticipate that the application deadline will be 09/8/2026 (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.

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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