Senior Director, Core & Ecosystem Strategy

Company Description

Western Digital is entering a new chapter. Following our spin-off of SanDisk, we are stepping into our future as an independent deep-tech company, one built on decades of engineering breakthroughs and pointed squarely at the biggest technological frontiers of our time. We are a company of physicists, materials scientists, AI researchers, and engineers. We work at the frontier of magnetics, photonics, nanofabrication, and machine learning - disciplines most people never encounter, solving problems most people don't know exist. Our teams hold one of the largest intellectual property banks in Silicon Valley, and our labs are staffed with hundreds of PhDs who've spent their careers pushing what's physically possible. Most folks know us as a data storage company, powering data centers, hyperscale clouds, and AI systems that define the modern economy. HDD is the backbone of the AI economy and the most scalable, cost-efficient way to store the world's data - and we're building its future. But it's only part of the story. In the past, our technology has helped put a man on the moon and captured the first-ever picture of a black hole. The next generation of what we are building will shape robotics, quantum computing, space systems, personalized medicine, autonomous vehicles, and more. We are entering the most ambitious phase of our company's history. As AI reshapes every industry and every workload, the world needs more data infrastructure, better materials science, and deeper engineering talent than ever before. That's what we do. That's what we've always done. And we're just getting started. Western Digital's Strategy & Corporate Development team is the connective tissue bridging Western Digital's technology to the markets it will serve. We turn deep-tech capability into commercial impact, strengthening our position in the core HDD business, setting the company's long-term strategy, and executing the partnerships, investments, and acquisitions that shape what we build next. If you want to work on problems that matter at the intersection of deep technology, business strategy, and real-world impact, we would love to talk.

Join us. Let's build what comes next.

Job Description

Core Business Strategy

• Define sales and commercial strategy for Western Digital’s core HDD business in partnership with commercial leadership team to support long-term value capture for the business
• Support broader portfolio of strategic projects that support Western Digital core business overall. Sample topics can potentially include ecosystem activation, technology assessment, vertical integration strategy, international opportunities, supply chain optimization, and more.
• Build Western Digital's ecosystem strategy across hyperscalers, neoclouds, sovereign clouds, OEMs, system integrators, and cloud infrastructure software vendors; develop frameworks for how WD orchestrates its role in the broader storage ecosystem considering where to lead, where to partner, and where to enable to maximize value capture.
• Evaluate strategic partnership opportunities with cloud providers, OEMs, system integrators, and ecosystem players; develop deal structuring frameworks and partner models.

Strategic Project Execution

• Execute high-priority strategic projects end-to-end including go-to-market strategy, customer and partner frameworks, business model evaluation, and build-vs-buy-vs-partner assessments.
• Translate long-term strategic priorities into decisions and recommendations that the Executive Leadership Team can act on.
• Partner closely with GTM and commercial leadership to co-develop strategies that reflect real customer needs and market dynamics, ensuring strategic recommendations translate into commercial action.
• Collaborate across Product, Engineering, Commercial, Finance, and Legal teams to align strategy with execution and drive cross-functional alignment on the highest-stakes strategic questions facing the company

Executive Communication

• Deliver strategic briefings, deep dives, and recommendations on competitive dynamics, market trends, and long-term positioning for presentation to senior leadership.
• Present to C-suite and Board audiences with rigor, clarity, and strategic conviction.
• Serve as a trusted strategic thought partner to senior business leaders.

Qualifications

• Minimum 8–10 years of progressive experience spanning top-tier management consulting or in-house corporate strategy and GTM/commercial leadership roles.
• Required industry experience within a GTM, commercial, sales strategy, or related role at a data storage company (HDD, SSD, storage systems) or directly adjacent infrastructure company (semiconductors, memory, enterprise storage platforms)
• Deep domain experience in data storage, semiconductors, enterprise/cloud infrastructure, or broader AI infrastructure with fluency in technical and commercial dynamics
• Proven track record running complex strategic projects end-to-end, from hypothesis development through to analysis and recommendation, with output quality suitable for senior leadership / C-suite.
• Comfort operating with quantitative rigor in ambiguous, high stakes strategic decisions.
• Strong financial acumen with the ability to evaluate business models and market economics.
• Exceptional strategic thinking and structured problem-solving skills.
• Outstanding executive communication, including materials development, narrative crafting, and live presentation to senior leadership (C-suite and Board).
• Proven ability to drive alignment and influence senior stakeholders.

Education

• MBA or equivalent experience required.
• Bachelor's degree in Engineering, Computer Science, Physics, Economics, or a related analytical field.

Location

• San Jose, California (must be willing to relocate).
• Flexibility for remote work within established company policies.
• 15-25% travel including domestic and international travel to meet with targets, advisors, investors, partners, and industry events.

What Makes This Role Unique This is a senior strategic leadership position responsible for defining Western Digital's competitive positioning and value capture across its core HDD businesses. The Senior Director will engage directly with the Executive Leadership Team on the highest-priority strategic questions facing the company, requiring exceptional strategic thinking, commercial fluency, and the ability to shape C-suite decisions that determine how Western Digital competes and wins in the AI-driven data economy.

Additional Information

WD 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 WD 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. WD 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 10/06/2026 (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.

Notice To Candidates: Please be aware that WD and its subsidiaries will never request payment as a condition for applying for a position or receiving an offer of employment. Should you encounter any such requests, please report it immediately to WD Ethics Helpline or email [email protected].