Communications Manager- Human Resources

WD; San Jose (CA); On-site; USD 80,000 - 120,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Comprehensive benefits package

Flexible spending accounts

Employee stock purchase plan

Job summary

WD is seeking a Communications Manager for its HR department. This role is integral to connecting and engaging HR teams globally and involves executing HR communications strategies, drafting leadership messages, and supporting initiatives that build community across functions.

With over 8 years of experience in employee communications or change management, the ideal candidate will bring exceptional writing and project management skills to the team. This position is based in San Jose, California, and offers opportunities to truly impact WD's organizational communication.

Qualifications

• 8+ years of experience in employee communications or related fields.
• Strong ability to translate complex topics into clear, engaging communications.
• Experience supporting large-scale change and transformation initiatives.

Responsibilities

• Execute HR communications strategy aligned to business objectives.
• Draft communications for HR leaders to ensure clarity and consistency.
• Support community building across the global HR organization.

Skills

Exceptional writing skills

Storytelling ability

Stakeholder management

Project management

Education

Bachelor's degree in Communications or related field

Tools

SharePoint

PowerPoint

Job description

At WD, 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, WD 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®, and WD_BLACK™.

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, WD 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 Communications Manager, Human Resources, will serve as a critical communications partner to WD's HR organization, helping connect, inform, and engage HR teams around the world.

Reporting to the Director of Strategic Communications, Human Resources, this role will own HR‑to‑HR communications, engagement, and capability‑building programs that strengthen alignment, foster community, and equip HR professionals with the information, context, and business knowledge they need to effectively support the business. The role will also partner with internal communications teams to amplify key HR initiatives, stories, and priorities across the broader organization.

Essential Duties & Responsibilities

Communications Strategy & Planning

• Execute the HR communications strategy and calendar aligned to HR priorities, business objectives, and people initiatives.
• Translate HR initiatives, business updates, and organizational priorities into clear, relevant communications for HR audiences.
• Own communications intake, prioritization, and sequencing across the HR organization to ensure clarity and reduce noise.
• Identify communication risks, areas of confusion, and opportunities to improve understanding, engagement, and adoption.

HR Program & COE Communications

• Serve as a communications partner across HR, supporting Centers of Excellence and key HR programs with messaging, communications strategies, and rollout plans that drive understanding, engagement, and adoption.
• Partner with HR leaders, Centers of Excellence, and key stakeholders to deliver coordinated communications that support HR priorities and program adoption.
• Partner with internal communications teams to amplify key HR initiatives, stories, and priorities across the broader organization.

Leadership Communications & Support

• Draft and ghostwrite communications for HR leaders, including town halls, presentations, videos, emails, talking points, articles, and leadership messaging.
• Translate HR's vision into actionable communications that drive understanding and alignment.
• Help leaders communicate with clarity, authenticity, and consistency across the HR organization.

HR Engagement & Community Building

• Identify opportunities to strengthen connection, collaboration, and community across the global HR organization.
• Support initiatives that reinforce OneHR mindset and strengthen a shared sense of purpose and identity across the function.
• Elevate stories that showcase how HR teams bring WD's values to life.

Content, Channels, and Experience

• Serve as editor‑in‑chief for HR communication channels, newsletters, editorial calendars, and content platforms.
• Create high‑quality communications content across multiple formats, including articles, presentations, newsletters, intranet content, and communications plans.
• Develop messaging, scripts, and creative briefs for multimedia communications, partnering with production and creative teams to support content creation and delivery.
• Bring HR priorities to life through storytelling that is human‑centered, authentic, and connected to business outcomes.
• Plan and support HR meetings, learning events, and engagement programs.
• Maintain communication rhythms that keep HR teams informed, connected, and aligned.

Measurement & Governance

• Track communication and engagement metrics to understand effectiveness and identify opportunities for improvement.
• Gather feedback and insights from HR audiences to strengthen communications, programs, and employee experiences.
• Use data to inform future communications and engagement strategies.
• Help establish communication standards, governance, and best practices that improve effectiveness and consistency across the organization.

Qualifications

What You’ll Bring

• 8+ years of experience in employee communications, internal communications, change communications, HR communications, or related fields.
• Exceptional writing, storytelling, and editing skills with the ability to translate complex business, workforce, and organizational topics into clear and compelling employee communications.
• Experience supporting large‑scale change, workforce transformation, culture initiatives, or enterprise‑wide programs across large, distributed teams.
• Strong stakeholder management skills with experience advising leaders and influencing across functions.
• Demonstrated ability to build engagement strategies that reach diverse employee audiences across functions, levels, and geographies.
• Experience managing communications channels, campaigns, events, and editorial planning.
• Channel operations experience (SharePoint, Teams/Slack, newsletters, town halls); strong slides/story design in PowerPoint.
• Strong project management skills with exceptional attention to detail and execution excellence.

Preferred

• Experience supporting Human Resources, workforce transformation, organizational effectiveness, talent, culture, employee experience, or leadership communications initiatives.
• Familiarity with AI, workforce trends, and the evolving future of work.
• Experience developing measurement frameworks and using employee insights to shape communication strategies.
• Passion for helping organizations build cultures where people, technology, and business outcomes thrive together.

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 [e-mail] 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 9/12/26, 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 [e-mail].