Employee Relations Partner

Western Digital; San Jose (CA); On-site; USD 112,000 - 137,000; Full time

Job summary

Western Digital seeks an experienced Employee Relations professional to oversee US and EMEA ER matters, advise managers, and conduct investigations. You will partner with HR, ethics, and employment law to ensure compliant, high-performing practices.

You will lead complex cases, develop labor relations strategies, coach leaders, and drive ER programs across a multinational organization. Strong data skills and Workday knowhow are preferred.

Qualifications

• Deep expertise in US and EMEA employment laws and labor laws.
• Experience supporting US and EMEA employee populations in a multinational, with Works Councils or collective consultation.
• Strong knowledge of US employment law and cross-border practices.
• Judgment and decision-making in diverse employee matters.
• Experience with performance management, investigations, misconduct, restructurings.
• Coaching leaders to improve performance and respectful workplace behavior.
• Ability to analyze data, identify trends, and provide insights.
• Experience influencing senior leaders in a matrixed environment.
• Ability to manage multiple priorities in a fast-paced global setting.

Responsibilities

• Serve as SME for employee relations across US and EMEA, guiding employees and managers.
• Lead complex ER cases including misconduct, grievances, and policy violations.
• Conduct and support workplace investigations with actionable recommendations.
• Lead regional union and labor relations, developing strategies and negotiations.
• Coach leaders on performance management and documentation standards.
• Develop scalable ER education programs to strengthen leadership.
• Lead ER projects and continuous improvement to enhance employee experience.
• Maintain weekly ER/IR reports and provide data-driven insights.

Skills

US employment law

EMEA employment laws

Labor relations

Cross-border employment

Data analytics

Workday

AI-enabled tools

Leadership coaching

Influencing senior leaders

Tools

Workday

Job description

Job Description

The Global Employee Relations Team supports WD to ensure consistency in adherence to company policies and reducing compliance risks in our employment practices and policies worldwide.

The ER Team partners closely with the regional HR Centers of Excellence, Ethics and Compliance and Employment Law teams to review, advise, and investigate workplace concerns and address complex employee matters to help build a high-performing and respectful workplace culture within WD.

Essential Duties & Responsibilities:

• Serve as the primary subject matter expert for all employee relations matters across US and EMEA, providing strategic and pragmatic guidance to employees and people managers at the site.

• Lead and manage complex ER cases including misconduct, grievances, performance management, workplace conflict, labor disputes and policy violations.

• Conduct and support workplace investigations, ensuring thorough fact-finding and providing clear, balanced, and actionable recommendations to support business decisions and employee outcomes.

• Act as the lead HR representative for regional union and labor relations matters, partnering cross-functionally to develop labor relations strategies, support negotiations, consultations on activities related to collective agreements, workplace changes and employee impact discussions. Promote constructive, collaborative relationships with union partners

• Provide coaching and build capability of business leaders on managing performance, disciplinary actions, documentation standards and employee communications.

• Develop scalable manager education and preventative ER programs to strengthen leadership capability and foster a respectful workplace culture.

• Lead or participate in ER-related projects, initiatives, and continuous improvement efforts to enhance employee experience and organizational effectiveness.

• Maintain weekly ER/IR reports, track disciplinary cases and related data, and provide insights to support decision-making and trend analysis.

Qualifications:
Qualifications

Required:

• Deep expertise in US and EMEA employment laws, employee relations practices, labor laws and workplace culture, with the ability to navigate complex cross-border employment matters.

• Minimum 8+ years of progressive Employee Relations experience supporting, including experience supporting both US and EMEA employee populations in a multinational organization, working with Works Councils, employee representative bodies, or collective consultation processes.

• Strong knowledge of US employment law and familiarity with employment legislation and employee relations practices across key EMEA countries. Experience partnering with regional HR and Legal teams to navigate cross-border employment matters.

• Demonstrates strong judgment and decision‑making skills when assessing a wide range of employee matters, ensuring fair, consistent, and business‑aligned outcomes.

• Experience supporting a broad range of employee relations issues, including performance management, workplace investigations, misconduct, accommodations, reductions‑in‑force, restructurings, and organizational change.

• Exceptional coaching and consulting capabilities, with the ability to elevate manager effectiveness in performance management, equitable practices, and respectful workplace behaviors.

• Proven analytical and problem‑solving skills, with the ability to interpret data, identify trends, and provide insights that guide informed decision‑making.

• Proven experience influencing senior leaders in a matrixed multinational environment.

• Ability to manage multiple priorities in a fast‑paced global environment while maintaining high standards of responsiveness, confidentiality, and professionalism.

• Familiarity with Workday and HR case management systems.

• Demonstrated ability to leverage data, automation, and AI‑enabled tools to improve Employee Relations processes and decision‑making.

• Proficiency in one or more additional EMEA languages (e.g., French, German, Dutch, Spanish, Italian, or Polish) is preferred.

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 11/24/26 , 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.

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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.

• 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].

Compensation:$124,700-$124,700 per year