Principal Failure Analysis Engineer

Western Digital; Irvine (CA); On-site; USD 90,000 - 130,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Paid vacation

Medical/dental/vision insurance

Employee stock purchase plan

Tuition reimbursement

Job summary

Western Digital is seeking a Principal FA Lead to manage failure analysis across HDD labs, driving investigations and delivering clear failure summaries to customers and internal teams.

You will collaborate with worldwide FA teams, identify root causes, and push improvements to FA processes and tooling while building expertise as a global HDD FA expert over time.

Qualifications

• BS/MS in EE, ME, IE or equivalent.
• 2+ years of Failure Analysis experience with Western Digital enterprise or client HDDs.
• Hard disk drive failure analysis experience.
• Strong problem-solving and leadership skills.
• Excellent written and verbal communication; ability to multi-task.
• Knowledge of factory processes and storage applications.
• Proficiency with Python, C++, and/or SQL is a plus.
• FIO performance testing knowledge is a plus.
• Data Analytics and Reliability knowledge is a plus.

Responsibilities

• Manage FA activities, priorities and identify causes of failures and related drive problems on customer and field drives within the priority time frame.
• Summarize FA results based on lab findings and causes of failure.
• Collaborate with PCBA, Firmware, Reliability, Data Analytics, FA Tools, Customer Technical Support and Customer Quality Managers, Factory FA and Quality teams on customer issues.
• Develop, improve, and document failure analysis procedures, processes, and requirements.
• Participate in issue resolution meetings and act as part of the resolution team.
• Present information to peers, team members and managers.
• Create and meet schedules for high priority FA and process improvements.
• Interact with Development teams to understand new technology and develop FA tools and documentation.
• Learn about product failures from development teams.

Skills

Hard disk drive FA

Problem-solving

Leadership

Multi-tasking

Communication

Python

C++

SQL

Data Analytics

Reliability

Teamwork

Education

BS/MS in EE/ME/IE

Tools

FIO performance testing

Job description

WD is building the infrastructure behind the AI-driven data economy.

As AI scales, so does data. Every interaction, every model, every system generates data that must be stored, managed, and made accessible over time. That’s where we come in.

We combine deep engineering expertise with global-scale manufacturing to deliver the storage systems that make AI possible, powering hyperscale data centers, cloud platforms, and enterprise infrastructure worldwide.

This isn’t theoretical work. It’s real systems, at real scale, people solving some of the hardest challenges in technology today.

We’re looking for people who want to build, solve, and operate at that level.

Join us and let’s shape the future of data.

Join our dynamic and collaborative team to help with WD customer failure analysis in support of requests from our customers. As Principal FA Lead, you will be managing Failure Analysis activities spanning across multiple hard disk drives labs. You will collaborate with worldwide FA teams and review failure analysis reports from the labs and collaborate with labs and subject matter experts to decide on best course of action for identifying underlying causes of failures and drive problems. You will be in charge of the overall FA summaries with key findings and supporting images from the labs. These summaries are used to communicate failure modes and causes to the customers, field application engineers, quality managers, manufacturing, or development teams. You will have multiple opportunities to help improve FA processes and tools based on learnings from FA work.

Over time, you will gain expertise allowing you to be one of few HDD FA experts in the world!

ESSENTIAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Manage FA activities, priorities and identify causes of failures and related drive problems on customer and field drives within the corresponding priority time frame
• Summarize FA results based on key lab findings and causes of failure
• Pro-actively engage with subject matter experts in PCBA, Firmware, Reliability, Data Analytics, FA Tools, Customer Technical Support and Customer Quality Managers, Factory FA and Quality teams on customer issues
• Follow department/work group processes
• Develop, improve, and document failure analysis procedures, processes, and requirements
• Participate in selected Program/Product/Customer issue resolution meetings and act as an integral part of the issue resolution team
• Effectively present information, ideas, and your perspective to peers, team members and managers
• Create and meet schedules for high priority FA and process improvements
• Brainstorm, be open to inputs and recommend team improvements and team process improvements
• Interact with Development teams to understand new technology, develop associated failure analysis tools, processes, and documentation
• Define and work on tool improvements related to FA such as drive log visualizations and FIO tests
• Learn about product failures from development teams

You will effectively communicate results and status with management and team members and participate in resolving product and customer issues by providing meaningful insights.

• Hard disk drive failure analysis experience
• Proven problem-solving skills
• Proven leadership skills
• Effective at multi-tasking, organization and time management
• Self-motivated
• Demonstrates patience, confidence, and composure
• Detailed knowledge of hard drives and knowledge of factory processes and storage applications
• Knowledge and experience with Python, C++, and/or SQL is a plus
• Knowledge and experience with FIO performance testing is a plus
• Knowledge and experience with Data Analytics and Reliability is a plus
• Strong written and verbal communication skills
• Excellent interpersonal and teamworking skills

Candidates must demonstrate relevant experience, interest and aptitude in both analytical and practical aspects of the above topics

Education: BS/MS in EE, ME, IE, or equivalent

Experience: 2+ years of Failure Analysis experience with Western Digital enterprise or client hard drives highly desired

Western Digital 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.

Western Digital 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.

Western Digital 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 be 10/27/2026 (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.

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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.
• Thesalaryrange 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 Yorkor 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 theSales 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 WDand 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].