Senior Director, Core & Ecosystem Strategy

WD; San Jose (CA); Hybrid; USD 180,000 - 280,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Bonus program

Job summary

Western Digital is seeking a Senior Director of Strategy to shape the company’s competitive position and value capture across its core HDD businesses. The role engages with the Executive Leadership Team to drive high-stakes decisions affecting WD’s AI-driven data economy.

The candidate will lead strategic projects end-to-end, influence senior stakeholders, and articulate clear narratives for C-suite and Board audiences. Remote flexibility is governed by company policy.

Qualifications

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

Responsibilities

• Define sales and commercial strategy for WD's core HDD business in partnership with leadership to support long-term value capture.
• Translate strategic priorities into decisions for Executive Leadership Team.
• Collaborate with Product, Engineering, Commercial, Finance, and Legal to align strategy with execution.
• Deliver strategic briefings and recommendations to senior leadership and Board audiences.

Skills

Strategic thinking

Executive communication

Financial acumen

Cross-functional collaboration

Education

MBA or equivalent

Bachelor's degree in Engineering/CS/Physics/Economics

Job 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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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