Senior Systems Architect — Cloud-Scale Infra & Automation

Western Digital Corp.; San Jose (CA); On-site; USD 170,000 - 210,000; Full time

Job description

Company 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.

Job Description

The Senior Systems Architect is a senior technical leader responsible for the architecture, engineering, standardization, and evolution of enterprise compute and infrastructure platforms.

This role requires broad hands‑on expertise across enterprise virtualization, Windows and Linux, server infrastructure, automation, containers, and compute integration with storage and networking. The successful candidate will be equally comfortable developing architecture strategy, evaluating new technologies, creating automation, and troubleshooting complex production issues.

A primary objective of the role is transforming infrastructure operations from manual administration into standardized, automated, policy‑driven platform services. The architect will establish technical standards, lead modernization efforts, reduce operational complexity, and improve reliability, scalability, security, and cost efficiency.

The role works closely with Data Center Operations, Storage Architecture, Network Engineering, Security, Cloud Engineering, Application teams, Manufacturing, and technology vendors.

Key Responsibilities

Infrastructure Architecture & Engineering

• Serve as a senior technical authority for enterprise compute, virtualization, Windows, Linux, container, and server infrastructure.

• Develop architecture standards and reference designs for scalable, resilient, secure, and supportable infrastructure.

• Architect virtualization and compute solutions across platforms such as Hyper‑V, VMware, Nutanix AHV/KVM, and emerging technologies.

• Define standards for operating system deployment, configuration, lifecycle management, patching, upgrades, security, high availability, disaster recovery, capacity, and performance.

• Establish enterprise server hardware standards covering compute, memory, accelerators, firmware, network interfaces, power, cooling, and lifecycle management.

• Evaluate new infrastructure technologies through technical assessments, proof‑of‑concepts, benchmarking, and total‑cost‑of‑ownership analysis.

• Lead complex troubleshooting and root‑cause analysis across compute, virtualization, operating systems, storage, networking, and application dependencies.

• Drive platform modernization, consolidation, migration, technology refresh, and infrastructure lifecycle initiatives.

Automation, AI & Platform Engineering

• Lead infrastructure automation and platform‑engineering strategy across compute and related data center technologies.

• Identify repetitive operational activities and replace them with standardized, automated, policy‑driven workflows.

• Develop automation using technologies such as PowerShell, Python, Ansible, Terraform, APIs, Git, and CI/CD platforms.

• Apply Infrastructure as Code and software‑engineering practices including source control, reusable modules, peer review, testing, release management, and automated validation.

• Automate provisioning, configuration, patching, upgrades, firmware, compliance, vulnerability remediation, monitoring integration, and infrastructure retirement.

• Integrate automation with enterprise systems including ITSM, CMDB, observability, security, vulnerability management, and asset management.

• Develop self‑service and API‑driven infrastructure capabilities that reduce manual administrative work.

• Evaluate and responsibly apply AI, AI agents, and agentic automation to infrastructure engineering, operations, troubleshooting, documentation, and analysis.

Infrastructure Integration

• Partner with the Principal Storage Architect to ensure compute and virtualization platforms integrate effectively with enterprise storage.

• Define compute‑side requirements for storage connectivity, availability, capacity, performance, resiliency, and interoperability.

• Own architecture and standards for server and hypervisor networking, including host connectivity, NIC configuration, virtual networking, resiliency, performance, and storage‑related network traffic.

• Partner with Network Engineering on physical connectivity, VLANs, routing, addressing, network fabrics, and data center network integration.

• Maintain clear ownership boundaries: this role owns server and hypervisor networking; enterprise switching, routing, firewall, and network architecture remain with Network Engineering.

• Work with infrastructure vendors on technology roadmaps, platform supportability, lifecycle planning, technical escalations, and architecture evaluations.

Technical Leadership

• Develop and maintain architecture standards, reference architectures, technology roadmaps, design documentation, and architecture decisions.

• Establish standards for infrastructure reliability, security, observability, lifecycle management, automation, and supportability.

• Evaluate technologies based on scalability, performance, reliability, security, operational complexity, automation potential, and total cost of ownership.

• Partner with Security teams on infrastructure hardening, vulnerability management, compliance, and Zero Trust requirements.

• Present technical strategies, risks, tradeoffs, and investment recommendations to engineering and executive leadership.

• Serve as a senior escalation resource and mentor engineers across the infrastructure organization.

• Lead cross‑functional technical initiatives and drive consensus across organizations without requiring direct authority.

Qualifications

• 12+ years of progressive enterprise infrastructure engineering, architecture, or closely related experience, including substantial hands‑on responsibility for production environments.

• Demonstrated experience designing and supporting large‑scale, business‑critical enterprise infrastructure.

• Deep experience with one or more enterprise virtualization platforms such as Hyper‑V, VMware, Nutanix AHV, KVM, or comparable technologies, with the ability to rapidly learn additional platforms.

• Strong enterprise experience with Windows Server and Linux.

• Experience with container technologies and orchestration platforms such as Docker, Kubernetes, OpenShift, or comparable platforms.

• Significant experience with enterprise server platforms such as HPE, Dell, or comparable technologies.

• Strong understanding of storage and networking sufficient to design and troubleshoot compute integration with those technologies.

• Demonstrated infrastructure automation experience using PowerShell, Python, Ansible, Terraform, APIs, or comparable technologies.

• Experience applying Infrastructure as Code, source control, CI/CD, configuration management, or similar software‑engineering practices to infrastructure.

• Proven ability to troubleshoot complex issues across multiple infrastructure domains.

• Demonstrated ability to create technical standards and translate architecture into successful production implementations.

Preferred Experience

Experience in several of the following areas is beneficial; candidates are not expected to have expertise in all of them:

• Nutanix, KVM, HCI, or software‑defined infrastructure

• Kubernetes or enterprise container platforms