Staff Engineer, Storage Product Planning

Engg; San Jose (CA); On-site; USD 180,000 - 240,000; Full time

Job summary

Samsung Semiconductor in San Jose seeks a senior storage standardization product planning expert to drive NVMe and OCP workstreams across enterprise/DC storage. You will advocate for standards, align with cloud vendors, and bridge R&D teams to maximize market alignment.

You will draft specifications, lead committees, and identify patent opportunities while coordinating with AWS, Google Cloud, Microsoft, Meta, and SNIA frameworks to shape future storage architectures.

Qualifications

• 10+ years direct storage industry experience.
• Proven influence in standards bodies (NVMe, OCP, SNIA).
• Experience shaping storage solutions aligned with cloud vendors.

Responsibilities

• Propose and review NVMe and OCP specifications for enterprise/storage.
• Lead industry leadership roles and participate in high-profile working groups.
• Translate hyperscaler requirements into product features for controllers/firmware.
• Draft patents and secure IP for storage technologies early in standardization.
• Collaborate with AWS, Google Cloud, Microsoft, Meta, and internal Samsung teams.

Skills

Technical leadership

Written & verbal communication

Cross-organizational collaboration

Education

Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, or Computer Science

Master’s degree in a related field

PhD in a related field (optional)

Tools

NVMe/OCP knowledge

SNIA frameworks

PCIe/NVMe protocol familiarity

Job description

Please Note: To provide the best candidate experience amidst our high application volumes, each candidate is limited to 10 applications across all open jobs within a 6-month period. Advancing the World’s Technology Together Our technology solutions power the tools you use every day--including smartphones, electric vehicles, hyperscale data centers, IoT devices, and so much more. Here, you’ll have an opportunity to be part of a global leader whose innovative designs are pushing the boundaries of what’s possible and powering the future. We believe innovation and growth are driven by an inclusive culture and a diverse workforce. We’re dedicated to empowering people to be their true selves. Together, we’re building a better tomorrow for our employees, customers, partners, and communities. Samsung Semiconductor is seeking an industry-leading storage expert with recognized influence across the global storage ecosystem to drive our next-generation Enterprise and Datacenter (DC) storage technology roadmap for a Product Planning Role This role focuses on driving industry standards within NVMe (including NVMe-oF) and the Open Compute Project (OCP) Storage Project, while leveraging SNIA frameworks to manage lifecycle, data attributes, and data orchestration. You will utilize your deep domain credibility and extensive industry network to advocate for our technical and strategic interests externally—ensuring strict alignment with major hyperscale cloud vendors—while directly bridging the gap with Samsung's internal R&D teams to maximize the market compliance, compatibility, and synergy of Samsung's cutting-edge memory and SSD solutions.

Location

Daily onsite presence at our San Jose headquarters in alignment with our Flexible Work policy with 10% of domestic travel.

Reports to

Principal Engineer, R&D Product Development Planning

What You’ll Do

• Technical Contribution: Propose, draft, and review technical specifications and proposals within NVMe and OCP working groups.
• Ecosystem Leadership: Act as a premier thought leader and key influencer within the broader storage community, serving in high-profile leadership positions (e.g., Committee Chair, Board Member, or Workgroup Lead) within NVMe, OCP, or SNIA boards.
• Industry Influence: Leverage an established technical network and a proven track record of influence within the storage industry to accelerate the adoption of favorable standards.
• Strategic Representation: Own technical voting seats and actively influence core NVMe and OCP committees to align industry standards with Samsung's core product capabilities, and technological strengths.
• IP and Innovation: Identify, draft, and secure patents for proprietary storage technologies during the early phases of the standardization process to protect Samsung's intellectual property.
• Samsung Product Alignment: Translate specific hyperscaler requirements—such as Microsoft’s Azure Cloud SSD specifications and Meta’s platform requirements—into actionable features for Samsung’s enterprise SSD controller and firmware architectures.
• Technology Roadmap Mapping: Analyze emerging standards and translate them into direct, actionable product requirements for internal R&D teams.
• Hyperscale-Samsung Collaboration: Jointly develop next-generation storage architectures (e.g., custom form factors like E1.S/E3, or advanced features like FDP) directly with architects from AWS, Google Cloud, Microsoft, Meta, and Samsung's product planning units.
• SNIA Standards Implementation: Collaborate SNIA specification initiative into Samsung SSD management interfaces for unified datacenter storage orchestration.
• Compliance & Integration: Partner with to ensure hardware and firmware align strictly with standard OCP compliance tests and specific cloud vendor qualification suites.
• Competitive Intelligence: Monitor, evaluate, and report on competitor strategies, technical directions, and voting patterns within standardization committees.
• Outbound Technical Marketing and Customer Education: Create customer-facing technical whitepapers, solution briefs, and education materials for Eco/Standard activities. Build thought-leadership materials similar to leading ecosystem education efforts by major competitors.

What You Bring

• Bachelor’s degree or higher in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Computer Science, or a related technical field with 10+ years experience or Master’s Degree with 8+ years experience or Ph.D. with 5+ years experience or equivalent field.
• Minimum of 10+ years of direct experience in the storage industry, including foundational hands-on experience with legacy HDD technology and systems alongside modern NAND flash and SSD development.
• Verified track record of strategic influence, technical contributions, or committee leadership within core storage industry bodies, consortiums, or major cross-industry vendor alliances.
• Proven experience designing or standardizing storage solutions that satisfy OCP Datacenter NVMe SSD Specifications mandated by major cloud vendors (e.g., Meta, Microsoft).
• Deep technical knowledge of PCIe/NVMe protocols, specialized enterprise features like FDP (Flexible Data Placement) and telemetry, anchored by a foundational understanding of legacy enterprise storage protocols (SAS/SATA/SCSI).
• Practical understanding of SNIA frameworks for storage management and SNIA's enduring models for data security and data lifecycle tracking.
• Ability to quickly master and leverage Samsung's proprietary SSD technologies, flash translation layers (FTL), and custom controller roadmaps to guide standardization proposals.
• Exceptional written and verbal English communication skills, with a proven ability to lead technical debates, author formal specifications, and build consensus among external competitors, partners, and cloud clients.
• You’re inclusive, adapting your style to the situation and diverse global norms of our people. An avid learner, you approach challenges with curiosity and resilience, seeking data to help b