Applications Engineer (Qual Product)

Western Digital • Irvine, CA

6d

About The Position

At Western Digital, our vision is to power global innovation and push the boundaries of technology to make what you thought was once impossible, possible. At our core, Western Digital is a company of problem solvers. People achieve extraordinary things given the right technology. For decades, we’ve been doing just that—our technology helped people put a man on the moon and capture the first-ever picture of a black hole. We offer an expansive portfolio of technologies, HDDs, and platforms for business, creative professionals, and consumers alike under our Western Digital®, WD®, WD_BLACK™, and SanDisk® Professional brands. We are a key partner to some of the largest and highest-growth organizations in the world. From enabling systems to make cities safer and more connected, to powering the data centers behind many of the world’s biggest companies and hyperscale cloud providers, to meeting the massive and ever-growing data storage needs of the AI era, Western Digital is fueling a brighter, smarter future. Today’s exceptional challenges require your unique skills. Together, we can build the future of data storage. Job Description ESSENTIAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES: AE, Applications Engineer in HDD works as the focal point of contact for OEM customers in Surveillance, Connected Home and NAS applications as well as for WDC internal Engineering and Marketing teams to manage qualification plans and drive actions to align Product specification and designs with Customer's requirements. AE is responsible to track all technical and design requirements from OEM customer, and ensure those are reviewed by the relevant team and incorporated into product design in timely manner, which occasionally requires in-depth discussion and negotiation with Customer and/or Engineer team. Coordination of such discussions is owned by AE as well. AE manages all qualification activities, starting from specification alignment, qualification sample forecasting and tracking of them, open issue tracking (FA and Engineering discussion) and drives actions to closures. Leading discussions with FE (Field Engineer) for OEM customer product design and requirements is another key role for AE, which requires relationship building with key customer stakeholders. AE is accountable to deliver all qualification deliverables including but not limited to Qual reports, any product information required by Customer, FA report during qualification if there are any issues. AE will have BOM management, factory process, technical reference manual as well as customer label release responsibility. Before a new product qualification cycle starts, AE starts to work with relevant internal and external teams to prepare such deliverables ahead of time.

Requirements

• BS or above in Engineering field is required.
• Storage device background is must.
• Minimum 2 years of customer interaction experience is required.
• Flexible work hours required to work with teams in multi time zones – world-wide
• Result-oriented mindset to drive actions is must.
• Multi-tasking capability is required to drive actions in timely manner.
• Willingness to learn new things, adaptability to new environment are must.
• Need to be fluent in English for casual and business conversations

Nice To Haves

• HDD product experience preferred and Flash is a bonus
• Engineering educational background is strongly desired.
• Mandarin as well as other languages is a strong plus

Responsibilities

• AE, Applications Engineer in HDD works as the focal point of contact for OEM customers in Surveillance, Connected Home and NAS applications as well as for WDC internal Engineering and Marketing teams to manage qualification plans and drive actions to align Product specification and designs with Customer's requirements.
• AE is responsible to track all technical and design requirements from OEM customer, and ensure those are reviewed by the relevant team and incorporated into product design in timely manner, which occasionally requires in-depth discussion and negotiation with Customer and/or Engineer team.
• Coordination of such discussions is owned by AE as well.
• AE manages all qualification activities, starting from specification alignment, qualification sample forecasting and tracking of them, open issue tracking (FA and Engineering discussion) and drives actions to closures.
• Leading discussions with FE (Field Engineer) for OEM customer product design and requirements is another key role for AE, which requires relationship building with key customer stakeholders.
• AE is accountable to deliver all qualification deliverables including but not limited to Qual reports, any product information required by Customer, FA report during qualification if there are any issues.
• AE will have BOM management, factory process, technical reference manual as well as customer label release responsibility.
• Before a new product qualification cycle starts, AE starts to work with relevant internal and external teams to prepare such deliverables ahead of time.

Benefits

• 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 Western Digital Savings 401(k) Plan.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Mid Level
• Number of Employees: 5,001-10,000 employees