Associate, Corporate Development Analyst
About The Position
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. This is a high-impact execution role at the center of Western Digital's inorganic growth agenda, offering direct exposure to the Executive Leadership Team and Board on key company initiatives. The Associate will independently own financial modeling, diligence coordination, and deal materials that shape M&A, JV, divestiture, and venture decisions as Western Digital strengthens its core HDD business while expanding into new deep technology areas. The role offers rare hands-on deal experience with a top-tier in-house corporate development function.
Requirements
- 3–6 years in investment banking, private equity/growth equity, corporate development, or management consulting where financial modeling depth and analytical rigor were clearly demonstrated.
- Transaction execution experience required - must have worked on live deals through diligence, negotiation, and close.
- Exceptional financial modeling and quantitative analysis skills; can build models from scratch across valuation, alternative deal structures and economics, and can defend assumptions under executive pressure.
- Experience producing investment memos, Board materials, and executive-ready deal summaries with minimal senior oversight.
- Familiarity with due diligence workstreams across Legal, Finance, HR, IT, and technical/product.
- Operates independently, drives workstreams to completion, and delivers against tight deadlines. Demonstrates strong attention to detail, proactiveness, and independence.
- Familiarity with market intelligence platforms (PitchBook, CapIQ, etc.))
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
- Strong Excel and PowerPoint skills; data visualization a plus.
Nice To Haves
- Prior experience in highly technical industry
- Experience across multiple deal types e.g., strategic M&A, joint ventures, divestitures, commercial partnerships, cross-border transactions.
- Deep-tech venture investing experience.
Responsibilities
- Lead financial modeling and deal economics independently including DCF/valuation, trading and transaction comps, accretion/dilution, synergy analysis, and deal structuring.
- Build and defend sophisticated financial models from scratch, including stress-testing assumptions under executive scrutiny.
- Develop unit economics, return analyses, and value-creation frameworks for M&A and venture opportunities; support investment thesis development with rigorous quantitative underpinning.
- Map and maintain target landscape: research acquisition candidates, track competitor M&A activity, and maintain the deal pipeline and CRM.
- Conduct primary and secondary research to identify and prioritize acquisition, JV, and investment targets; support pipeline reviews and portfolio prioritization discussions with Corporate Development leadership.
- Produce executive-ready investment memos, deal summaries, and Board materials.
- Translate complex financial and strategic analysis into clear, compelling narratives for senior leadership.
- Support WD Capital: conduct company and technology diligence on startup investment opportunities and develop investment thesis independently for venture opportunities in storage, data infrastructure, and AI adjacencies.
- Build relationships with VCs, accelerators, and startup ecosystems to support deal sourcing.
- Partner closely with Finance, Legal, HR, and business leaders throughout the deal lifecycle to enable due diligence coordination, risk assessment, and integration hand-off.
- Build trusted relationships with cross-functional stakeholders and drive coordination with minimal senior oversight.
Benefits
- 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
- the WD Savings 401(k) Plan
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What This Job Offers
Job Type
Full-time
Career Level
Mid Level
