Executive Assistant to the Chief Product Officer

Western Digital • San Jose, CA

7d • $119,900 - $159,800 • Onsite

About The Position

WD is seeking an experienced Executive Assistant to support the Chief Product Officer (CPO) of Western Digital. This role serves as a strategic partner to the CPO, working closely with the CPO's Chief of Staff to support the Product organization. The position involves collaboration with senior leaders across Product Management, Engineering, Operations, Marketing, Sales, and Corporate Functions. In this visible role, the Executive Assistant will handle confidential information and ensure the efficiency of the CPO's office by anticipating needs, exercising judgment, managing priorities, and driving operational excellence in a fast-paced, global environment. Success requires exceptional organizational skills, business judgment, attention to detail, and the ability to build trusted relationships. The ideal candidate is proactive, resourceful, collaborative, and adaptable to a dynamic environment with shifting priorities, adept at using modern productivity tools. Supporting a global executive demands flexibility, adaptability, and strong self-management.

Requirements

• Minimum of 8 years supporting a Chief Product Officer, Executive Vice President, Senior Vice President, or equivalent executive within a large public company.
• Experience supporting executives in a complex global organization spanning multiple regions, cultures, and time zones.
• Advanced proficiency with Microsoft Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Teams, SharePoint, OneDrive, and AI-enabled productivity tools.
• Demonstrated ability to manage highly complex calendars, travel, executive communications, and business operations.
• Strong experience developing executive-level presentations, briefing materials, meeting summaries, and business communications.
• Exceptional organizational, planning, project management, and prioritization skills, with the ability to manage multiple competing priorities.
• Strong business judgment, problem-solving capability, and attention to detail.
• Ability to anticipate executive needs and proactively identify solutions.
• Proven ability to serve as a trusted advisor on prioritization, scheduling, and organizational matters.
• Ability to work independently, exercise discretion, and manage highly confidential and sensitive information.
• Outstanding written, verbal, and interpersonal communication skills.
• Proven ability to build trusted relationships and collaborate effectively across executive and cross-functional stakeholder groups.
• Demonstrated experience supporting executive leadership teams within highly matrixed organizations.
• Experience driving accountability for deliverables, follow-up actions, and organizational commitments.
• Demonstrated experience mentoring, coaching, or leading administrative professionals.
• Ability to effectively partner with globally distributed teams and stakeholders across diverse regions and cultures.
• Flexibility to support a global executive organization across multiple time zones as business needs require.
• Daily presence at WD’s San Jose (Great Oaks) office is required.

Nice To Haves

• Experience supporting a Chief Product Officer, Chief Technology Officer, or executive leader within a Product, Engineering, Technology, or R&D organization.
• Familiarity with product development lifecycles, product management practices, roadmap planning, product reviews, and agile operating environments.
• Experience coordinating executive reviews, customer engagements, analyst briefings, board-related materials, and strategic planning activities.
• Experience supporting organizations focused on technology, semiconductors, storage, hardware, software, or innovation.
• Advanced proficiency leveraging AI tools such as Microsoft Copilot and other productivity technologies to drive operational efficiency.
• Experience working within highly matrixed, fast-growing, and globally distributed organizations.
• Experience leading projects, coordinating cross-functional initiatives, and influencing outcomes without direct authority.
• Experience supporting large-scale organizational transformations, product strategy initiatives, or executive operating models.

Responsibilities

• Manage and optimize the CPO's calendar, ensuring alignment with product, business, and company priorities.
• Proactively identify scheduling conflicts, prioritize meetings, and maximize executive productivity across multiple time zones.
• Develop a strong understanding of business priorities to effectively guide scheduling decisions and meeting prioritization.
• Anticipate executive needs and recommend solutions to ensure seamless execution of priorities.
• Partner with the Product Leadership Team to coordinate and execute operating rhythms, leadership meetings, product reviews, roadmap planning sessions, quarterly business reviews, and strategic planning activities.
• Ensure appropriate preparation, documentation, and follow-up actions for key product and executive forums.
• Drive accountability for action items, milestones, and deliverables resulting from leadership meetings and strategic initiatives.
• Plan and execute internal and external meetings, leadership offsites, customer engagements, analyst briefings, board-related product reviews, and team events.
• Coordinate agendas, logistics, meeting materials, and action-item tracking.
• Support planning and execution of organizational events and leadership forums.
• Serve as a key point of contact for the Office of the Chief Product Officer.
• Manage communications, inquiries, approvals, and requests on behalf of the executive, as appropriate.
• Foster effective communication between the Product organization and cross-functional stakeholders.
• Ensure communications produced on behalf of the executive are accurate, professional, and aligned with business priorities.
• Manage expense reports, purchase orders, statements of work, and other operational processes in compliance with company policies.
• Utilize and champion productivity tools including Microsoft 365, Copilot, WD Chat, SharePoint, Teams, and other internal systems.
• Identify opportunities to streamline administrative processes and improve organizational effectiveness through automation and AI-enabled tools.
• Coordinate executive briefing materials for internal leadership meetings, customer visits, industry events, analyst engagements, and business travel in partnership with the Chief of Staff, Executive Communications, and other key stakeholders.
• Ensure briefing materials, presentations, meeting summaries, and supporting documentation are organized, complete, and available to the CPO in advance of key engagements.
• Partner with leaders across Product, Engineering, Sales, Marketing, Finance, Operations, and Corporate Functions to drive alignment on strategic initiatives and organizational priorities.
• Build trusted relationships with executives, stakeholders, and cross-functional leaders.
• Support execution of strategic product initiatives, organizational priorities, and special projects.
• Manage complex domestic and international travel, balancing executive priorities, time-zone considerations, and seamless logistics.
• Provide leadership and functional oversight for EAs across the Product organization, including resource allocation, workload balancing, role scoping, and ongoing performance feedback.
• Own EA team culture, employee engagement initiatives, leadership events, and organizational communications.
• Foster collaboration and best practice sharing across the Executive Assistant community.
• Contribute to a high-performing, service-oriented culture within the broader organization.
• Build strong partnerships within the executive assistant community and contribute to best practice sharing across the company.

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
• 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
• WD Savings 401(k) Plan
• eligibility for bonuses under WD’s Short Term Incentive Plan (“STI Plan”) or the Sales Incentive Plan (“SIP”)
• potential eligibility for annual Long-Term Incentive (LTI) program (restricted stock units (RSUs) or cash equivalents)
• RSU awards available to eligible new hires
• eligibility for overtime pay
• potential eligibility for shift differential pay

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Executive
• Education Level: No Education Listed