Senior Director, HDD Technology Roadmap

Western Digital Corp•Rochester, MN

76d

About The Position

Essential Duties & Responsibilities: Own the HDD technology roadmap end-to-end, ensuring clarity, alignment, and timely updates across engineering, product, and operations organizations. Facilitate cross-functional collaboration, gathering inputs from R&D, platform, SoC, firmware, manufacturing, and customer-facing teams to create a unified, executable roadmap. Lead executive-level reviews every two months, presenting roadmap status, highlighting tradeoffs, and driving alignment on strategic priorities. Develop and maintain a transparent dashboard to provide real-time visibility into roadmap progress, milestones, dependencies, and risks. Identify and escalate conflicts, blockers, and resource gaps, working with senior leaders to resolve issues and adjust priorities as needed. Act as the single point of accountability for roadmap communication, ensuring stakeholders at all levels-from engineers to executives-have consistent, accurate information. Drive continuous improvement in roadmap processes, including mechanisms for early risk detection, cross-team accountability, and streamlined updates. Partner with customers and business teams (as needed) to ensure the roadmap reflects evolving industry demands and cloud/data center requirements. Qualifications Required: Proven experience at the Senior Director level (or equivalent) leading complex, cross-functional technology programs or roadmaps. Deep technical understanding of hard disk drive (HDD) architecture, development, and manufacturing, or closely related storage technologies. Demonstrated ability to work across multiple organizations (engineering, operations, product, business) to align strategy and execution. Strong executive presence and communication skills, with experience preparing and delivering updates to executive leadership. Proven track record of identifying risks, resolving conflicts, and driving accountability at scale. Preferred: Familiarity with dashboarding and reporting tools (e.g., Power BI, Tableau, or equivalent) to support roadmap visibility. Experience working with cloud service providers or hyperscale customers, understanding their requirements for HDD technology. Background in technology strategy, portfolio management, or product planning. Ability to influence without direct authority in a global, matrixed organization. Degree in engineering, computer science, or a related technical field. Skills: Exceptional organizational, analytical, and problem-solving skills.

Requirements

Proven experience at the Senior Director level (or equivalent) leading complex, cross-functional technology programs or roadmaps.
Deep technical understanding of hard disk drive (HDD) architecture, development, and manufacturing, or closely related storage technologies.
Demonstrated ability to work across multiple organizations (engineering, operations, product, business) to align strategy and execution.
Strong executive presence and communication skills, with experience preparing and delivering updates to executive leadership.
Proven track record of identifying risks, resolving conflicts, and driving accountability at scale.
Exceptional organizational, analytical, and problem-solving skills.

Nice To Haves

Familiarity with dashboarding and reporting tools (e.g., Power BI, Tableau, or equivalent) to support roadmap visibility.
Experience working with cloud service providers or hyperscale customers, understanding their requirements for HDD technology.
Background in technology strategy, portfolio management, or product planning.
Ability to influence without direct authority in a global, matrixed organization.
Degree in engineering, computer science, or a related technical field.

Responsibilities

Own the HDD technology roadmap end-to-end, ensuring clarity, alignment, and timely updates across engineering, product, and operations organizations.
Facilitate cross-functional collaboration, gathering inputs from R&D, platform, SoC, firmware, manufacturing, and customer-facing teams to create a unified, executable roadmap.
Lead executive-level reviews every two months, presenting roadmap status, highlighting tradeoffs, and driving alignment on strategic priorities.
Develop and maintain a transparent dashboard to provide real-time visibility into roadmap progress, milestones, dependencies, and risks.
Identify and escalate conflicts, blockers, and resource gaps, working with senior leaders to resolve issues and adjust priorities as needed.
Act as the single point of accountability for roadmap communication, ensuring stakeholders at all levels-from engineers to executives-have consistent, accurate information.
Drive continuous improvement in roadmap processes, including mechanisms for early risk detection, cross-team accountability, and streamlined updates.
Partner with customers and business teams (as needed) to ensure the roadmap reflects evolving industry demands and cloud/data center requirements.

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 Western Digital Savings 401(k) Plan