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Company Description

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™ 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

The Vice President - Enterprise Architecture & Engineering will serve as the strategic technology leader responsible for shaping and governing the company’s end-to-end architecture vision. This executive will ensure that the enterprise technology ecosystem—spanning data, applications, AI, and infrastructure—remains scalable, secure, and aligned with business goals.

Partnering closely with the CIO and senior leadership, the VP will drive architectural innovation, champion AI-enabled capabilities, and build a high-performing architecture function that accelerates digital transformation and operational excellence. The role serves as a market-leading trend scout, continuously scanning emerging technologies and translating those insights into actionable strategies that ensure WDC remains modern, competitive, and future-ready.

Key Responsibilities:

Strategic Technology Leadership

+ Define and own the enterprise technology roadmap that aligns AI-driven innovation with business goals.

+ Partner with the CIO to balance immediate delivery needs against long-term architectural evolution.

+ Translate emerging technologies into actionable, value-driven initiatives.

Architectural Oversight

+ Lead the Enterprise Architecture organization, ensuring architectural coherence across Data Platforms, Assurance, Supply Chain, MES, and other core domains.

+ Establish standards, reference architectures, and governance frameworks to ensure scalability, security, and regulatory compliance.

+ Oversee architecture review boards and ensure consistent application of enterprise design principles.

Agentic AI Program

+ Champion the design, development, and rollout of Agentic AI solutions that automate decision-making and enhance customer value.

+ Define success metrics, model governance, and ethical AI principles to guide deployment.

+ Collaborate with Data Science and Engineering to operationalize AI in core business processes.

Team Building & Management

+ Build, lead, and mentor a high-performing architecture team—including enterprise architects, senior engineers, and AI specialists.

+ Foster a culture of technical rigor, innovation, and cross-functional collaboration.

+ Establish professional development programs to strengthen architectural expertise across the enterprise.

Executive Partnership

+ Serve as the primary technical advisor to the CIO and a trusted voice to executive leadership.

+ Translate complex technical concepts into clear business narratives for senior leadership, the board, and external partners.

+ Influence enterprise priorities through data-driven insights and architectural foresight.

Stakeholder Alignment

+ Partner with product, engineering, operations, and business unit leaders to ensure architecture decisions enable rapid delivery while maintaining reliability and security.

+ Conduct architecture and risk assessments to proactively manage technology debt and compliance posture.

Innovation & Thought Leadership

+ Keep the organization at the forefront of emerging technologies including cloud-native computing, AI/ML, microservices, and edge computing.

+ Represent the company at industry events, conferences, and internal technology forums.

+ Lead strategic technology evaluations and proof-of-concepts for next-generation solutions.

Operational Excellence

+ Oversee technology budgeting, vendor evaluation, and capacity planning in partnership with the CIO.

+ Ensure adherence to global security, privacy, and regulatory requirements across all enterprise platforms.

+ Drive continuous improvement in architecture governance and technology lifecycle management.

Qualifications

Experience

+ 12–15 years of progressive experience in software engineering, systems design, or enterprise architecture.

+ Minimum 5 years in senior technology leadership (Director, VP, or CTO-equivalent) within a complex, global organization.

+ Demonstrated success leading large-scale architecture transformations and AI-driven initiatives.

Technical Expertise

+ Deep mastery of cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, GCP) and modern infrastructure (Kubernetes, IaC, serverless).

+ Proven experience designing and scaling data-centric architectures (data lake/warehouse, streaming, real-time analytics).

+ Hands-on experience building and deploying Agentic/Autonomous AI pipelines in production environments.

+ Strong background in enterprise integration (API-first, event-driven, ESB) and manufacturing execution systems (MES, Kinaxis).

Leadership & Communication

+ Exceptional ability to recruit, develop, and retain top technical talent.

+ Outstanding executive communication and influence skills; able to present complex ideas clearly to non-technical audiences and the board.

+ Strong strategic mindset with the ability to connect architecture decisions to measurable business outcomes.

Education:

Bachelor’s degree in computer science, Engineering, or related field required; Master’s degree preferred.

Preferred:

Experience in regulated or mission-critical industries (e.g., manufacturing, aerospace, fintech).

Certifications: TOGAF, AWS/Azure Solutions Architect, or equivalent. Recognized contributions to the field through publications, patents, or speaking engagements on AI, architecture, or large-scale systems.

Additional Information

Western Digital is committed to providing equal opportunities to all applicants and employees and will not discriminate against any applicant or employee based on their race, color, ancestry, religion (including religious dress and grooming standards), sex (including pregnancy, childbirth or related medical conditions, breastfeeding or related medical conditions), gender (including a person’s gender identity, gender expression, and gender-related appearance and behavior, whether or not stereotypically associated with the person’s assigned sex at birth), age, national origin, sexual orientation, medical condition, marital status (including domestic partnership status), physical disability, mental disability, medical condition, genetic information, protected medical and family care leave, Civil Air Patrol status, military and veteran status, or other legally protected characteristics. We also prohibit harassment of any individual on any of the characteristics listed above. Our non-discrimination policy applies to all aspects of employment. We comply with the laws and regulations set forth in the "Know Your Rights: Workplace Discrimination is Illegal (https://www.eeoc.gov/sites/default/files/2023-06/22-088\_EEOC\_KnowYourRights6.12.pdf) ” poster. Our pay transparency policy is available here (https://www.dol.gov/sites/dolgov/files/OFCCP/pdf/pay-transp\_%20English\_formattedESQA508c.pdf) .

Western Digital thrives on the power and potential of diversity. As a global company, we believe the most effective way to embrace the diversity of our customers and communities is to mirror it from within. We believe the fusion of various perspectives results in the best outcomes for our employees, our company, our customers, and the world around us. We are committed to an inclusive environment where every individual can thrive through a sense of belonging, respect and contribution.

Western Digital is committed to offering opportunities to applicants with disabilities and ensuring all candidates can successfully navigate our careers website and our hiring process. Please contact us at [email protected] to advise us of your accommodation request. In your email, please include a description of the specific accommodation you are requesting as well as the job title and requisition number of the position for which you are applying.

Based on our experience, we anticipate that the application deadline will be (3 months from posting), although we reserve the right to close the application process sooner if we hire an applicant for this position before the application deadline. If we are not able to hire someone from this role before the application deadline, we will update this posting with a new anticipated application deadline.

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