Electrical and Firmware Development Engineering, Master/Ph.D. NCG

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™, 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:

As a Servo Track Write (STW) development engineer, you will be involved in aspects of STW technology development, including:

1. Designing, developing, implementing, verifying, and maintaining next-generation STW firmware. This will focus on sensing and servo control related to read-channel functionalities or preamps, power drivers, and motors (such as thermal actuators, VCMs, PZT actuators, and spindle motors).
2. Developing firmware and Matlab tools to bring up, maintain, and enhance the functionality of new or existing SoCs, read channels, and/or power drivers.
3. Collaborating with other organizations, both within the company and with external vendors, to design and develop new SoCs and features for the servo channel/signal processing and/or power driver & preamps.
4. Validating the drive hardware platform used to perform the Self-Servo-Write function, including SoC, power driver, motor, and mechanics.
5. Analyzing large amounts of data collected from hard disk drive manufacturing processes, extracting critical parameters, and visualizing them to help engineers identify trends, issues, and potential root causes of failures or degradations, or used for system design, optimization, decision-making, or prediction. This includes developing optimization and robust feedback motion control systems and parameter optimization for product quality and yield improvement.
6. Documenting, sharing, and exchanging ideas, solutions, and information.

Qualifications

Required:

• At least a master’s degree, preferably a Ph.D., in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, or related fields, with experience and a strong interest in developing real-time embedded firmware or software.
• Candidates who do not meet the degree requirements but have demonstrated strong research and development capabilities directly related to the work will also be considered.
• Experience with Control Systems or Digital Signal Processing is preferred.
• Basic knowledge of interfacing firmware, digital hardware, and analog electronics.
• Experience or expertise using Matlab.
• Real-time development background in C/C++ (object-oriented design experience is a strong plus).

Preferred:

• Experience with ARM processors, RTOS, Assembly, and Lua.
• The ability to use firmware debug tools and lab equipment for design and troubleshooting.
• A hardware design background is also valuable.

Skills:

• Good teamwork, strong analytical and communication skills, and an Agile/Lean mindset are important.

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