Analyst 5 Corporate Strategy

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®, and WD_BLACK™.

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

Role Overview:

This strategic leader will drive organizational growth by developing and executing long-term strategic plans, conducting in-depth market analysis, and providing actionable insights to senior leadership. Leveraging a deep background in technical operations and product strategy (with a focus on infrastructure and efficiency), this individual will foster cross-functional collaboration to ensure business priorities are executed with financial rigor and operational excellence.

ESSENTIAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES:

Strategic Partnership & Cross-Functional Collaboration

• Executive Thought Partnership: Serve as a strategic advisor to Product, Engineering, and Sales leadership, translating complex technical roadmaps into business-level strategic insights.

• Investment Prioritization: Collaborate closely with Finance & Strategy (F&S) to provide critical context for capital expenditure (CapEx) and operational expenditure (OpEx) decisions.

• Cross-Functional Alignment: Act as a key liaison between technical and non-technical teams, ensuring that long-term infrastructure investments align with the company’s broader commercial goals.

Operational Excellence & Data-Driven Strategy

• Infrastructure Economics & TCO Modeling: Lead the strategy, design, and operationalization of Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) models. Use these models to identify cost-saving opportunities, optimize resource allocation, and drive long-term margin improvement.

• Performance Metrics: Define and monitor KPIs that bridge technical performance (e.g., system reliability/scale) with business health (e.g., unit economics/customer acquisition cost).

• Process Engineering: Design and implement standardized systems for managing changes to complex planning workflows, ensuring risks are mitigated and dependencies are managed across the organization.

Qualifications

Required:

• Bachelor's degree in engineering, business or related field
• Relevant years of experience with strong exposure to semi-conductor industry, experience in top tier management consulting/investment bank/private equity followed by technology company
• Willingness to work in a fast-paced environment
• Strong judgment and decisiveness when dealing with timely, deadline-driven, content-related issues and concerns
• Insatiable curiosity to learn new domains, keep up with industry innovation, and constantly ask ‘why’
• Experience using data and metrics to determine and drive business decisions
• Experience in driving change management across complex organizational structures
• Strong storage industry experience

Preferred:

• STEM Bachelors
• MBA/MS

Skills:

• Strong analytical, problem-solving, and decision-making skills
• Excellent leadership and communication abilities, strong financial skills
• Excellent written (memos and presentations) and verbal communication skills; timely communication

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 pers