Senior Manager – Planning and 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®, 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

Job Summary: 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. They will foster cross-functional collaboration, ensuring alignment and effective execution of business priorities, and leverage data-driven decision-making to optimize strategy and drive continuous improvement.

Reports To: Director, Strategy and Planning

Strong Exposure To: Chief Strategy Officer (CSO), Chief Financial Officer (CFO)

Essential Duties & Responsibilities:

• Strategic Partnership & Cross-Functional Collaboration
  • Serve as a thought partner to teams across product, engineering, data science, marketing and sales, providing strategic operational planning and insights.
  • Collaborate with Finance & Operations (F&S) to provide critical context, scenario modeling inputs, and prioritization guidance for leadership investment decisions.
  • Act as a key liaison across teams, fostering alignment and ensuring effective execution of long-term business priorities.
• Operational Excellence & Data-Driven Strategy:
  • Collect, analyze, and synthesize data to inform strategic decisions and identify opportunities for growth and efficiency.
  • Design, implement, and refine processes and workflows to enhance team and organizational productivity.
  • Partner with functional groups to assess operational challenges and develop solutions aligned with company goals.
  • Define, implement, monitor, and report on key performance metrics to assess business health.
  • Serve as the subject matter expert (SME) and drive the strategy, design, AI/automation, and operationalization of cost-effective planning workflows.
  • Manage dependencies, risks, and workflow integration.
  • Design and implement a standardized system for managing changes to planning workflows.

Qualifications

Required:

• Bachelor's degree in engineering, business or related field
• Minimum of 7 years of experience with strong exposure to strategic planning, 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 process improvements
• Experience in driving change management across complex organizational structures

Preferred:

• MBA/MS from top tier institution preferred

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 person’s gender identity, gender expression, and gender-rela