Hardware Development Technologist

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

The Hardware Development Technologist must have strong equipment and process engineering background and experience with emphasis on technology utilized in the development and mass production of HDD recording media.  They are responsible for our Equipment Evaluation Lab and corresponding Test Chambers and all corresponding project management tasks to define, build, evaluate, deploy, and improve equipment capability, process capability and maintenance requirements for install of new and reconfiguration of existing media sputter deposition tools.

Being the in-house technical equipment expert, they are hands-on technical individuals with strong design, project management and troubleshooting skills to enable the efficient and effective deployment of new hardware on our HDD sputter tool.

ESSENTIAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Take ownership of new equipment design/build/install/evaluation tasks. Drive specification, technical negotiation with vendors, design and documentation review, manpower resource coordination, configuration change, hardware installation, tool integration, qualification testing and tool buy-off.  Ensure project is on schedule, and at the same time deliver with the highest quality by proactively identifying and correcting capability, reliability, maintenance and assembly issues early on.  Generate accurate and detailed documentation for technician, engineering, facility, maintenance, stores and process owners.
• Provide direction for accurate and detailed documentation as well as training for build, reconfiguration, expansion and installation of new and existing media deposition hardware. Monitor and follow through for continuous improvement opportunities across all shifts for both US based and offshore operations.
• Review and evaluate tool assembly, hardware and spare parts related inputs from Development Engineering, Sustaining Equipment Engineering and Maintenance organizations.  Provide timely response, proposed timeline and sound actions for continuous improvement opportunities.
• Define and review required hardware to support reconfiguration/installation tasks, including minimum (reorder) and maximum spares quantities on critical and long lead items to ensure inventories are at the correct level to support equipment new build, reconfiguration, maintenance and repair effort. Work with store and vendor to ensure in-coming parts meet form, fit, functional and other quality requirements.  Generate parts and consumables specifications, checklist and drawings as needed.
• Pursue and manage outside capabilities, vendor resources to support new build, reconfiguration and hardware/tool installation activities through 3rd party or contract providers.

Qualifications

REQUIRED:

• Highly motivated individual who has at least 10 years’ experience with a Ph.D. or at least 15 years’ experience with an M.S. or B.S. degree years and a successful track record in media deposition and/or semiconductor manufacturing equipment design, operations, installation and sustaining experience.
• Degrees must be in electrical, mechanical, or related Engineering or physical science.
• The candidate must demonstrate technical capability and hands on experience with installation and machine troubleshooting for Thin Film (PVD/CVD) process equipment. Direct experience on Intevac Lean and/or Canon Anelva sputter equipment highly preferred.
• The applicant must be a strong problem solver, organized and quality driven. 
• Required experiences include in-depth understanding and practice of equipment design and testing as well as good understanding of HDD media or semiconductor manufacturing process technology.
• The position requires