Senior Director, IT - Data Centers and Cloud Services

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.

We are a key partner to some of the largest and highest growth organizations in the world. From energizing the most competitive gaming platforms, to enabling systems to make cities safer and cars smarter and more connected, to powering the data centers behind many of the world’s biggest companies and public cloud, Western Digital is fueling a brighter, smarter future.

Binge-watch any shows, use social media or shop online lately? You’ll find Western Digital supporting the storage infrastructure behind many of these platforms. And, that flash memory card that captures and preserves your most precious moments? That’s us, too.

We offer an expansive portfolio of technologies, storage devices and platforms for business and consumers alike. Our data-centric solutions are comprised of the Western Digital®, G-Technology™, SanDisk® and WD® brands.

Today’s exceptional challenges require your unique skills. It’s You & Western Digital. Together, we’re the next BIG thing in data.

Lead WD’s enterprise compute strategy and operations across on-premises, colocation, and cloud environments. Own the architecture, delivery, and optimization of servers, virtualization platforms, data storage platforms, and all IaaS cloud services supporting WD's global operations.

Key Responsibilities

• Strategic Leadership: Define and execute compute infrastructure roadmap aligned to business needs, Drive cloud adoption for IaaS and related workloads while optimizing hybrid infrastructure costs
• Technical Ownership: Oversee physical/virtual server estates, VMware/Hyper-V environments, data storage platforms (object, block, file systems), and cloud compute (AWS EC2, Azure VMs, GCP Compute Engine, etc.)
• Cloud Governance: Establish standards for IaaS/PaaS consumption, FinOps practices, security controls, and architectural patterns across AWS, Azure, and GCP plus next-tier providers
• Automation & AI Operations: Drive infrastructure automation through Infrastructure-as-Code and orchestration, implement Agentic AI for predictive maintenance, automated remediation, and intelligent workload optimization
• Observability & Resilience: Build comprehensive monitoring, alerting, and telemetry systems enabling service self-healing, automated incident response, and sub-30-minute MTTR for critical outages
• Operational Excellence: Ensure always-on availability for mission-critical systems, Lead capacity planning, disaster recovery, and performance optimization
• Business Partnership: Serve as trusted technology advisor to business unit leaders, Translate technical capabilities into business value, Align infrastructure investments to revenue and operational objectives
• Colocation & Facilities Management: Oversee relationships with colocation providers, Optimize rack space, power, and connectivity, Manage contract negotiations and SLA compliance
• Team Development: Build and mentor a high-performing team of infrastructure engineers, cloud architects, storage administrators, and expert operations analysts
• Vendor Management: Negotiate enterprise agreements with hyperscalers, colocation providers, and hardware vendors
• Modernization: Drive containerization, hyperconverged infrastructure implementation and adoption, and AI/ML infrastructure initiatives

Required Qualifications

• 12+ years in large scale enterprise infrastructure + 5+ years leading global teams at Director+ level
• Deep expertise in server architectures, virtualization platforms, and Linux/Windows administration
• Proven track record designing and migrating workloads to AWS/Azure/GCP at scale
• Strong understanding of data storage platforms, backup/recovery, and high-availability architectures
• Demonstrated success building business partnerships with executives and functional leaders with the ability to communicate technical concepts to non-technical stakeholders
• Experience with infrastructure automation tools and implementing Agentic AI for IT operations
• Proficiency managing colocation facilities including power/cooling requirements, network handoffs, and multi-site coordination
• Operational knowledge of zero-trust principles including micro-segmentation, least-privilege access controls, and identity-based security
• Track record implementing comprehensive observability platforms with automated issue remediation
• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or equivalent experience

Preferred Qualifications

• Manufacturing or storage industry experience
• Experience deploying hyperconverged infrastructure (e.g. Nutanix) at enterprise scale
• Knowledge of GPU compute and specialized hardware for AI/ML workloads
• Track record reducing infrastructure costs while improving performance and security posture

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” poster. Our pay transparency policy is available here.

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 5/20/2026 (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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