Hardware Development Technologist

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.

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.

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 excellent written and verbal communication skills, strong project management and people skills, and must be able to act as an active team leader or cross-functional team member to provide the best results to the teams and company.   
• Must know how to effectively work with process engineers, equipment engineers, technicians, vendors and be able to clearly transfer technical knowledge and work instructions in an accessible manner.
• PC skills include MS Excel, Project, Word, PowerPoint, and Outlook.
• Experience using computer simulation commercial software packages (COMSOL, ANSYS) highly desirable.
• Travel may be required to support job function at offshore locations.

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 05/19/2025 (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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Compensation & Benefits Details

• An employee’s pay position within the salary range may be based on several factors including but not limited to (1) relevant education; qualifications; certifications; and experience; (2) skills, ability, knowledge of the job; (3) performance, contribution and results; (4) geographic location; (5) shift; (6) internal and external equity; and (7) business and organizational needs.
• The salary range is what we believe to be the range of possible compensation for this role at the time of this posting.  We may ultimately pay more or less than the posted range and this range is only applicable for jobs to be performed in California, Colorado, New York or remote jobs that can be performed in California, Colorado and New York.  This range may be modified in the future.
• You will be eligible to participate in Western Digital’s Short-Term Incentive (STI) Plan, which provides incentive awards based on Company and individual performance.  Depending on your role and your performance, you may be eligible to participate in our annual Long-Term Incentive (LTI) program, which consists of restricted stock units (RSUs) or cash equivalents, pursuant to the terms of the LTI plan. Please note that not all roles are eligible to participate in the LTI program, and not all roles are eligible for equity under the LTI plan. RSU awards are also available to eligible new hires, subject to Western Digital’s Standard Terms and Conditions for Restricted Stock Unit Awards.
• We offer a comprehensive package of benefits including paid vacation time; paid sick leave; medical/dental/vision insurance; life, accident and disability insurance; tax-advantaged flexible spending and health savings accounts; employee assistance program; other voluntary benefit programs such as supplemental life and AD&D, legal plan, pet insurance, critical illness, accident and hospital indemnity; tuition reimbursement; transit; the Applause Program, employee stock purchase plan, and the Western Digital Savings 401(k) Plan.
• Note: No amount of pay is considered to be wages or compensation until such amount is earned, vested, and determinable. The amount and availability of any bonus, commission, benefits, or any other form of compensation and benefits that are allocable to a particular employee remains in the Company's sole discretion unless and until paid and may be modified at the Company’s sole discretion, consistent with the law.