Sr. Technologist, Reliability Engineering

Company Description

Whether in your pocket, home, car, or the cloud, it’s likely that Western Digital is with you every step of the way. Advanced Reliability Engineering’s (ARE) mission is to develop and deploy reliability assurance methods that are industry-leading and cover the end-to-end product life cycle for Western Digital Hard Drive products. We collaborate with all major functional teams, including R&D, manufacturing and customer support.

Job Description

• Continuously improve reliability assurance methods and processes at WD for all market segments.
• Actively seek and apply improved knowledge of customer applications to continuous adapt our reliability testing strategy.
• Apply physics of failure knowledge to modify or create new reliability-relevant tests at WD and major suppliers.
  • Establish acceleration test-to-field models, pass/fail targets, sampling rules.
  • Improve acceleration factor understanding by planning and managing DOEs.
• Assess reliability risks associated with the introduction of new technologies into system and components, and work with the Engineering teams to define closure plans. Advance and apply our methods for risk assessment.
• Continually assess existing processes for opportunities to apply data analytics, machine learning and AI to advance our reliability methods. Partner with Data Analytics teams to turn opportunities into reality.
• Apply and improve the Design for Reliability (DfR) process and drive specific elements like specification setting, or leading effective design FMEAs for new technologies.
• Lead cross-functional and cross-site teams from Engineering, Manufacturing, Quality Assurance Management, Data Analytics and Customer Teams to problem-solve and to create and implement solutions.
• Be a trusted internal consultant for reliability questions from other functions.
• Participate in conferences or seminars to assure that we are on the forefront of reliability assurance best practices worldwide.

Qualifications

• Masters or Ph.D. degree in engineering, physics or related field.,
• 5+ years technical hands-on experience in engineering, technology, or process development. 
• Basic knowledge of reliability principles and statistics. A good feel for engineering physics is more important in our work than extensive reliability statistics knowledge.
• A healthy desire to challenge the status quo and provide innovative alternatives. This also includes scrutiny of input data quality to our processes and models.
• Demonstrated ability to innovate and solve difficult non-routine technical challenges.
• Demonstrated project management skills from vision to plan to execution.
• Track record of leading and achieving results in cross-functional and cross-site teams.
• Highly effective oral and written communication skills, especially in presentations to other functions, customers and executive management. The candidates we invite will be asked to give a seminar on a work project with content of non-proprietary nature.
• Our factories are located in Thailand and we typically have about one evening meeting a week.
• Travel: Once or twice a year, domestically and internationally.

Additional Information

All your information will be kept confidential according to EEO guidelines.

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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.