Senior Manager, IT Strategy & Transformation at Western Digital

San Jose, California, United States

Western Digital Logo
Not SpecifiedCompensation
Senior (5 to 8 years), Expert & Leadership (9+ years)Experience Level
Full TimeJob Type
UnknownVisa
Data Storage, Technology, HardwareIndustries

Requirements

  • 10+ years in IT transformation, PMO leadership, enterprise portfolio management, or technology strategy
  • Experience defining governance frameworks and managing large initiative portfolios
  • Strong analytical skills; comfortable with executive-level reporting and data-driven decision making
  • Proven ability to influence senior leaders and drive alignment across multiple teams
  • Highly organized, detail-oriented, and capable of managing competing priorities in a fast-paced environment
  • Proficiency with tools such as Power BI, M365, Smartsheet, Jira, or equivalent

Responsibilities

  • Partner with the CIO, Chief of Staff, and Strategy leads to translate business objectives into IT strategic priorities, outcomes, and measurable success criteria (OKRs)
  • Support development of the Annual Operating Plan (AOP) and the multi-year IT roadmap
  • Maintain alignment between strategic pillars, IT capabilities, and the initiatives proposed or underway
  • Ensure initiative owners understand strategic intent and how their work maps to IT’s long-term plan
  • Manage the end-to-end intake process for new ideas and proposed initiatives
  • Standardize evaluation criteria (business case, strategic alignment, resource needs, OKRs)
  • Facilitate decision-making forums and ensure decisions (approve / defer / reject) are documented and communicated
  • Work with finance, HR, and engineering leaders to validate feasibility, capacity, and funding availability
  • Maintain a transparent view of all incoming requests and in-flight initiatives
  • Own the governance model and operating cadence across the portfolio—steering committees, initiative reviews, risk assessments, and executive reporting
  • Create and maintain dashboards (scope, schedule, budget, risks, dependencies, value)
  • Monitor initiative performance against OKRs and strategic outcomes
  • Identify delivery risks, escalate issues, and drive cross-team alignment to keep initiatives on track
  • Track financial forecasts, budget adherence, and value realization metrics
  • Provide executive-ready insights on portfolio health for the CIO, CFO, and ITLT

Skills

Key technologies and capabilities for this role

IT StrategyTransformationPortfolio ManagementStrategic PlanningOKRsAnnual Operating PlanRoadmap DevelopmentGovernanceIntake & PrioritizationReporting

Questions & Answers

Common questions about this position

Is this role remote or on-site?

This is an on-site position.

What are the key responsibilities of this role?

The role focuses on Strategy Enablement, Intake & Prioritization, and Portfolio Management & Reporting, including partnering with CIO and leaders, managing intake processes, and owning governance and dashboards.

What is the salary or compensation for this position?

This information is not specified in the job description.

What is the company culture like at Western Digital?

Western Digital emphasizes a mission to unlock data potential, solving problems to empower others, with a 50+ year legacy in memory and data storage innovation across brands like Western Digital, SanDisk, and WD.

What makes a strong candidate for this Senior Manager role?

Strong candidates will have experience driving IT strategy enablement, managing intake and prioritization processes, and handling portfolio governance, with skills in partnering with executives like the CIO and creating dashboards for OKRs and risks.

Western Digital

Provides data storage solutions and services

About Western Digital

Western Digital provides a variety of data storage solutions, including Network Attached Storage (NAS), Storage Area Network (SAN), private cloud, and hyper-converged infrastructure. Their products are designed to help businesses manage and store data efficiently and reliably. For example, their all-flash arrays are optimized for high input/output applications, while the JetStor brand offers cost-effective NAS and SAN arrays that support multiple host ports for improved performance. What sets Western Digital apart from its competitors is its extensive experience in the data storage market and its ability to cater to a wide range of clients, from large corporations to small businesses. The company's goal is to deliver high-value storage solutions that meet the diverse needs of its customers, ensuring they have the tools necessary for effective data management.

San Jose, CaliforniaHeadquarters
2014Year Founded
$927.9MTotal Funding
IPOCompany Stage
Data & Analytics, Enterprise SoftwareIndustries
10,001+Employees

Benefits

Paid sick leave & vacation time
Medical/dental/vision insurance
Life, accident, & disability insurance
Tax-advantaged flexible spending and health savings accounts
Employee assistance program
Tuition reimbursement
Employee stock purchase plan
Western Digital Savings 401(k) Plan

Risks

Seagate's HAMR technology may outperform Western Digital's ePMR in high-capacity HDDs.
Toshiba's HAMR and MAMR technologies intensify competition in the storage market.
Focus on consumer products may neglect enterprise client needs, risking market share.

Differentiation

Western Digital leads in high-capacity HDDs with 32TB UltraSMR and ePMR technology.
The company offers diverse storage solutions, including NAS, SAN, and private cloud.
Western Digital's SanDisk and WD_BLACK brands target creators and gamers effectively.

Upsides

Growing demand for high-capacity storage driven by AI and data-intensive applications.
Recent product launches cater to the expanding gaming and content creation markets.
Advancements in ePMR technology enhance Western Digital's competitive edge in HDDs.

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