Senior Leader, Data Analytics Engineering, Distinguished Engineer

Full-time - Senior

San Jose, CA

About the position

The Advanced Analytics Office (AAO) within the Information Technology organization, is missioned with accelerating advanced Data and Analytics solutions across the Enterprise to unlock business value and create competitive advantage. These solutions target key operational metrics, such as, reducing cost, improving capital & asset efficiency, and improving operational efficiency. The Analytics solutions also target improving our market position by enabling business agility, reducing time-to-market to develop new products, and improving customer 360 experience. The solutions use cutting edge technologies and are delivered through a platform approach to enable rapid scaling across the Enterprise. These solutions span both Operational data and Big data platforms using both Cloud and On-premise environments. The solutions leverage the latest in analytics technologies, such as, Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning (AI/ML), Digital Twin Simulations, and Operations Research based Optimization methods to deliver to business outcomes. We partner with over dozen factories across US and Asia that manufacture our Hard Disk Drive and Flash drives; these factories generate vast amounts of manufacturing and test data with tremendous amount of information. Apart from manufacturing data, our enterprise functions generate operational data which spans Business units, Sales & Marketing, Finance, Supply chain, Logistics, Procurement, and many other supporting functions. We continually seek to connect this data across the enterprise to enable rapid decision making. This journey is already in full swing, and we expect to continue to accelerate. The goal is to connect End-to-end enterprise information that enables rapid evaluation of next best decisions and optimize Enterprise resources and our position in the market. We are looking for a dynamic Senior leader (Distinguished Engineer role equivalent) who will play a pivotal role in helping accelerate the overall IT Connected Enterprise vision. We are looking for a leader who will take an enterprise view to understand complex cross-functional business processes and then take a hands-on approach to define, prioritize and lead implementation of foundation components required to connect the Enterprise. These components can span infrastructure review, Data fabric design, platform choices, Software stack and applications, and integration decisions.

Responsibilities

• Lead technology direction with business focus
• Evaluate emerging technologies and trends and assess their relevance to the WDC organization and recommend adoption strategies.
• Collaborate with business leaders, IT teams, and other stakeholders to develop a point of view on architectural underpinnings for enabling an incremental and prioritized process towards achieving an end-to-end connected enterprise.
• Develop and champion the organization's enterprise architecture that continuously strengthens technology, application, data & analytics, and security posture.
• Ensure enterprise architecture modernization effort remains aligned with the organization's strategic goals and objectives and make recommendations for adjustments as necessary.
• Champion and execute for business agility
• Embrace and champion Agile methodologies within IT organization to promote collaboration, flexibility, and continuous improvement through short development cycles (sprints) and iterative development.
• Integrate development (Dev) and operations (Ops) to automate processes, improve deployment speed, and enhance collaboration between development and IT operations teams.
• Integrate security practices throughout the development lifecycle (DevSecOps) to identify and address vulnerabilities and protect against security threats.
• Enable the API economy mindset
• Develop and implement an API strategy aligned with the organization's business objectives, identifying opportunities to leverage APIs for growth and innovation.
• Establish and champion API governance standards, including design, security, and documentation, to ensure consistency, quality, and compliance.
• Collaborate with software development teams to design, develop API strategy that enable seamless integration and data exchange between systems, both internally and externally.
• Drive to Cloud and modern Software practices
• Build Cloud-native applications taking advantage of cloud services like AWS, Azure, or Google Cloud for scalability, reliability, and cost-efficiency.
• Champion best practice of decomposing complex applications into smaller, loosely coupled microservices, and leverage containerization (e.g., Docker) for scalability, portability, and isolation.
• Utilize open-source software and libraries to accelerate development and promote code reusability.
• Improve customer experience and create new opportunities
• Prioritize user experience (UX) by involving users in solution design process, define usability testing, and continuously gathering feedback for iterative improvements.
• Partner with Sales and Business unit functions to explore new opportunities, such as, implement strategies to monetize APIs, API marketplaces, subscription models, or partnerships, to create new revenue streams.

Requirements

• Desirable to have Master’s or higher degree in a relevant field such as Computer Science, Engineering, or applied Sciences
• Proven experience in technology leadership roles, with a track record of successfully implementing technology strategies aligned with organization goals and objective.
• A strategic mindset to identify opportunities for technological innovation to create competitive advantage.
• 15+ years of proven experience in building scalable platforms that supports complex cross-functional business processes, leverages modern Software principles, and incrementally builds and expands the API economy.
• Familiarity and understanding of challenges around cross-functional business processes, such as, Design to Build, Plan to Fulfill, Order to Cash, Procure to Pay, Record to Report, etc.
• Experience in enabling solutions and their integration to meet business needs.
• Have partnered with leaders of Enterprise business functions, such as, Finance, Sales and Marketing, Business Units, Supply Chain, Procurement etc. and have helped enabled cross-functional applications to support their business processes.
• Extensive technical knowledge and proficiency in IT systems, software development, cybersecurity, cloud computing, and emerging data and analytics technologies.
• Understanding of various programming language paradigms and software development methodologies to provide mentorship and guidance to development teams.
• Experience with cloud platforms (e.g., AWS, Azure, Google Cloud) and containerization technologies (e.g., Docker, Kubernetes).

Nice-to-haves

• Strong understanding of software development methodologies (e.g., Agile, Scrum) and DevOps practices.
• Familiarity with industry-specific technologies and trends, such as, artificial intelligence, Internet of Things (IoT), AI/ML, and Gen AI.
• Proficiency in designing, developing, and leading the API delivery approach.
• Knowledge of API protocols (e.g. REST, SOAP, GraphQL), API security, and version control.
• Familiarity with programming languages commonly used in API development (e.g. JavaScript, Python, Java, and Ruby).
• Familiarity with API management platforms and tools (e.g., Apigee, AWS API Gateway, Azure API Management) used to create, publish, and manage APIs.
• Knowledge of Technology Stack covering wide range of technologies, including infrastructure, software development, databases, and cloud computing.
• Understanding of data modeling, data governance, and data integration principles.
• Expertise in integrating disparate systems and applications within the enterprise.
• Knowledge of security best practices and the ability to design secure architectures.

Benefits

• 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 benefits
• Employee stock purchase plan
• Western Digital Savings 401(k) Plan