Principal Cloud Storage Architect at Western Digital

Rochester, Minnesota, United States -

Full Time

Start Date

Immediate

Expiry Date

19 May, 26

Salary

156300.0

Posted On

18 Feb, 26

Experience

10 year(s) or above

Remote Job

Yes

Telecommute

Yes

Sponsor Visa

Skills

Cloud Storage Architectures, S3-Compatible Object Storage, Distributed Clusters, Hyperscale Data Durability, HDD Test Strategies, System Test, Automated Cluster Environment, HDD Qualification, Erasure-Coding Strategies, Zoned-Storage Adoption, Multi-Tier Storage Models, Cluster Topologies, SMR, ZNS, Object-Tiering Strategies, Cloud-Native Filesystem Trends

Industry

Computer Hardware Manufacturing

Description

Company Description 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™ 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. Job Description Position Summary The Cloud Storage Architect will serve as a key industry intelligence leader, responsible for continuously gathering, evaluating, and translating the latest advancements in cloud and clustered storage architectures into actionable insights for Western Digital’s test and validation teams. By monitoring how major cloud providers design, deploy, and operate large‑scale storage systems—including S3‑compatible object storage, distributed clusters, and hyperscale data durability models—the architect will help ensure HDD test strategies accurately reflect real‑world customer environments. This role will actively share emerging cloud‑storage trends, workload behaviors, and architectural patterns with System Test, Automated Cluster Environment and HDD qualification teams, enabling the creation of more representative, robust, and forward‑looking tests. Key Responsibilities Continuously gather and evaluate current cloud and clustered storage industry practices, including architectures, deployment models, workload behaviors, durability methods, and scaling patterns used by major cloud providers. Monitor and analyze hyperscaler storage trends—such as S3 object storage evolution, erasure‑coding strategies, zoned‑storage adoption, multi‑tier storage models, and distributed cluster topologies—to ensure internal teams stay aligned with real‑world customer environments. Translate up‑to‑date cloud storage insights into actionable guidance for System Test, ACE, and HDD qualification teams to develop more representative, customer‑centric test methodologies. Identify gaps between existing HDD test flows and modern industry storage designs, recommending new tests, workloads, cluster configurations, or validation scenarios that better emulate cloud‑scale usage patterns. Collaborate with System Test teams to enhance HDD validation based on how cloud companies actually deploy drives, manage fleets, perform lifecycle operations, and optimize storage performance and reliability. Work with the ACE team to design cluster‑level workloads and test architectures informed by current cloud storage engineering, including S3 patterns, object sizes, concurrency, and real customer traffic profiles. Act as the internal subject matter expert on cloud and distributed storage, regularly sharing findings, documentation, trend analyses, and architectural summaries with engineering, validation, and leadership groups. Evaluate emerging storage technologies and standards, such as SMR, ZNS, object‑tiering strategies, or cloud‑native filesystem trends, and recommend their incorporation into future HDD testing. Advise HDD qualification teams on cloud‑driven reliability expectations, informing improvements in stress testing, durability tests, long‑run cluster experiments, and field‑emulation workloads. Produce clear technical reports, briefs, and knowledge‑sharing materials summarizing evolving cloud storage behaviors, helping all test teams stay current with industry direction. Qualifications Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, or related fields. Extensive experience designing or operating distributed cloud storage systems. Fluency in cloud computing concepts, architecture, and technologies with hands-on experience in designing and implementing cloud solutions Expertise with object storage technologies (MinIO, AWS S3, Azure Blob, GCP Cloud Storage). Excellent communication and cross-team collaboration capabilities. Ability to translate complex cloud architecture concepts into actionable test improvements. Analytical, data-driven mindset with strong problem-solving skills. Additional Information 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 05/06/2026 (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. #LI-AS1 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. If your position is non-exempt, you are eligible for overtime pay pursuant to company policy and applicable laws. You may also be eligible for shift differential pay, depending on the shift to which you are assigned. You will be eligible to be considered for bonuses under either Western Digital’s Short Term Incentive Plan (“STI Plan”) or the Sales Incentive Plan (“SIP”) 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. Notice To Candidates: Please be aware that Western Digital and its subsidiaries will never request payment as a condition for applying for a position or receiving an offer of employment. Should you encounter any such requests, please report it immediately to Western Digital Ethics Helpline or email [email protected]. Job Type (exemption status): Exempt position - Please see related compensation & benefits details below Salary Range: 117,200.00-156,300.00 Business Function: Development Engineering Work Location: Rochester Office--LOC_HGST_PLR

Responsibilities

The Cloud Storage Architect will act as a key industry intelligence leader, continuously evaluating cloud and clustered storage advancements and translating them into actionable insights for Western Digital's test and validation teams. This involves monitoring major cloud providers' large-scale storage deployments to ensure HDD test strategies accurately reflect real-world customer environments.