Application Engineer (Early Career)

Job Description

Application Engineer (Early Career) | Western Digital

The Tone:
This is an early career position at Western Digital, likely located in San Jose, CA. Western Digital is a global leader in data storage technology, pushing the boundaries of what’s possible with a vast portfolio of HDDs and platforms under brands like WD and SanDisk Professional. The company’s technology has enabled significant achievements, from space exploration to powering the AI era’s massive data needs. This role is crucial for ensuring the successful adoption of our Enterprise HDDs by customers, directly impacting global innovation and the future of data storage.

The TL;DR
• Role: Early Career
• Type: Full-time
• Location: In-person, San Jose, CA

• Team: Customer Technical Support (CTS) on the Product Core Team
• Mission: Accountable for the successful customer qualification of Enterprise HDDs, facilitating alignment across teams and managing product changes to ensure seamless integration and adoption by customers.

What You’ll Actually Do
• Customer Qualification: Take responsibility for the successful qualification of Enterprise Hard Disk Drives (HDDs) by Western Digital’s customers, ensuring product readiness and acceptance.
• Cross-Functional Alignment: Collaborate closely with a diverse internal team, including Engineering, Manufacturing, Quality, Marketing, Sales, and Customer Technical Support, to ensure strategic alignment for customer qualification efforts.
• Product Introduction Support: Partner with a Senior Application Engineer to meticulously prepare and deliver critical customer-facing materials such as product introduction reviews, concept and design reviews, detailed spec gap analyses, and comprehensive development status updates.
• Failure Analysis & Reporting: Assist in preparing and delivering thorough qualification failure analysis reports to customers, addressing issues and contributing to solutions.
• Sample Plan Coordination: Manage the end-to-end customer sample plan, which includes gathering precise customer requirements, coordinating with manufacturing for production, and ensuring timely delivery of samples.
• Change Management: Oversee customer communication and the qualification process for product changes, including Engineering Changes (ECs) and Product Change Notifications (PCNs).
• Team Representation: Serve as the representative for Customer Technical Support (CTS) within the Product Core Team, ensuring customer perspectives are integrated into product development.

The Must-Haves
• Background: This early career role requires candidates who are either currently pursuing or have recently completed a Master’s Degree in a core engineering or science discipline, such as Electrical Engineering (EE), Mechanical Engineering (ME), or Physics.
• Experience: The position is tailored for individuals early in their professional journey, specifically those with a recently completed Masters Degree or actively working towards one in a relevant technical field.
• Skills: Demonstrated critical thinking and problem-solving abilities are essential, alongside a “can-do” attitude. Candidates must possess the capability to quickly assess complex situations and accurately determine necessary actions, coupled with strong communication and presentation skills for effective customer and internal stakeholder engagement.