{"id":1981618,"url":"https://alion.io/job/western-digital-senior-systems-architect","title":"Senior Systems Architect","company":{"id":8924,"name":"Western Digital","domain":"wdc.com","url":"https://alion.io/company/wdc","size_band":"5000+","is_staffing_agency":false,"employer_type":"direct","is_intermediary":false,"listed_via":null,"ats_vendor":"SmartRecruiters","truth_index":{"grade":"B","score":75,"open_postings":9,"ghost_share":0,"stale_share":1,"repost_share":0,"time_to_fill_p50_days":37,"computed_at":"2026-10-14T06:34:16Z"}},"role":"Data Science","role_family":"Data Science","seniority":"staff","employment_type":"full_time","work_mode":"hybrid","remote_scope":null,"remote_scope_basis":null,"remote_working_hours":null,"hiring_geo_confidence":"structured","locations":["San Jose, United States"],"countries":["US"],"hiring_countries":[],"hiring_countries_total":0,"salary":{"min":177400,"max":236500,"currency":"USD","period":"year","gross":null,"usd_annual":236500},"salary_estimate":null,"experience_years_min":null,"visa_sponsorship":false,"relocation_package":false,"has_equity":true,"technologies":[{"name":"AI Agents","optional":false},{"name":"Ansible","optional":false},{"name":"CI/CD","optional":false},{"name":"Configuration Management","optional":false},{"name":"Docker","optional":false},{"name":"Git","optional":false},{"name":"Hyper-V","optional":false},{"name":"ITSM","optional":false},{"name":"Kubernetes","optional":false},{"name":"KVM","optional":false},{"name":"Linux","optional":false},{"name":"OpenShift","optional":false},{"name":"Platform Engineering","optional":false},{"name":"PowerShell","optional":false},{"name":"Python","optional":false},{"name":"Terraform","optional":false},{"name":"VMWare","optional":false},{"name":"Windows","optional":false},{"name":"Windows Server","optional":false},{"name":"Zero Trust","optional":false},{"name":"Azure","optional":true},{"name":"GitOps","optional":true},{"name":"Rest API","optional":true}],"status":"live","first_seen_at":"2026-10-06T22:06:04Z","employer_posted_date":"2026-10-06","last_verified_at":"2026-10-14T14:40:26Z","board_verified":true,"closed_at":null,"days_open":7,"trust":{"level":"ok","repost_count":null,"flags":[],"days_open":7},"description":"WD is building the infrastructure behind the AI-driven data economy.\nAs AI scales, so does data. Every interaction, every model, every system generates data that must be stored, managed, and made accessible over time. That’s where we come in.\nWe combine deep engineering expertise with global-scale manufacturing to deliver the storage systems that make AI possible, powering hyperscale data centers, cloud platforms, and enterprise infrastructure worldwide.\nThis isn’t theoretical work. It’s real systems, at real scale, people solving some of the hardest challenges in technology today.\nWe’re looking for people who want to build, solve, and operate at that level.\nJoin us and let’s shape the future of data.\n The Senior Systems Architect is a senior technical leader responsible for the architecture, engineering, standardization, and evolution of enterprise compute and infrastructure platforms.\nThis role requires broad hands-on expertise across enterprise virtualization, Windows and Linux, server infrastructure, automation, containers, and compute integration with storage and networking. The successful candidate will be equally comfortable developing architecture strategy, evaluating new technologies, creating automation, and troubleshooting complex production issues.\nA primary objective of the role is transforming infrastructure operations from manual administration into standardized, automated, policy-driven platform services. The architect will establish technical standards, lead modernization efforts, reduce operational complexity, and improve reliability, scalability, security, and cost efficiency.\nThe role works closely with Data Center Operations, Storage Architecture, Network Engineering, Security, Cloud Engineering, Application teams, Manufacturing, and technology vendors.\nKey Responsibilities\nInfrastructure Architecture & Engineering\nServe as a senior technical authority for enterprise compute, virtualization, Windows, Linux, container, and server infrastructure.\nDevelop architecture standards and reference designs for scalable, resilient, secure, and supportable infrastructure.\nArchitect virtualization and compute solutions across platforms such as Hyper-V, VMware, Nutanix AHV/KVM, and emerging technologies.\nDefine standards for operating system deployment, configuration, lifecycle management, patching, upgrades, security, high availability, disaster recovery, capacity, and performance.\nEstablish enterprise server hardware standards covering compute, memory, accelerators, firmware, network interfaces, power, cooling, and lifecycle management.\nEvaluate new infrastructure technologies through technical assessments, proof-of-concepts, benchmarking, and total-cost-of-ownership analysis.\nLead complex troubleshooting and root-cause analysis across compute, virtualization, operating systems, storage, networking, and application dependencies.\nDrive platform modernization, consolidation, migration, technology refresh, and infrastructure lifecycle initiatives.\nAutomation, AI & Platform Engineering\nLead infrastructure automation and platform-engineering strategy across compute and related data center technologies.\nIdentify repetitive operational activities and replace them with standardized, automated, policy-driven workflows.\nDevelop automation using technologies such as PowerShell, Python, Ansible, Terraform, APIs, Git, and CI/CD platforms.\nApply Infrastructure as Code and software-engineering practices including source control, reusable modules, peer review, testing, release management, and automated validation.\nAutomate provisioning, configuration, patching, upgrades, firmware, compliance, vulnerability remediation, monitoring integration, and infrastructure retirement.\nIntegrate automation with enterprise systems including ITSM, CMDB, observability, security, vulnerability management, and asset management.\nDevelop self-service and API-driven infrastructure capabilities that reduce manual administrative work.\nEvaluate and responsibly apply AI, AI agents, and agentic automation to infrastructure engineering, operations, troubleshooting, documentation, and analysis.\nInfrastructure Integration\nPartner with the Principal Storage Architect to ensure compute and virtualization platforms integrate effectively with enterprise storage.\nDefine compute-side requirements for storage connectivity, availability, capacity, performance, resiliency, and interoperability.\nOwn architecture and standards for server and hypervisor networking, including host connectivity, NIC configuration, virtual networking, resiliency, performance, and storage-related network traffic.\nPartner with Network Engineering on physical connectivity, VLANs, routing, addressing, network fabrics, and data center network integration.\nMaintain clear ownership boundaries: this role owns server and hypervisor networking; enterprise switching, routing, firewall, and network architecture remain with Network Engineering.\nWork with infrastructure vendors on technology roadmaps, platform supportability, lifecycle planning, technical escalations, and architecture evaluations.\nTechnical Leadership\nDevelop and maintain architecture standards, reference architectures, technology roadmaps, design documentation, and architecture decisions.\nEstablish standards for infrastructure reliability, security, observability, lifecycle management, automation, and supportability.\nEvaluate technologies based on scalability, performance, reliability, security, operational complexity, automation potential, and total cost of ownership.\nPartner with Security teams on infrastructure hardening, vulnerability management, compliance, and Zero Trust requirements.\nPresent technical strategies, risks, tradeoffs, and investment recommendations to engineering and executive leadership.\nServe as a senior escalation resource and mentor engineers across the infrastructure organization.\nLead cross-functional technical initiatives and drive consensus across organizations without requiring direct authority.\n 12+ years of progressive enterprise infrastructure engineering, architecture, or closely related experience, including substantial hands-on responsibility for production environments.\nDemonstrated experience designing and supporting large-scale, business-critical enterprise infrastructure.\nDeep experience with one or more enterprise virtualization platforms such as Hyper-V, VMware, Nutanix AHV, KVM, or comparable technologies, with the ability to rapidly learn additional platforms.\nStrong enterprise experience with Windows Server and Linux.\nExperience with container technologies and orchestration platforms such as Docker, Kubernetes, OpenShift, or comparable platforms.\nSignificant experience with enterprise server platforms such as HPE, Dell, or comparable technologies.\nStrong understanding of storage and networking sufficient to design and troubleshoot compute integration with those technologies.\nDemonstrated infrastructure automation experience using PowerShell, Python, Ansible, Terraform, APIs, or comparable technologies.\nExperience applying Infrastructure as Code, source control, CI/CD, configuration management, or similar software-engineering practices to infrastructure.\nProven ability to troubleshoot complex issues across multiple infrastructure domains.\nDemonstrated ability to create technical standards and translate architecture into successful production implementations.\nPreferred Experience\nExperience in several of the following areas is beneficial; candidates are not expected to have expertise in all of them:\nNutanix, KVM, HCI, or software-defined infrastructure\nKubernetes or enterprise container platforms\nAzure Arc, Azure Local, or hybrid infrastructure\nGitOps, Infrastructure as Code, and CI/CD\nAI-assisted engineering and agentic automation\nEnterprise monitoring and observability\nITSM, CMDB, security, and vulnerability-management integration\nRedfish, REST APIs, and hardware-management automation\nData center infrastructure management\nLarge-scale platform migrations and technology refresh programs\nManufacturing, semiconductor, high-performance engineering, or similarly complex environments\nKey Competencies\nDeep technical curiosity and the ability to rapidly learn unfamiliar technologies.\nComfortable moving between strategic architecture and hands-on technical investigation.\nStrong bias toward automation, standardization, simplification, and elimination of repetitive work.\nStrong analytical approach to reliability, performance, scalability, security, supportability, and cost.\nAbility to communicate complex technical concepts to both engineering and executive audiences.\nAbility to work across organizational boundaries and influence technical direction without direct authority.\nStrong mentoring skills and a desire to raise the technical capability of the broader organization.\nWillingness to challenge established assumptions using data, testing, and engineering analysis.\n 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.\nWestern 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.\nWestern 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  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.\nBased on our experience, we anticipate that the application deadline will be 1.6.2027, 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.\nCompensation & Benefits Details\nAn 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.\nThe salary range is what we believe to be the range of possible c...","description_format":"text","description_chars":14501,"description_truncated":true,"requirements":{"experience_years_min":null,"management_years_min":null,"team_size_min":null,"manages_managers":false,"education":null,"security_clearance":false,"languages":[{"language":"English","level":"All levels","optional":false}]},"benefits":["Equity","Restricted stock units","Vision insurance"],"hiring_locations":[{"name":"United States","iso":"US","kind":"country"}],"hiring_excludes":[],"relocation_offered":false,"industries":["Enterprise Storage Systems","Digital Storage"],"lifecycle":[{"event":"open","at":"2026-10-06T23:50:21Z"}],"visa":[],"liveness":{"score":87,"band":"hot","label":"Hiring now","p_open":1,"p_active":0.875,"p_room":1,"age_days":7,"expected_fill_days":37,"reasons":["conf:0","velocity","win:early","comp:brand"],"computed_at":"2026-10-14T06:34:16Z"},"pay":{"stated_usd_annual":236500,"is_top_pay":true},"html_url":"https://alion.io/job/western-digital-senior-systems-architect","json_url":"https://alion.io/job/western-digital-senior-systems-architect.json","meta":{"generated_at":"2026-10-14T15:18:14Z","cache_seconds":300,"methodology":"https://alion.io/methodology","terms":"https://alion.io/terms","contact":"https://alion.io/contact","api":"https://alion.io/developers","about":"Alion is a live layer of people, companies and AI agents: who they are, whether they are real and active right now, what they do and how to work with them, readable by people and by agents and paid per call.","catalog":"https://alion.io/catalog.json","usage":{"tier":"crawler_verified","counted_by":"address","units_charged":1,"used_today":19309,"day_limit":null,"remaining_today":null,"minute_limit":300,"resets_at":"2026-10-15T00:00:00Z"}},"offers":[{"id":"company.slices","title":"One company in depth, by slice","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.02,"usd":0.002,"plus_per_slice":{"credits":0.05,"usd":0.005}},"unit":"per company, plus each slice with data","note":"the employer in depth","call":{"mcp_tool":"get_company","arguments":{"id":8924},"rest":"https://alion.io/mcp/rest/get_company?id=8924"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.slices&for=job%2Fwestern-digital-senior-systems-architect"},{"id":"market.stats","title":"A market slice: pay, demand and time to fill","status":"live","price":{"credits":1,"usd":0.1},"unit":"per slice","note":"pay, demand and time to fill for this role and place","call":{"mcp_tool":"market_stats"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=market.stats&for=job%2Fwestern-digital-senior-systems-architect"},{"id":"job.search","title":"Open jobs by role, technology, place, pay and visa","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.02,"usd":0.002},"unit":"per posting in a list","note":"similar open postings","call":{"mcp_tool":"search_jobs"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=job.search&for=job%2Fwestern-digital-senior-systems-architect"},{"id":"company.verify","title":"Is this company real and active right now","status":"pilot","price":null,"unit":"per company","request":{"url":"https://alion.io/catalog/request","method":"POST","body":"{\"offer\": \"company.verify\", \"for\": \"job/western-digital-senior-systems-architect\", \"note\": \"what you need it for\"}"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.verify&for=job%2Fwestern-digital-senior-systems-architect"}]}