Principal Failure Analysis Engineer

110,300.00-147,100.00 Business Function: Failure Analysis Work Location: Irvine Office--LOC_WDT_USCA01 Location (Secondary): San Jose Great Oaks Headquarters--LOC_WDT_USCA23 Company Description WD is building the infrastructure behind the AI-driven data economy. As 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. We 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. This isn’t theoretical work. It’s real systems, at real scale, people solving some of the hardest challenges in technology today. We’re looking for people who want to build, solve, and operate at that level. Join us and let’s shape the future of data.

Join our dynamic and collaborative team to help with WD customer failure analysis in support of requests from our customers. As Principal FA Lead, you will be managing Failure Analysis activities spanning across multiple hard disk drives labs. You will collaborate with worldwide FA teams and review failure analysis reports from the labs and collaborate with labs and subject matter experts to decide on best course of action for identifying underlying causes of failures and drive problems. You will be in charge of the overall FA summaries with key findings and supporting images from the labs. These summaries are used to communicate failure modes and causes to the customers, field application engineers, quality managers, manufacturing, or development teams. You will have multiple opportunities to help improve FA processes and tools based on learnings from FA work. Over time, you will gain expertise allowing you to be one of few HDD FA experts in the world! ESSENTIAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES: Manage FA activities, priorities and identify causes of failures and related drive problems on customer and field drives within the corresponding priority time frame Summarize FA results based on key lab findings and causes of failure Pro-actively engage with subject matter experts in PCBA, Firmware, Reliability, Data Analytics, FA Tools, Customer Technical Support and Customer Quality Managers, Factory FA and Quality teams on customer issues Follow department/work group processes Develop, improve, and document failure analysis procedures, processes, and requirements Participate in selected Program/Product/Customer issue resolution meetings and act as an integral part of the issue resolution team Effectively present information, ideas, and your perspective to peers, team members and managers Create and meet schedules for high priority FA and process improvements Brainstorm, be open to inputs and recommend team improvements and team process improvements Interact with Development teams to understand new technology, develop associated failure analysis tools, processes, and documentation Define and work on tool improvements related to FA such as drive log visualizations and FIO tests Learn about product failures from development teams You will effectively communicate results and status with management and team members and participate in resolving product and customer issues by providing meaningful insights.

Hard disk drive failure analysis experience Proven problem-solving skills Proven leadership skills Effective at multi-tasking, organization and time management Self-motivated Demonstrates patience, confidence, and composure Detailed knowledge of hard drives and knowledge of factory processes and storage applications Knowledge and experience with Python, C++, and/or SQL is a plus Knowledge and experience with FIO performance testing is a plus Knowledge