Western Digital Senior Spintronics Development Engineer 

United States, California, San Jose 

47893593

Today’s exceptional challenges require your unique skills. It’s You & Western Digital. Together, we’re the next BIG thing in data.

You will be part of an innovative, fast-paced team that is responsible for researching and developing materials and thin film stacks for spintronic devices in next generation read/write hard disk drive heads. Your expertise in this area will help develop and implement innovative solutions for complex technical issues and shape WD’s technical strategy. You will be expected to accomplish goals and objectives independently and provide regular technical advice and direction to technical teams and management.

ESSENTIAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Deliver next generation spintronic thin film stacks for magnetic sensors and transducers alongside a team of process development engineers and technicians.
  • Collaborate with manufacturing and equipment engineering counterparts on process transfer, additional tool qualifications with well-justified specifications and tolerances.
  • Align with Design, Characterization, and Program teams to understand device requirements and define metrics for sensor stack processes to ensure meeting product requirements on both performance and reliability.
  • Work closely with other module and integration leaders to develop new process building blocks.
  • Define read sensor and transducer improvement roadmaps including materials, stacks and related fabrication equipment and characterization metrology in alignment with Manufacturing/Production and Design/Program teams.
• Process development for next generation magnetic sensors and transducers.
  • Design recipes on process equipment.
  • Support and run development experiments on process equipment.
  • Perform, measure, and analyze DOEs to validate new processes.
  • Analyze and present results in engineering review meetings.
• Improve existing metrology and develop new measurement techniques.
  • Work with MFG/equipment engineering to introduce new metrology tools and measurements.
  • Transfer new metrology tools and measurements into production.
• Perform electrical measurements on read sensors and transducers to characterize performance.
  • Write scripts for tool automation and data analysis.
  • Collaborate with integration and process teams to develop and fabricate new test devices for next gen read sensors and transducers.
• Utilize and analyze data from databases and identify process and yield optimization opportunities.
  • Conduct aggressive experiment management and wafer tracking.
  • Perform prompt failure analysis and defect resolution.
  • Conduct readiness reviews with FMEA and tolerance studies.
• Prepare DOEs to drive the improvement activities.
  • Create and maintain detailed documentation of engineering changes.
  • Work closely with other module and integration leaders to develop new process building blocks.

Required:

• Ph.D. degree in Physics, Materials Science and Engineering, Electrical Engineering, or related fields.
• 10+ years’ experience working on magnetic materials and thin film deposition.

Skills:

• Excellent written and communication skills.
• Ability to set and model high standards for effective interactions, often across groups.
• Self-motivated and proactive with the ability to effectively multi-task and work collaboratively in a fast-paced, team environment.
• Ability to understand and quantify project risks with impact and help prevent problems that may cross disciplines.
• Leadership skills and abilities to influence decisions and results.

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.
• You will be eligible to participate in Western Digital’s Short-Term Incentive (STI) Plan, 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.