Director of Talent Acquisition - Product & Technology

The Director of Talent Acquisition – Product & Technology serves as the executive recruiting partner and strategic talent leader for our most critical innovation organizations. This role oversees the full recruiting lifecycle for high-impact technology roles, drives long-term workforce strategies, and partners directly with senior product and engineering leadership, including ELT members, to shape the talent capabilities needed for Western Digital’s future.

The ideal leader brings deep functional expertise in Product, Engineering, and Technical recruiting; mastery of modern AI recruiting tools; exceptional relationship-building skills; and the ability to translate market data and talent insights into strategic business decisions.

Key Responsibilities

Strategic Talent Leadership

• Partner with ELT members, SVPs, and VPs across Product Management, Engineering, Architecture, Hardware, Firmware, and Software to build and execute global talent strategies.
• Translate product roadmaps and engineering org designs into proactive workforce and capability planning.
• Coach executives on technical hiring trends, global market shifts, and future-of-work skillsets.
• Deliver executive-level insights using LinkedIn Talent Insights, competitive intelligence, and talent market analytics.

Executive Partnership & Stakeholder Influence

• Serve as a trusted advisor to CPO, CTO, Product GMs, and Engineering leaders.
• Influence leaders to adopt consistent hiring processes, structured evaluation, and modern assessment strategies.
• Drive executive alignment around role definition, candidate personas, and long-term pipeline strategy.
• Manage escalations and build executive-level confidence in TA effectiveness.

Advanced Technical Recruiting & Assessment

• Oversee full-cycle recruiting for highly technical and niche roles including PM, TPM, Firmware, Hardware, Software, Systems, Cloud, Architecture, AI/ML, and Platform Engineering.
• Facilitate structured processes, rigorous technical assessments, and interview calibration across hiring teams.
• Champion VBI, BBI, and structured interview methodology; ensure hiring teams are trained, aligned, and compliant.
• Develop technical assessment in partnership with business to develop talent bar and assessment continuity.

AI, Automation & Sourcing Innovation

• Lead team-level adoption of AI recruiting tools, prompt engineering, sourcing automation, and talent intelligence platforms.
• Continuously evaluate emerging technologies and implement best-of-breed tools to enhance speed, quality, and scalability.
• Ensure the TA function remains at the forefront of AI-driven recruiting innovation.

Pipeline Development & Talent Intelligence

• Build and oversee long-term pipelines for critical technical roles and leadership talent.
• Leverage deep expertise with LinkedIn Recruiter, LinkedIn Insights, and advanced Boolean search strategies.
• Guide hiring leaders in identifying evolving skillsets required to build the workforce of the future.
• Oversee market mapping and competitive talent intelligence efforts.

Operational Excellence & Team Leadership

• Lead, coach, and elevate a high-performing team of technical recruiters and sourcers.
• Establish metrics, KPIs, and dashboards to monitor pipeline health, quality of hire, and recruiter effectiveness.
• Drive continuous improvement, process standardization, and consistency across global technology recruiting.
• Partner with HR, Compensation, Talent Development, and Diversity teams to deliver integrated, holistic talent solutions.

Candidate Experience & Employer Brand

• Ensure a world-class, transparent candidate experience for senior technical and product talent.
• Collaborate with HR and Marketing to refine employer brand messaging tailored to product and engineering audiences.
• Act as an ambassador of Western Digital’s culture, technology, and innovation story.