Senior Systems Architect

177,400.00-236,500.00 Business Function: Data Center Management Work Location: 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.

The Senior Systems Architect is a senior technical leader responsible for the architecture, engineering, standardization, and evolution of enterprise compute and infrastructure platforms. This 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. A 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. The role works closely with Data Center Operations, Storage Architecture, Network Engineering, Security, Cloud Engineering, Application teams, Manufacturing, and technology vendors.

Infrastructure Architecture & Engineering Serve as a senior technical authority for enterprise compute, virtualization, Windows, Linux, container, and server infrastructure. Develop architecture standards and reference designs for scalable, resilient, secure, and supportable infrastructure. Architect virtualization and compute solutions across platforms such as Hyper-V, VMware, Nutanix AHV/KVM, and emerging technologies. Define standards for operating system deployment, configuration, lifecycle management, patching, upgrades, security, high availability, disaster recovery, capacity, and performance. Establish enterprise server hardware standards covering compute, memory, accelerators, firmware, network interfaces, power, cooling, and lifecycle management. Evaluate new infrastructure technologies through technical assessments, proof-of-concepts, benchmarking, and total-cost-of-ownership analysis. Lead complex troubleshooting and root-cause analysis across compute, virtualization, operating systems, storage, networking, and application dependencies. Drive platform modernization, consolidation, migration, technology refresh, and infrastructure lifecycle initiatives. Automation, AI & Platform Engineering Lead infrastructure automation and platform-engineering strategy across compute and related data center technologies. Identify repetitive operational activities and replace them with standardized, automated, policy-driven workflows. Develop automation using technologies such as PowerShell, Python, Ansible, Terraform, APIs, Git, and CI/CD platforms. Apply Infrastructure as Code and software-engineering practices including source control, reusable modules, peer review, testing, release management, and automated validation. Automate provisioning, configuration, patching, upgrades, firmware, compliance, vulnerability