Director, Learning & Development - job 1 of 2

At Western Digital, our vision is to power global innovation and push the boundaries of technology to make what you thought was once impossible, possible.

At our core, Western Digital is a company of problem solvers. People achieve extraordinary things given the right technology. For decades, we’ve been doing just that—our technology helped people put a man on the moon and capture the first-ever picture of a black hole.

We offer an expansive portfolio of technologies, HDDs, and platforms for business, creative professionals, and consumers alike under our Western Digital®, WD®, WD_BLACK™, and SanDisk® Professional brands.

We are a key partner to some of the largest and highest-growth organizations in the world. From enabling systems to make cities safer and more connected, to powering the data centers behind many of the world’s biggest companies and hyperscale cloud providers, to meeting the massive and ever-growing data storage needs of the AI era, Western Digital is fueling a brighter, smarter future.

Today’s exceptional challenges require your unique skills. Together, we can build the future of data storage.

Director, Learning & Development

We are seeking an experienced and strategic Director, Learning & Development (L&D) to drive the growth and development of our managers and employees through innovative, scalable, and results-oriented learning experiences. In close partnership with HR and business leaders, this role will be instrumental in shaping the skills and capabilities our workforce needs to succeed—today and in the future.

This individual will lead a high-performing team responsible for the design, measurement, and enterprise-wide delivery of learning programs. The ideal candidate combines deep expertise in adult learning with business acumen, a passion for talent development, and the ability to scale impact across a global organization.

Key Responsibilities:

• Lead Learning Strategy & Design
  Own the end-to-end design, delivery, and evolution of learning experiences for managers and employees. Leverage a blended approach (in-person, virtual, self-directed) and advanced learning technologies to ensure impactful, scalable, and future-ready solutions.
• Standardize Learning Practices
  Develop and implement enterprise-wide standards for the delivery, measurement, and reporting of learning experiences—both for your team and for business-embedded training teams.
• Onboarding Excellence
  Design and continuously enhance onboarding experiences that accelerate learning about the business, our customers, and our products—ensuring rapid integration and contribution.
• Cohort-Based Development
  Build targeted learning journeys for specific employee populations (e.g., early career professionals, technicians) to promote internal mobility, deepen engagement, and drive long-term career progression.
• Skills Strategy & Talent Partnership
  Collaborate with HR and business stakeholders to identify capability gaps, assess current skillsets, and design relevant upskilling/reskilling programs aligned with strategic business objectives.
• Ecosystem Collaboration
  Partner with internal functions and external institutions or vendors to co-create learning paths. This includes designing both facilitated and on-demand learning to maximize accessibility and effectiveness.
• Manager Development & Accountability
  Establish a framework for building effective managers through focused capability-building programs. Create mechanisms to track and measure manager effectiveness and drive accountability for people leadership.
• Targeted Manager Support
  Co-develop interventions and resources addressing high-priority manager challenges (e.g., performance management, conflict resolution, prioritization, leading change) in partnership with other HR teams.
• Team Leadership
  Manage, coach, and develop a diverse team of learning professionals, including program managers, instructional designers, and learning experience designers. Build a culture of innovation, collaboration, and excellence.
• Global Learning Network
  Scale learning delivery by activating a distributed network of HR and business professionals who can localize content and deliver training in regionally relevant ways.
• Agile Resourcing & Vendor Management
  Allocate team resources effectively to meet evolving business needs. Scale capacity flexibly through contract designers or external partners when necessary.

• Bachelor’s degree required; Master’s degree or professional certifications in L&D, OD, or related fields preferred
• Minimum of 8 years of progressive experience in Learning & Development, with at least 3 years in a leadership role
• Proven expertise in adult learning theory, behavior change, and large-scale learning interventions
• Strong business acumen and ability to translate strategy into actionable talent development initiatives
• Demonstrated experience in needs assessment, instructional design, facilitation, and content development
• Track record of delivering learning in various formats (e.g., live, virtual, self-paced, blended) with measurable outcomes
• Proficiency in learning technologies (e.g., LMS, authoring tools, analytics platforms) and digital content curation
• Ability to manage multiple projects simultaneously with strong organizational and prioritization skills
• Excellent communication, stakeholder management, and cross-functional collaboration skills

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.

Western 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.

Western 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 [email protected] 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.

Based on our experience, we anticipate that the application deadline will be (3 months from posting), 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.

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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.
• If your position is non-exempt, you are eligible for overtime pay pursuant to company policy and applicable laws.  You may also be eligible for shift differential pay, depending on the shift to which you are assigned.

• You will be eligible to be considered for bonuses under either Western Digital’s Short Term Incentive Plan (“STI Plan”) or the Sales Incentive Plan (“SIP”) 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.

Notice To Candidates: Please be aware that Western Digital and its subsidiaries will never request payment as a condition for applying for a position or receiving an offer of employment. Should you encounter any such requests, please report it immediately to Western Digital Ethics Helpline or email [email protected].