Principal AI Program Manager

Western Digital is seeking a Principal AI Program Manager to lead enterprise-scale AI initiatives across the organization. This role operates at a strategic level partnering with senior stakeholders to define and execute a comprehensive AI roadmap while ensuring operational excellence governance and measurable business impact.

You will act as a critical bridge between business priorities technology capabilities and execution teamsdriving alignment scalability and value realization across multiple concurrent AI programs.

Essential Duties  & Responsibilities

Strategic Stakeholder Alignment

• Develop and own the enterprise AI roadmap aligned with corporate priorities and cross-functional stakeholder needs
• Partner with executive leadership to define clear outcomes success metrics and timelines for AI initiatives
• Drive alignment across IT Product Engineering and Business functions to ensure cohesive execution
• Translate business objectives into scalable AI-enabled solutions and prioritized programs

Program & Project Execution

• Lead multiple concurrent AI programs from ideation through delivery and adoption
• Establish program structures milestones and delivery frameworks across complex initiatives
• Drive execution rigor risk management and dependency tracking across cross-functional teams
• Ensure delivery of measurable outcomes including productivity gains cost efficiencies and innovation impact

Governance & Operational Excellence

• Establish and scale program governance frameworks for AI initiatives

Financial Planning & Resource Management

• Develop and manage budgets including resource allocation vendor spend and workforce planning
• Optimize onboarding strategies for FTEs and contingent workers

Operational Excellence

• Implement standardized processes KPIs and reporting to ensure program health and performance visibility
• Drive continuous improvement through data-driven insights

Talent Development & Agile Ways of Working

• Champion Agile methodologies and modern delivery practices
• Mentor and grow program managers engineers and cross-functional talent
• Foster a culture of innovation accountability and continuous learning

AI Technology Enablement

• Maintain strong understanding of AI/ML tools platforms and emerging technologies
• Identify and deploy tools that improve productivity automation and decision-making across teams

Vendor & Partner Management

• Identify evaluate and onboard strategic vendors and partners including contingent workforce
• Establish frameworks for vendor assessment interviewing and selection
• Manage vendor performance contracts and deliverables to ensure quality and alignment with business outcomes
• Build scalable partner ecosystems to support AI program delivery

Qualifications :

Required

• Bachelors degree in Computer Science Engineering Information Systems or related field
• Deep experience in program management IT or technology leadership roles
• Proven experience leading enterprise-scale AI/ML or data-driven initiatives
• Strong track record of managing multiple complex programs simultaneously
• Experience with stakeholder management at executive levels
• Expertise in financial planning budgeting and resource allocation
• Deep understanding of Agile methodologies and modern delivery frameworks

Preferred

• Masters degree or MBA
• Experience in data infrastructure cloud platforms (AWS Azure GCP) and AI/ML ecosystems
• Familiarity with MLOps GenAI tools and enterprise AI governance frameworks
• Experience within semiconductor storage or high-tech industries
• Strong vendor management and outsourcing experience

Leadership Expectations

• Acts as a strategic thought partner to senior leadership
• Drives enterprise-wide impact across multiple business domains
• Leads through influence in highly matrixed environments
• Establishes scalable frameworks and best practices adopted across the organization

Additional Information :

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 persons gender identity gender expression and gender-related appearance and behavior whether or not stereotypically associated with the persons 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 to advise us of your accommodation 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 6/27/26 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 dead

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Compensation & Benefits Details

• An employees 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 WDs 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 WDs 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 WD 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 Companys sole discretion unless and until paid and may be modified at the Companys sole discretion consistent with the law.

Notice To Candidates: Please be aware that WD 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 WD Ethics Helpline or email .

Remote Work :

No

Employment Type :

Full-time