Principal Escalation Support Engineer - Enterprise Platforms

Company Description

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.

We are a key partner to some of the largest and highest growth organizations in the world. From energizing the most competitive gaming platforms, to enabling systems to make cities safer and cars smarter and more connected, to powering the data centers behind many of the world’s biggest companies and public cloud, Western Digital is fueling a brighter, smarter future.

Binge-watch any shows, use social media or shop online lately? You’ll find Western Digital supporting the storage infrastructure behind many of these platforms. And, that flash memory card that captures and preserves your most precious moments? That’s us, too.

We offer an expansive portfolio of technologies, storage devices and platforms for business and consumers alike. Our data-centric solutions are comprised of the Western Digital®, G-Technology™, SanDisk® and WD® brands.

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

Job Description

We are looking for a Principal Escalation Support Engineers to support our enterprise customers that buy our data center storage platforms. In this senior level position, your primary role will be to help solve escalated customer technical issues on our cutting-edge storage platform products. These issues are escalated by either Level 2 Support team or a critical account. You will also be called upon to Support onsite activities like Customer trainings, POC deployments and provide Onsite Field Support for certain critical customers. Your day to day will also involve mentoring and training level 2 teams, creating knowledge articles, actively participating in process improvement projects, working with engineering to create supportable products – all towards one end goal of excellent customer satisfaction.

ESSENTIAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Providing exceptional customer support to Western Digital customers and partners via telephone calls, emails, and shared screen communications to drive the highest level of customer satisfaction and minimize system down-time; 

• • Resolving customer issues and problems by diagnosing and troubleshooting issue and working with customers to implement resolution provided.

• Creating, managing, responding to, and driving to resolution escalated support cases submitted by customers, partners, and resellers experiencing challenges using Western Digital servers, storage hardware, and software products within the specified service level agreements (SLAs); 

• • Adhering to and maintaining specified SLAs to drive resolutions to reported issues.

• Escalating to and working closely with software and hardware engineering teams to determine root causes and appropriate resolution for customers; 

• • Using data collection and analysis tools to comprehend the nature of the issue and analyzing the root cause to drive corrective actions.
  • Performing deep technical troubleshooting, research, filings bugs, determining root case, establishing problem solutions, and confirming resolutions. 

• Provide onsite support to Account Teams/Customers on on-going operations as well as POC activities  – cover POC deployments, customer technical educational, and provide support on technical issues.
• Developing training modules and delivering product support training to internal and external support teams, enabling them to capably support Western Digital products as appropriate;
• Authoring and submitting knowledge-based articles based on customer issues and interactions; 

• • These knowledge-based articles act as points of reference for future issues that are reported, helping the support teams and customers to resolve any known issues.

• Improving the serviceability of products by working closing with Engineering, QA, Product Management, and other internal teams to preserve and enhance product value; 
• Global Subject Matter Expert (SME) in some specific chosen products to  enable customers to maintain and optimize their environments to achieve optimal performance; 

• • The role of Subject Matter Expert entails possessing deeper knowledge of the product, training the rest of the team on the product and updates, and working closely with engineering teams on future updates.

• Completing models and simulations, using Western Digital’s manual or automated tools, to predict system performance under different operating conditions; and, 
• Monitoring system operations and designing and conducting hardware or software tests to evaluate current or emerging technologies to consider factors such as cost, portability, compatibility, or usability. 
• Actively participate in PoCs to drive technical success, and expand business in different geographies
• Be ready to travel at short nortices. Will involve anywhere from 25%-50% (mainly domestic) travel

Qualifications

REQUIRED:

• BS degree in computer science or Electronics is preferred. Other Engineering Streams are considered with experience in Implementing and supporting Storage and Server products.
• Minimum of 7-10  years of experience in solving customer issue. Preferred 10 years in direct onsite customer enagagement roles solving technical issues, planning and implementing onsite deployments, including customer trainings.
• Hands-on experience various storage technologies like Hard drives, Solid State drive, Storage Servers, Storage Enclosures and PCIe devices.   
• Working knowledge of implementation and deployment of storage technologies with various applications and filesystems, and deployment in datacenter environment
• Working knowledge of data center activities – experience in server/system builds and teardowns.
• Deep working knowledge and experience in Data Center networking and its various components – switches, routers, VLANs, trunking, adpators, cable-types included.
• Must be able to demonstrate skills in operating systems including Linux, VMware ESX and Windows Server. Linux skills is a must.
• Have excellent customer service and communication skills, both verbal and written and have experience in creating and delivering customer training.
• Good understanding of data storage concepts and terminology including storage interfaces, and SAN. Enterprise Virtualization experience, Server storage experience; NAND Flash storage experience.
• Working knowledge in in bash/python scripting is a BIG plus.
• Excellent analytical and expert troubleshooting skills with end-users/customers, partners, and OEMs. 
• Ability to learn new products, technology, and support systems needed to support our customers efficiently.
• Ability to work with customer, discuss business requirements and present solution designs to both customers and internal team resources. 
• Ability to analyze requirements, document a solution design and provide necessary support to sales and Engineering teams on the proposed solution. 
• Knows how to define system architecture for new or existing computer systems using storage products. 
• Ability to work with SMEs, other solution Architects, Sales teams and clients to determine the best solutions for our customer requirements. 
• Work time is as per business requirements. Currently the role expects general shift hours working and On-call as need arises (Weekday / Weekend).

Additional Information

Western Digital is committed to providing equal opportunities to all applicants and employees and will not discriminate 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 "Equal Employment Opportunity is the Law" poster.

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.

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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 Colorado or remote jobs that can be performed in Colorado.  This range may be modified in the future.
• You will also be eligible to participate in Western Digital's Short-Term Incentive (STI) Plan and to receive equity awards under our annual Long-Term Incentive (LTI) program, which consists of restricted stock units (RSUs), pursuant to the terms of these programs.  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 Virgin Pulse Program; 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.