Strategic Account Manager – AI InfrastructureAmericas Sales – AI InfrastructureGeography: San Jose, California  |  Travel: 25%Role OverviewThis role is central to Western Digital’s AI Infrastructure growth strategy, focused on driving datacenter storage adoption across a defined set of strategic platform and infrastructure customers.The Strategic Account Manager is a quota-carrying seller responsible for owning account strategy, expanding multi-year platform opportunities, and converting architectural alignment into repeatable revenue.This role requires the ability to operate at the intersection of infrastructure platforms, software-defined storage, and data lifecycle architectures while navigating complex buying centers.Target Account FocusThis role will focus on strategic software-defined storage, data protection, hybrid cloud, HCI, scale-out platform providers, and infrastructure software companies. The role is expected to understand each customer’s architecture, roadmap, appliance or platform strategy, and long-term capacity growth model, then align WD technologies to their product, qualification, and go-to-market priorities.Customer Segments1. Data Platform & Cloud Software ProvidersCompanies building distributed data platforms, hybrid cloud stacks, HCI architectures, scale-out file systems, and enterprise storage frameworks.Align to software-defined storage, hybrid cloud, HCI, scale-out file, and distributed systems architecturesInfluence long-term product, platform, and validated solution roadmapsDrive integration of storage into large-scale multi-tenant, appliance, and software-defined environments2. Enterprise Infrastructure & Systems ProvidersOrganizations delivering integrated infrastructure solutions across compute, networking, and storage.Position storage within full-stack infrastructure solutionsNavigate product, procurement, and go-to-market organizationsDrive design-ins and platform standardization3. Data Protection & Specialized Storage PlatformsVendors focused on cyber resilience, backup, recovery, archiving, immutable data protection, and high-performance storage use cases.Understand data lifecycle requirements from performance to backup, recovery, archive, and long-term retentionAlign storage economics with deduplication, compression, tiering, scalability, and performance needsDrive capacity growth tied to appliance, reference architecture, cyber resilience, and software-defined platform strategiesWhat You Will OwnStrategic Account Growth & Pipeline OwnershipDevelop and execute multi-year account plans aligned to platform refresh cycles, customer buying centers, and long-term revenue growthMaintain a high-confidence pipeline, drive forecast accuracy, and manage execution cadence across strategic opportunitiesArchitecture-Led Selling & Platform InfluencePosition WD storage within software-defined and AI data architectures by translating workload requirements into infrastructure, scalability, and cost valueEngage customer engineering and product teams to drive design-in, validation, platform standardization, and future roadmap influenceExecutive Engagement & Complex Deal LeadershipBuild senior stakeholder relationships and communicate WD’s value tied to scalability, cost, and long-term platform advantageOwn large, multi-stakeholder opportunities and lead negotiation through close across global organizationsPlatform Ecosystem & Account-Specific GrowthDevelop account strategies tailored to software-defined storage, data protection, HCI, hybrid cloud, and scale-out file platform providersIdentify where WD technologies improve platform economics, density, performance-per-watt, retention cost, and long-term capacity scalingBuild relationships across product management, hardware engineering, qualification, supply chain, procurement, alliances, and executive stakeholdersDrive WD technology qualification into customer appliances, reference architectures, validated solutions, and future platform releasesConvert roadmap alignment into design wins, repeatable platform revenue, and long-term supply commitmentsNew Technology Introduction & AdoptionIntroduce and position new WD datacenter technologies, including UltraSMR, high-capacity HDD platforms, advanced firmware capabilities, and emerging storage innovationsIdentify customer workloads and architectures where new technologies deliver measurable cost, density, power, and scalability advantagesDrive early technical engagement with customer architecture, engineering, qualification, and product teamsCoordinate internal alignment across sales, product, engineering, marketing, and supply chain to support customer adoptionBuild customer-specific adoption plans from technical education to proof of concept, qualification, platform integration, and volume deploymentTranslate customer feedback into roadmap input for future WD products and platform requirements
