Associate, Corporate Development Analyst

Company Description

Overview

Western Digital is entering a new chapter. Following our spin-off of SanDisk, we are stepping into our future as an independent deep-tech company, one built on decades of engineering breakthroughs and pointed squarely at the biggest technological frontiers of our time.

We are a company of physicists, materials scientists, AI researchers, and engineers. We work at the frontier of magnetics, photonics, nanofabrication, and machine learning - disciplines most people never encounter, solving problems most people don't know exist. Our teams hold one of the largest intellectual property banks in Silicon Valley, and our labs are staffed with hundreds of PhDs who've spent their careers pushing what's physically possible.

Most folks know us as a data storage company, powering data centers, hyperscale clouds, and AI systems that define the modern economy. HDD is the backbone of the AI economy and the most scalable, cost-efficient way to store the world's data - and we're building its future. But it's only part of the story. In the past, our technology has helped put a man on the moon and captured the first-ever picture of a black hole. The next generation of what we are building will shape robotics, quantum computing, space systems, personalized medicine, autonomous vehicles, and more. We are entering the most ambitious phase of our company's history. As AI reshapes every industry and every workload, the world needs more data infrastructure, better materials science, and deeper engineering talent than ever before. That's what we do. That's what we've always done. And we're just getting started.

Western Digital's Strategy & Corporate Development team is the connective tissue bridging Western Digital's technology to the markets it will serve. We turn deep-tech capability into commercial impact, strengthening our position in the core HDD business, setting the company's long-term strategy, and executing the partnerships, investments, and acquisitions that shape what we build next.

If you want to work on problems that matter at the intersection of deep technology, business strategy, and real-world impact, we would love to talk.

Join us. Let's build what comes next.

Job Description

Key Responsibilities

Financial Modeling & Deal Economics

• Lead financial modeling and deal economics independently including DCF/valuation, trading and transaction comps, accretion/dilution, synergy analysis, and deal structuring.
• Build and defend sophisticated financial models from scratch, including stress-testing assumptions under executive scrutiny.
• Develop unit economics, return analyses, and value-creation frameworks for M&A and venture opportunities; support investment thesis development with rigorous quantitative underpinning.

Target Landscape & Pipeline Management

• Map and maintain target landscape: research acquisition candidates, track competitor M&A activity, and maintain the deal pipeline and CRM.
• Conduct primary and secondary research to identify and prioritize acquisition, JV, and investment targets; support pipeline reviews and portfolio prioritization discussions with Corporate Development leadership.

Deal Materials & Executive Communication

• Produce executive-ready investment memos, deal summaries, and Board materials.
• Translate complex financial and strategic analysis into clear, compelling narratives for senior leadership.

WD Capital & Venture Support

• Support WD Capital: conduct company and technology diligence on startup investment opportunities and develop investment thesis independently for venture opportunities in storage, data infrastructure, and AI adjacencies.
• Build relationships with VCs, accelerators, and startup ecosystems to support deal sourcing.

Cross-Functional Partnership

• Partner closely with Finance, Legal, HR, and business leaders throughout the deal lifecycle to enable due diligence coordination, risk assessment, and integration hand-off.
• Build trusted relationships with cross-functional stakeholders and drive coordination with minimal senior oversight.

Qualifications

• 3–6 years in investment banking, private equity/growth equity, corporate development, or management consulting where financial modeling depth and analytical rigor were clearly demonstrated.
• Transaction execution experience required - must have worked on live deals through diligence, negotiation, and close.
• Exceptional financial modeling and quantitative analysis skills; can build models from scratch across valuation, alternative deal structures and economics, and can defend assumptions under executive pressure.
• Experience producing investment memos, Board materials, and executive-ready deal summaries with minimal senior oversight.
• Familiarity with due diligence workstreams across Legal, Finance, HR, IT, and technical/product.
• Operates independently, drives workstreams to completion, and delivers against tight deadlines. Demonstrates strong attention to detail, proactiveness, and independence.
• Familiarity with market intelligence platforms (PitchBook, CapIQ, etc.))
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
• Strong Excel and PowerPoint skills; data visualization a plus.

Preferred Qualifications

• Prior experience in highly technical industry
• Experience across multiple deal types e.g., strategic M&A, joint ventures, divestitures, commercial partnerships, cross-border transactions.
• Deep-tech venture investing experience.

Education

• MBA or equivalent work experience/progression strongly preferred.
• Bachelor's degree in Finance, Economics, Engineering, Computer Science, or a related analytical field.

Location

• San Jose, California (must be willing to relocate).
• Flexibility for remote work within established company policies.
• 10-20% travel including domestic and international travel to meet with targets, advisors, investors, partners, and industry events.

What Makes This Role Unique

This is a high-impact execution role at the center of Western Digital's inorganic growth agenda, offering direct exposure to the Executive Leadership Team and Board on key company initiatives. The Associate will independently own financial modeling, diligence coordination, and deal materials that shape M&A, JV, divestiture, and venture decisions as Western Digital strengthens its core HDD business while expanding into new deep technology areas. The role offers rare hands-on deal experience with a top-tier  in-house corporate development function.

Additional Information

WD 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