Director & Senior Legal Counsel, Patents

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.

As a member of the Patent Development Team (within the Global Technology & Commercial Legal Services Team), this individual will serve as a client focused business partner to develop Western Digital’s portfolio of patents and trade secrets in alignment with business objectives and provide solution oriented intellectual property advice and support to the client. This full-time position is based in Western Digital’s office in San Jose or Irvine, California and will report to the Director, Associate General Counsel, Patents.

ESSENTIAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Develop and manage parts of a global patent and trade secret portfolio to protect company technologies and processes, including managing outside counsel on patent drafting and prosecution per quality and budget objectives.
• Manage/conduct invention review, patentability searches and associated invention review board meetings and processes.
• Assess patent landscapes responsive to client needs and review competitive industry information to identify high valued patents in the company portfolio.
• Protectively engage with client organizations to understand the latest developments, competitive challenges and technical roadmaps.  Harvest new inventions and align patent development and freedom to operate strategies with evolving business needs.
• Provide intellectual property training and advice to client organizations on a regular cadence or in response to client requests.
• Partner with the Compliance function to ensure proper handling of company and third-party confidential information, including reviewing technical publication materials for confidentiality screening.
• Review, draft and negotiate IP related agreements or other agreements with IP provisions.
• Assist the litigation team on matters related to patent litigation defense or enforcement; assist other teams within the Legal organization on matters involving patents or other IP issues.

REQUIRED

• 8-10 years of relevant patent experience at national or regional law firm and/or in house. At least 5 years in-house patent experience required.
• Prior experience in global patent portfolio development and management required. 
• Prior experience with intellectual property licensing and litigation matters highly desired.
• Bachelor’s degree in physics, materials science, electrical engineering or a related field.
• Bar admission in California and patent attorney registration at the USPTO.

SKILLS

• Strong written and verbal communication skills and requisite technical and business acumen to effectively communicate legal advice within the appropriate technical and business contexts.
• A customer centric mindset and ability to work well cross-functionally with other members of the Legal organization and client organizations to support client objectives.
• Ability to take ownership of tasks and deliver results with attention to detail, and contribute to the overall success of the Patent Development team and the greater Legal organization.
• Have an innovation and agile mindset to focus on continuous improvement, in both growth of personal skills and improving aspects of the overall team.
• Attentively listens to others and encourages the open expression of diverse ideas and opinions.
• Provides timely and helpful information to others across the organization and engages proactively and positively with teammates and internal clients.
• Owns and manages various matters and new opportunities with enthusiasm.

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 10/11/2025 (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.

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].