Executive Assistant to the Chief Product Officer

Skills this role screens for

About the role

We are seeking an experienced Executive Assistant to support the Chief Product Officer of Western Digital.

Reporting directly to the Chief Product Officer, you will serve as a strategic partner to the executive and partner closely with the CPO’s Chief of Staff. You will support the Product organization and collaborate closely with senior leaders across Product Management, Engineering, Operations, Marketing, Sales, and Corporate Functions.

In this highly visible role, you will be entrusted with confidential information and play a critical role in ensuring the efficiency and effectiveness of the CPO's office. You will anticipate needs, exercise judgement, manage competing priorities, and help drive operational excellence across a fast-paced, global organization. Success in this position requires exceptional organizational skills, sound business judgment, attention to detail, and the ability to build trusted relationships across all levels of the company.

The ideal candidate is proactive, resourceful, highly collaborative, and thrives in a dynamic environment where priorities can shift quickly. They are adept at leveraging modern productivity tools to improve efficiency, decision support, and execution. Supporting a global executive will require flexibility, adaptability, and exceptional self-management skills.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities

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Executive Time and Priority Management

• Manage and optimize the CPO's calendar, ensuring alignment with product, business, and company priorities.
• Proactively identify scheduling conflicts, prioritize meetings, and maximize executive productivity across multiple time zones.
• Develop a strong understanding of business priorities to effectively guide scheduling decisions and meeting prioritization.
• Anticipate executive needs and recommend solutions to ensure seamless execution of priorities.

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Product Leadership Coordination

• Partner with the Product Leadership Team to coordinate and execute operating rhythms, leadership meetings, product reviews, roadmap planning sessions, quarterly business reviews, and strategic planning activities.
• Ensure appropriate preparation, documentation, and follow-up actions for key product and executive forums.
• Drive accountability for action items, milestones, and deliverables resulting from leadership meetings and strategic initiatives.

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Meeting Planning and Organization

• Plan and execute internal and external meetings, leadership offsites, customer engagements, analyst briefings, board-related product reviews, and team events.
• Coordinate agendas, logistics, meeting materials, and action-item tracking.
• Support planning and execution of organizational events and leadership forums.

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Executive Communications

• Serve as a key point of contact for the Office of the Chief Product Officer.
• Manage communications, inquiries, approvals, and requests on behalf of the executive, as appropriate.
• Foster effective communication between the Product organization and cross-functional stakeholders.
• Ensure communications produced on behalf of the executive are accurate, professional, and aligned with business priorities.

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Business Operations and Tool Management

Executive Briefings and Content Preparation

• Manage expense reports, purchase orders, statements of work, and other operational processes in compliance with company policies.
• Utilize and champion productivity tools including Microsoft 365, Copilot, WD Chat, SharePoint, Teams, and other internal systems.
• Identify opportunities to streamline administrative processes and improve organizational effectiveness through automation and AI-enabled tools.
• Coordinate executive briefing materials for internal leadership meetings, customer visits, industry events, analyst engagements, and business travel in partnership with the Chief of Staff, Executive Communications, and other key stakeholders.
• Ensure briefing materials, presentations, meeting summaries, and supporting documentation are organized, complete, and available to the CPO in advance of key engagements.

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Cross-Functional Partnership

• Partner with leaders across Product, Engineering, Sales, Marketing, Finance, Operations, and Corporate Functions to drive alignment on strategic initiatives and organizational priorities.
• Build trusted relationships with executives, stakeholders, and cross-functional leaders.
• Support execution of strategic product initiatives, organizational priorities, and special projects.

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Travel Management

• Manage complex domestic and international travel.
• Balancing executive priorities, time-zone considerations, and seamless logistics.

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Team Leadership and Community Engagement

• Provide leadership and functional oversight for EAs across the Product organization, including resource allocation, workload balancing, role scoping, and ongoing performance feedback.
• Own EA team culture, employee engagement initiatives, leadership events, and organizational communications.
• Foster collaboration and best practice sharing across the Executive Assistant community.
• Contribute to a high-performing, service-oriented culture within the broader organization.
• Build strong partnerships within the executive assistant community and contribute to best practice sharing across the company.
• Minimum of 8 years supporting a Chief Product Officer, Executive Vice President, Senior Vice President, or equivalent executive within a large public company.
• Experience supporting executives in a complex global organization spanning multiple regions, cultures, and time zones.
• Advanced proficiency with Microsoft Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Teams, SharePoint, OneDrive, and AI-enabled productivity tools.
• Demonstrated ability to manage highly complex calendars, travel, executive communications, and business operations.
• Strong experience developing executive-level presentations, briefing materials, meeting summaries, and business communications.
• Exceptional organizational, planning, project management, and prioritization skills, with the ability to manage multiple competing priorities.
• Strong business judgment, problem-solving capability, and attention to detail.
• Ability to anticipate executive needs and proactively identify solutions.
• Proven ability to serve as a trusted advisor on prioritization, scheduling, and organizational matters.
• Ability to work independently, exercise discretion, and manage highly confidential and sensitive information.
• Outstanding written, verbal, and interpersonal communication skills.
• Proven ability to build trusted relationships and collaborate effectively across executive and cross-functional stakeholder groups.
• Demonstrated experience supporting executive leadership teams within highly matrixed organizations.
• Experience driving accountability for deliverables, follow-up actions, and organizational commitments.
• Demonstrated experience mentoring, coaching, or leading administrative professionals.
• Ability to effectively partner with globally distributed teams and stakeholders across diverse regions and cultures.
• Flexibility to support a global executive organization across multiple time zones as business needs require.
• Daily presence at WD’s San Jose (Great Oaks) office is required.

Nice to have

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience supporting a Chief Product Officer, Chief Technology Officer, or executive leader within a Product, Engineering, Technology, or R&D organization.
• Familiarity with product development lifecycles, product management practices, roadmap planning, product reviews, and agile operating environments.
• Experience coordinating executive reviews, customer engagements, analyst briefings, board-related materials, and strategic planning activities.
• Experience supporting organizations focused on technology, semiconductors, storage, hardware, software, or innovation.…