Data Modeler, Enterprise Data Platform 9+ Years

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
About the Role
We are seeking an experienced Data Modeler to design and evolve the data architecture and semantic foundation for our enterprise Data Lakehouse platform, spanning Databricks, Apache Iceberg, AWS (Glue, Glue Catalog, SageMaker Studio), Dremio, Atlan, and Power BI.

In this role, you will translate business requirements into conceptual, logical, and physical models, ensuring that data is standardized, canonical, and business-ready as it flows across the Bronze (raw), Silver (canonical), and Gold (curated/consumption/semantic) layers.

You will play a central role in implementing canonical data models at the Silver layer, enabling consistency across systems and simplifying downstream consumption in Power BI dashboards, ML models in SageMaker Studio, and conversational analytics with LLMs.

Key Responsibilities
Data Modeling & Architecture

• Design conceptual, logical, and physical models to support ingestion, curation, and consumption in a modern lakehouse.
• Define canonical data models at the Silver layer to harmonize data across domains and source systems.
• Implement modeling patterns (dimensional modeling, star/snowflake, data vault, semantic modeling) aligned with enterprise standards.
• Optimize physical models for Databricks Delta and Apache Iceberg tables, ensuring schema evolution, partitioning, and performance.

Semantic Layer & Business Enablement

• Build and maintain the semantic layer in Dremio and Power BI, ensuring certified KPIs, hierarchies, and measures align with canonical models.
• Provide certified and reusable datasets to BI teams for dashboards and reporting.
• Collaborate with business stakeholders to align semantic definitions with canonical data models.

AI/ML & Conversational Analytics Enablement

• Prepare feature-ready canonical datasets for ML engineers and data scientists in SageMaker Studio.
• Design models that can be effectively consumed by LLM-powered conversational analytics (natural language → SQL queries over curated data).
• Ensure AI/BI queries map back to trusted canonical models, reducing ambiguity and duplication.

Governance, Certification & Metadata

• Document canonical and semantic models in Atlan and AWS Glue Catalog, ensuring discoverability and lineage.
• Collaborate with Data Quality Engineers to embed validation and certification rules into canonical models.
• Align canonical modeling with business glossaries, standards, and compliance requirements.

Collaboration & Best Practices

• Translate business requirements into canonical and semantic modeling patterns.
• Partner with architects, engineers, and analysts to define standards for canonical modeling in the Silver layer.
• Mentor junior team members on canonical modeling and semantic design principles.

Qualifications
Required

• 5–10 years of experience in data modeling, data architecture, or BI data design.
• Strong knowledge of conceptual, logical, physical, and canonical data modeling.
• Experience with dimensional modeling (Kimball), data vault, and semantic modeling.
• Hands-on with Databricks (Delta Lake, Unity Catalog) and Apache Iceberg.
• Familiarity with AWS services (S3, Glue, Glue Catalog, Redshift, SageMaker Studio).
• Experience with Dremio or similar query/semantic engines.
• Proficiency with Power BI modeling, DAX, and dataset certification.
• Experience with Atlan (or equivalent catalog/governance tools).

Preferred

• Experience implementing canonical data models at enterprise scale.
• Familiarity with LLM-driven conversational analytics and preparing canonical/semantic data for AI consumption.
• Knowledge of data quality principles and certification workflows.
• Familiarity with data observability platforms.
• Cloud certifications: AWS Data Analytics Specialty, Databricks Certified Data Engineer/Architect.

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 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
10/25/2024
, 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.

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 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.

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