Director, Analyst Relations

About the role

In this role, you will be responsible for building and scaling WD’s Analyst Relations program at a pivotal moment. Industry analyst perception shapes everything from customer purchasing decisions to partner confidence and investor sentiment. This role will drive all of WD’s engagement with industry analysts, and sits at the intersection of strategy, competitive intelligence, and external storytelling. You will be the primary interface between our executive team and the world's most influential technology research firms — IDC, Gartner, Forrester, and beyond — shaping how they cover us in reports and briefings that enterprise buyers rely on daily.

Responsibilities

• Own and manage the full analyst relations calendar, including a structured cadence of briefings, inquiries, and debriefs with tier-one firms such as Gartner, IDC and Omdia — ensuring consistent and strategic engagement across all relevant coverage areas
• Lead end-to-end participation in major analyst evaluations, coordinating internal stakeholders, managing submission timelines, reviewing draft reports, and driving response strategies to disputed or inaccurate positioning
• Develop and maintain a tiered analyst coverage map that identifies the most influential analysts across storage, AI infrastructure, cloud, and data management — and aligns engagement strategy to business priorities and competitive dynamics
• Serve as the primary relationship owner for key analysts, building trusted, ongoing dialogue that goes beyond transactional briefings — including regular check-ins, roadmap previews, and candid two-way exchanges that inform both analyst perspective and internal strategy
• Prepare executives and subject matter experts for analyst interactions, including developing briefing materials, messaging frameworks, Q&A preparation, and pre-call coaching to ensure every engagement is high-impact and on-strategy
• Synthesize analyst research, commentary, and market coverage into actionable intelligence reports for internal stakeholders — including competitive positioning insights, emerging narrative risks, and opportunities to reshape how the market categorizes WD's capabilities
• Monitor analyst sentiment and share of voice across key coverage areas, tracking how WD is positioned relative to competitors in published research, vendor ratings, and market commentary — and developing strategies to close gaps or reinforce advantages
• Build and manage the AR budget, including advisory service contracts, subscription renewals, event sponsorships, and paid inquiry allocations — ensuring spend is optimized against strategic priorities and demonstrable business impact
• Partner with Product Marketing, the PR team, and Strategic Communications to ensure analyst-facing messaging is consistent with go-to-market narratives, press releases, and campaign themes — and that major product launches or announcements include a coordinated analyst engagement plan
• Establish and manage a formal AR measurement framework, tracking program KPIs such as analyst sentiment scores, mention frequency in published research, and internal stakeholder satisfaction with analyst intelligence outputs
• Identify, engage, and manage relationships with a curated set of paid enterprise tech influencers, developing an engagement model that extends WD's reach
• Collaborate with content marketing teams to amplify analyst and influencer output across owned channels, ensuring third-party validation is integrated into campaign assets, sales enablement materials, and web content
• Build the internal infrastructure of the AR program from the ground up — including playbooks, engagement templates, a CRM-based analyst contact database, and onboarding materials that allow the function to scale as the team and program grow
• Represent WD at key industry analyst conferences and summits

Qualifications

• 10+ years in Analyst Relations at a global enterprise tech company
• Deep familiarity with the enterprise analyst ecosystem — you know the key analysts, and their coverage areas
• Experience steering at least one major evaluation (Magic Quadrant or Wave) from start to finish, ideally with a measurable improvement in positioning
• Exceptional written and verbal communication — you can translate complex technical topics into clean, compelling narratives
• Comfort operating at the executive level; this role involves regular interaction with the CEO and CPO
• You see around corners and anticipate how analyst coverage will affect the business
• Experience at a company that scaled or went through a major category transition
• Experience collaborating with adjacent functions: PR, Investor Relations, competitive intelligence
• Curious, flexible and the ability to think creatively
• Effective team player, while also being able to work independently
• Willingness to take risks
• Enjoy working in a fast-paced environment, self-motivated, and can thrive under pressure
• Someone who has a sense of humor
• Experience at a leading brand a plus
• Bachelor's degree in communications, or a related field; advanced degree a plus

Pay

The salary range is $199,500.00–$266,000.00. An employee’s pay position within the range may be based on several factors including but not limited to relevant education, qualifications, certifications, and experience; skills, ability, and knowledge of the job; performance, contribution and results; geographic location; shift; internal and external equity; and business and organizational needs. The range is applicable for jobs to be performed in California, Colorado, New York or remote jobs that can be performed in those states.

Benefits

• Eligibility to be considered for bonuses under WD’s Short Term Incentive Plan or the Sales Incentive Plan, which provides incentive awards based on Company and individual performance
• Eligibility to participate in the annual Long-Term Incentive (LTI) program, which consists of restricted stock units (RSUs) or cash equivalents, pursuant to the terms of the LTI plan