> AI agents: this is one page of Nextmove’s FDE site, in Markdown. Nextmove is a job board and free career service for forward deployed engineers (FDEs). Each posting is classified from its text, not its title: the kind of work, how much of it is production code, pre-sales weight, time at customer sites, travel, remote arrangement, level and posted base pay. The site also publishes the aggregates: median pay by level, metro, company and kind of work, and which companies started hiring FDEs each week. Every page under https://nextmove.md/fde is served this way; the index of pages is https://nextmove.md/llms.txt. # Principal Full Stack Developer & Solutions Architect – AI, Data & Cloud Canonical URL: https://nextmove.md/fde/jobs/79ac2742bc6d23d5 Western Digital posts a principal FDE role to build for teams inside the company in San Jose, CA with no pay posted. Own end-to-end architecture and hands-on delivery of AI, data analytics, cloud, and full-stack solutions for Western Digital’s Product Development engineering organization. Read from the employer’s posting on November 8, 2026. - [Western Digital](https://nextmove.md/fde/companies/western-digital) First seen Sep 29, 2026 · open on SmartRecruiters as of Nov 8, 2026 Pay not posted San Jose, CA On-site Full-time Own end-to-end architecture and hands-on delivery of AI, data analytics, cloud, and full-stack solutions for Western Digital’s Product Development engineering organization. - [See roles that fit me](https://nextmove.md/sign-up?from=%2Ffde%2Fjobs%2F79ac2742bc6d23d5&placement=top) - [View posting at Western Digital](https://jobs.smartrecruiters.com/WesternDigital/744000152498089) Free. Upload your resume once, see why each FDE role fits, and get introduced only when you say so. ## At a glance ### Posted base pay Not posted Staff+ FDE postings, 388 postings: the middle 50% of posted pay is $197K to $262K, median $225K. ### The work Builds for teams inside the company Balance **Mostly building** Project stages 1. Pre-sales (not covered) 2. Proof of concept 3. Implementation 4. Operations (not covered) - **Coding**: Writes production code - **Builds for**: Internal teams - **Level**: Staff+ - **Role**: Technical lead ### What they ask for Experience - **8+ years** professional software engineering experience, including production ownership of systems designed Background - **Software engineering** ### Do you meet what the posting states? The posting asks for 8+ years. How many do you have? The posting reads as a staff-level role. What level are you at now? The job is in San Jose, CA. Could you work there? Which of these have you used in production? Answer each one. 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[What postings ask for, by background →](https://nextmove.md/fde/paths) ## Conditions - **Location**: San Jose, CA - **Work arrangement**: On-site - **Employment type**: Full-time ## More like this [Google](https://nextmove.md/fde/companies/google) ### [Lead GenAI Forward Deployed Engineer, YouTube GTM Operations](https://nextmove.md/fde/jobs/8847cd3282bb9d75) San Bruno, CA · New York, NY · +1 more 3w ago $186,000–$269,000 [Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL)](https://nextmove.md/fde/companies/jones-lang-lasalle-jll) ### [Forward Deployed Engineer](https://nextmove.md/fde/jobs/fd5bdcc3529df2db) San Francisco, CA · Chicago, IL · +1 more On-site 6w ago $150,000–$300,000 [Waymo](https://nextmove.md/fde/companies/waymo) ### [AI Enablement Lead](https://nextmove.md/fde/jobs/c882a164e9bc6d53) Mountain View, CA Hybrid 3mo ago $200,000–$247,000 ## What you’ll do - Architect end-to-end AI, data, cloud, and full-stack solutions for Product Development use cases. - Design agent systems, evaluation methods, quality gates, routing policies, and guardrails. - Build production applications spanning backend services, APIs, data access, orchestration, and user interfaces. - Establish reference architectures, technology standards, deployment patterns, and governance-aligned designs. ## What you’ll bring - 8+ years of professional software engineering experience with production ownership. - End-to-end solution architecture experience across application, data, cloud, or AI domains. - Strong Python and SQL plus React/TypeScript, Streamlit, or Gradio capability. - Experience building LLM applications with orchestration frameworks, tool/function calling, MCP integrations, and RAG. ## About Western Digital WD designs and manufactures HDD-based storage infrastructure for hyperscalers, enterprises, creative pros, and consumers, differentiated by scale, reliability, and AI-era capacity roadmaps. Public · 5000+ people [View posting at Western Digital](https://jobs.smartrecruiters.com/WesternDigital/744000152498089) ## Similar jobs [Prologis](https://nextmove.md/fde/companies/prologis) ### [Lead AI Engineer](https://nextmove.md/fde/jobs/974be3a4d3d388f5) Denver, CO · San Francisco, CA · +3 more On-site 3mo ago $147,000–$202,000 [F5](https://nextmove.md/fde/companies/f5) ### [Forward Deployed Engineer lll](https://nextmove.md/fde/jobs/88b82a0a517ae99f) Seattle, WA · San Jose, CA 6w ago $120,000–$180,000 [Everlaw](https://nextmove.md/fde/companies/everlaw) ### [GTM AI Engineer](https://nextmove.md/fde/jobs/c57efd57ebb31902) Oakland, CA Hybrid 2mo ago $154,000–$213,000 [Benchling](https://nextmove.md/fde/companies/benchling) ### [Software Engineer, Tools and Automation](https://nextmove.md/fde/jobs/c4a1efdff7ee042a) San Francisco, CA Hybrid 1mo ago $195,000–$265,000 [Databricks](https://nextmove.md/fde/companies/databricks) ### [Staff Fullstack Engineer, Agentic Applications](https://nextmove.md/fde/jobs/9a39079ea2904fe9) Mountain View, CA 5mo ago $192,000–$260,000 - [Compare staff+ FDE salary ranges](https://nextmove.md/fde/salary/staff) - [Similar jobs in SF Bay Area](https://nextmove.md/fde/jobs?region=sf-bay-area) - [Similar jobs that build for teams inside the company](https://nextmove.md/fde/jobs?role=internal-deployment) Hiring at Western Digital and want this page changed or removed? 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