David Wachenschwanz

Background

About David Wachenschwanz

Solid “hands-on” track record of innovating, developing, validating and integrating new sensor and component technology for the next generation of products. Builds strong multiple-disciplinary technical teams that deliver results. Brings overall parts of the development and integration process together between hardware and firmware teams for timely and ground-breaking solutions and deliverables. Vast experience working cross-functionally within the company as well as with key component vendors to provide solutions in a timely manner to meet product goals and schedules. Strong ability to diagnose and solve complex technical problems with focus on gaining root cause understanding. Technical Leadership | New Technology Introduction/Integration | Sensors | Magnetics | IoT | Embedded Systems | Tribology | Materials Science | Machine Learning | Failure Analysis | C/C++| Python (Numpy & Pandas) Key Highlights • Led 4-order-of-magnitude improvement of write lifetime for HAMR drive prototypes by working with component vendors for improvements in design and with drive firmware algorithms that responded to changes in writer performance over time to maintain reliability and performance. • Spearheaded the development of a thermal sensor and associated firmware algorithms for detection of media asperities which was incorporated into all WD drive products and is saving >$3 million annually in reliability returns. • Developed probabilistic model using Monte Carlo simulation to analyze multiple projects for a customer's current line-of-business portfolio resulting in revealing details that had been lost by the approximations that are used in the normal portfolio management tool. • Kicked-off and built team of 10 – 15 engineers to develop discrete track media (DTM) at Komag. • 16 U.S. patents issued | 25+ Refereed Published Technical Papers | 12+ Conference Papers