Sr Director, AIDA R&D AI Ecosystem Engineering

Pfizer's commitment to creating breakthroughs that change patients' lives is deeply embedded in our culture as a science-driven and patient-focused company. Central to this commitment is our use of digital technologies, AI, data, and analytics, which drive innovation across our organization.
We are seeking a dynamic and technically accomplished Sr Director, AIDA R&D AI Ecosystem Engineering to lead the AI Innovation engineering function for our AI, Data, and Analytics ecosystem supporting pharmaceutical R&D. This role is critical to building and scaling the foundational re-useable AI components for complex problems that power the R&D organization.
As a senior leader, you will be responsible for the architecture, development, and operational excellence of the AI components for R&D, enabling scientific teams to accelerate discovery and development through data-driven innovation. You will lead a team of engineers and collaborate closely with product, data science, and Digital partners to deliver secure, scalable, and high-performance solutions.
The ideal candidate will have a proven track record of developing and executing strategic plans for groundbreaking AI products and utilizing data and customer insights to inform decision making. Your strong background in cutting edge AI technologies and AI product creation and expertise in taking products from ideation to delivery using automation and modern practices will be essential. You will thrive in managing complex, uncertain environments, driving ideas to products and focusing on impactful outcomes.
This role demands a passion for scaling technology initiatives and working in a fast-paced, try-destroy-retry environment. Your unwavering commitment to accomplishing ambitious goals that will propel the company forward will be instrumental in driving innovation, efficiency, and success.
Key Responsibilities
Your role will involve leveraging an environment of experimentation to influence direction, identifying multiple solutions and innovative options.
Engineering Leadership

• Stay at the forefront of technological advancements in AI.
• Architect and operationalize multi-agent cognitive frameworks that combine autonomous agents, LLMs, and orchestration layers to automate complex R&D workflows.
• Lead the engineering design and development of AI products and semi-autonomous agents for R&D workflows.
• Ensure agents can coordinate across human actors and systems, querying internal platforms and external data sources to synthesize insights.
• Drive the creation of modular, production-ready components that support scalable deployment and reproducibility of AI and Agentic AI systems.
• Across R&D, champion AI safety, transparency, and governance, ensuring AI systems meet R&D's standards for ethical AI and regulatory compliance.
• Collaborate with security and compliance teams to embed auditability and traceability into AI and agentic AI workflows.

Team Management

• Build and lead a high-performing team of AI software engineers and DevSecOps specialists.
• Foster a culture of technical excellence, innovation, and accountability.
• Mentor and grow engineering talent through coaching, feedback, and career development.
• Promote cross-functional collaboration with product, data science, and IT teams to ensure alignment and shared ownership.
• Optimize team structure and workflows using agile practices and metrics-driven processes.
• Inspire and guide the team through evolving priorities, emerging technologies, and scientific complexity.

Collaboration & Execution

• Help share and steer the overarching vision and strategy for AI innovative advancements in support of R&D, prototyping new technologies to address challenges.
• Partner with platform product management to translate user needs into technical solutions.
• Work closely with data scientists, bioinformaticians, and Digital to ensure platform usability and adoption.
• Ensure platform compliance with regulatory and security standards (e.g., GxP, HIPAA, FAIR data principles).
• Build strong relationships with internal stakeholders, including legal & compliance, R&D Creation Center Platform organization, AIDA Platforms, AI Center of Excellence ensuring alignment with broader organizational strategies.

Strategic Impact

• Contribute to the overall platform strategy and roadmap in partnership with the Head of AIDA R&D Advanced AI & Data Ecosystem who you'll be reporting to.
• Evaluate and adopt emerging technologies to future-proof the platform.
• Optimize for performance, cost-efficiency, and scalability across global R&D use cases.

Innovation and Talent Development

• Foster a culture of innovation, experimentation, and continuous improvement in platform engineering and practices.
• Attract, mentor, and grow engineering talent with a passion for enabling science through technology.

Platform operations & Support

• Ensure high availability, reliability, and performance of AI capabilities across global R&D teams.
• Define and track key operational metrics (e.g., uptime, latency, throughput, cost efficiency) to drive continuous improvement.
• Establish and manage robust monitoring, alerting, and incident response processes.
• Oversee L4 engineering support for critical platform issues, collaborating with IT and vendor partners as needed.
• Implement and maintain operational runbooks, SLAs, and documentation to support scalable platform operations.
• Drive root cause analysis and post-incident reviews to improve system resilience and reduce operational risk.

QUALIFICATIONS
Education: Bachelor's or Master's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related technical field or equivalent work experience. Advanced degree preferred
Experience:

• 12+ years of experience in software/platform engineering, with 5+ years in a leadership role.
• Proven track record of building and operating large-scale data and ML platforms in a scientific or regulated environment.
• Experience in pharma, biotech, or healthcare is highly desirable.
• Proven success working in matrixed organizations and building trusted partnerships with science, data, and product teams.
• Exposure to domains such as multi-omics, real-world data, or clinical informatics.
• Experience in the life sciences or pharmaceutical industry, particularly in R&D or translational research.
• Familiarity with GxP, HIPAA, and regulatory requirements related to R&D data

Technical Expertise:

• Deep knowledge of cloud-native technologies (AWS, Azure, or GCP), containerization (Docker, Kubernetes), and infrastructure automation.
• Proficiency with data engineering tools (e.g., Spark, Airflow, Kafka) and MLOps frameworks (e.g., MLflow, Kubeflow, SageMaker).
• Strong understanding of data security, access control, and compliance in life sciences.
• Demonstrated experience building data and AI platforms at scale in a complex, regulated, or research-heavy environment.
• Deep experience with modern DevOps/MLOps tools and processes.

Leadership & Communication:

• Strong cross-functional collaboration and stakeholder management skills.
• Ability to communicate complex technical concepts to non-technical audiences.

Candidate demonstrates a breadth of diverse leadership experiences and capabilities including: the ability to influence and collaborate with peers, develop and coach others, oversee and guide the work of other colleagues to achieve meaningful outcomes and create business impact.
NON-STANDARD WORK SCHEDULE, TRAVEL OR ENVIRONMENT REQUIREMENTS
Travel up to 25% may be required for business activities
Last Date to Apply for Job: 9/9/2025
Additional Posting Locations: La Jolla, CA; Cambridge, MA; NYHQ; Collegeville, PA; Bothell, WA; Tampa, FL
The annual base salary for this position ranges from $204,700.00 to $341,100.00.* In addition, this position is eligible for participation in Pfizer's Global Performance Plan with a bonus target of 22.5% of the base salary and eligibility to participate in our share based long term incentive program. We offer comprehensive and generous benefits and programs to help our colleagues lead healthy lives and to support each of life's moments. Benefits offered include a 401(k) plan with Pfizer Matching Contributions and an additional Pfizer Retirement Savings Contribution, paid vacation, holiday and personal days, paid caregiver/parental and medical leave, and health benefits to include medical, prescription drug, dental and vision coverage. Learn more at Pfizer Candidate Site - U.S. Benefits | (uscandidates.mypfizerbenefits.com). Pfizer compensation structures and benefit packages are aligned based on the location of hire. The United States salary range provided does not apply to Tampa, FL or any location outside of the United States.
* The annual base salary for this position in Tampa, FL ranges from $184,200.00 to $307,000.00.
Relocation assistance may be available based on business needs and/or eligibility.
Sunshine Act
Pfizer reports payments and other transfers of value to health care providers as required by federal and state transparency laws and implementing regulations. These laws and regulations require Pfizer to provide government agencies with information such as a health care provider's name, address and the type of payments or other value received, generally for public disclosure. Subject to further legal review and statutory or regulatory clarification, which Pfizer intends to pursue, reimbursement of recruiting expenses for licensed physicians may constitute a reportable transfer of value under the federal transparency law commonly known as the Sunshine Act. Therefore, if you are a licensed physician who incurs recruiting expenses as a result of interviewing with Pfizer that we pay or reimburse, your name, address and the amount of payments made currently will be reported to the government. If you have questions regarding this matter, please do not hesitate to contact your Talent Acquisition representative.
EEO & Employment Eligibility
Pfizer is committed to equal opportunity in the terms and conditions of employment for all employees and job applicants without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, age, gender identity or gender expression, national origin, disability or veteran status. Pfizer also complies with all applicable national, state and local laws governing nondiscrimination in employment as well as work authorization and employment eligibility verification requirements of the Immigration and Nationality Act and IRCA. Pfizer is an E-Verify employer. This position requires permanent work authorization in the United States.
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