PGS AI Strategy & Realization Lead

Pfizer • New York City, NY

8d • Hybrid

About The Position

The PGS AI Strategy & Realization Lead is the division’s foremost AI expert, accountable for defining, governing, and realizing measurable value from Artificial Intelligence across Pfizer Global Supply (PGS). Reporting to the VP, PGS Data, Analytics & AI Transformation and serving on its leadership team, the role sets the multi-year AI vision spanning planning, manufacturing, quality, logistics, and external supply — and owns the PGS AI Council, the division’s governing body for AI strategy, best practices, and sustainable, cost-effective delivery. This is a lead-vet-govern organization, not a build-everything team. PGS leaders own their own AI strategy and execution; this role ensures AI and citizen development investments across PGS are coordinated, responsibly governed, and consistently value- driven. The leader chairs the AI Council, sets responsible AI guardrails in partnership with Quality, Digital, and Legal, protects dedicated capacity for emerging-technology innovation, and builds lasting AI capability and talent within PGS functions rather than dependency on a central team, positioning PGS at the forefront of AI-enabled operational excellence.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s/BS in Computer Science, AI, Machine Learning, Data Science, Engineering, Mathematics, Physics, or related technical field with 12+ years relevant experience; OR a Master’s degree with at least 10+ years of experience; OR a PhD with 7+ years of experience.
• Deep technical expertise in AI, ML, and/or data science — including hands-on experience with modern AI architectures, GenAI, LLMs, and intelligent agents — sufficient to credibly evaluate, challenge, and guide the technical direction of AI solutions.
• Demonstrated success defining and leading an enterprise-scale AI/Digital strategy and roadmap (business case through sustainment) with senior-management accountability.
• Proven leadership of a business-critical, highly technical team, building a high-performing culture of trusted, independent ownership; proven success recruiting, developing, and retaining top-tier AI talent.
• A self-directed, hands-on learner who builds, experiments, and studies to stay at the leading edge of AI — an essential and defining trait given the rapid evolution of the field.
• Demonstrated experience establishing and running a governance body (council, board, or CoE) that vets strategy and drives standardization across a matrixed organization without owning execution.
• Ability to partner with Digital, Quality, or equivalent organizations to establish responsible AI frameworks; working knowledge of AI/citizen development platforms and governance/inventory tools (e.g., Collibra).
• Strong pharmaceutical, supply chain, or comparable business acumen; proven ability to excel in a highly matrixed, federated organization.
• Business-level fluency in English (written and verbal) for effective global collaboration and executive communication.
• Demonstrated experience leading leaders and teams through complex change, including navigating ambiguity, influencing across stakeholders, and sustaining performance during transformation.
• Strong digital literacy, including practical experience leveraging data, digital tools, and AI‑enabled solutions to drive innovation, efficiency, and better decision‑making.
• Proven ability to think and operate end‑to‑end, connecting strategy to execution across functions and anticipating downstream impacts to deliver integrated, enterprise‑level solutions.
• Permanent work authorization in the United States.

Nice To Haves

• Advanced degree (Master’s or PhD) in a related technical field from a program recognized for rigor and innovation in AI.
• Direct, hands-on experience building, training, or fine-tuning AI/ML models, GenAI applications, or intelligent agents — personally, not solely overseeing others.
• Demonstrated record of true invention or innovation (patent, novel solution, open-source contribution, or widely adopted tool), and evidence of exceptional achievement in any walk of life.
• Experience briefing C-suite/most-senior leaders; regulated-industry experience; startup/founding experience; and an active external AI community network to keep Pfizer at the leading edge.

Responsibilities

• Set and own the division's multi-year AI strategy and roadmap, from vision and business case through prioritization, execution, benefits realization, and sustainment; holding the portfolio accountable to measurable business outcomes and decisively retiring capabilities that no longer create value.
• Partner with Digital to govern the division's AI token utilization and spend strategy, setting budget expectations, cost transparency, and responsible-use guardrails that protect enterprise value.
• Chair and run the PGS AI Council including PGS AI leads, PGS Data, Analytics & AI Transformation leadership, and Digital leadership, to govern shared best practices and cost-effective delivery, pressure-test PGS strategies, standardize what works, and retire what does not division-wide.
• Leverage the Council as a forum for continuous education and innovation-sharing, surfacing emerging AI research, technologies, and techniques from across Pfizer and beyond, and creating space for members to share insights as the AI landscape rapidly evolves.
• Deploy targeted execution bandwidth from a bench of highly respected AI experts to support PGS leads toward a self-sufficient, citizen-developer future, and establish a consistent operating model for dual-hatted AI Transformation Interface Leads who enable — but never own — PGS AI strategy and realization, holding them to a common standard that reliably meets leaders' needs.
• Position the organization as PGS's innovation center for AI by establishing and protecting dedicated capacity to research emerging AI technologies, tools, and techniques and evaluate their potential to drive value across the division.
• Translate this research into practical, actionable recommendations by determining not just what is possible but what is worth pursuing in a PGS context and share findings broadly through the AI Council and wider PGS community, sustaining this innovation capability as a core, ongoing function central to the role's credibility as the division's foremost AI expert.
• Identify and pursue high-value AI opportunities across PGS operations across the full end-to-end supply network, from raw material procurement through distribution to the first paying customer, applying automation, decision support, process coordination, modeling, and alert monitoring to drive measurable improvement across operations, reporting, and disclosure.
• Advance AI for engineering applications and strengthen management practices at all levels through AI-enabled issue identification, escalation, decision support, information sharing, and performance tracking across the entire management system.
• Deploy GenAI, optimization, automation, and intelligent agents to make colleagues highly productive in their current and future roles, investing in the education, communities of practice, and enablement that build lasting capability.
• Partner with Quality, Digital, and other relevant organizations to build and sustain responsible AI frameworks spanning compliance, auditability, risk management, explainability, and human oversight; own the AI use-case inventory and associated documentation in Collibra and other officially approved platforms (particularly standard Digital platforms for use-case registration), ensuring consistent governance across all systems of record.
• Assess PGS AI strategies and other qualifying use cases per criteria set jointly with the Head of PGS AI Strategy & Realization, Quality, and Digital leadership—against Quality's AIRIF and AI QRB frameworks and applicable Pfizer/PGS policies; co-own a shared audit and sustainment process with Quality and Digital to ensure ongoing review and continued performance against required expectations.
• Define and lead the division's AI literacy strategy, building on Pfizer's broader corporate AI literacy programs and developing PGS-specific content only where truly needed; establish a citizen development literacy program that teaches colleagues the approved platforms, effective use, and the controls and guardrails required for responsible adoption.
• Partner with the PGS-Digital Portfolio Governance & Realization organization's Engagement & Adoption center of excellence to lead change management and adoption for major AI and citizen development initiatives, ensuring new capabilities and ways of working are embedded and sustained; grow AI talent across both this organization's own bench of experts and embedded capability within PGS functions, fostering a culture of continuous learning that develops and retains industry-leading technical talent rather than concentrating it in a central team.
• In partnership with Digital and aligned with the broader corporate strategy, define the division's approach to systematically capturing situations, decisions, rationale, and outcomes across PGS, enabling this information to train Pfizer's AI models and support ongoing organizational learning and decision intelligence over time.

Benefits

• 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
• Health benefits to include medical, prescription drug, dental and vision coverage
• Relocation assistance may be available based on business needs and/or eligibility.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior