Director, Principal Software Engineer - Forward Deployed

Pfizer • New York, NY

1d • Hybrid

About The Position

At Pfizer, technology impacts everything we do. Our digital and ‘data first’ strategy is dedicated to implementing innovative and impactful technology solutions across all functions, from research to manufacturing. By digitizing drug discovery and development, identifying solutions, and making our work easier and faster, you will make a significant difference to countless lives. Your role in this digital transformation is crucial, helping streamline processes, improve efficiency, and drive forward groundbreaking research and development. Join us in this mission to harness the power of technology for the betterment of global health. Role Overview The Principal Software Engineer (PSE) is a hands-on technologist and trusted innovation partner to Global Business Services Function (GBS)—embedded at the intersection of Finance, Global business processes, transactional data and enterprise technology. Operating within Pfizer Digital & Technology’s Enabling Functions (EF) Forward Impact Engineering team, this role translates bold ideas into working AI and data-driven prototypes that accelerate the way we discover, develop, and deliver innovative solutions. PSEs work in small, mission-focused Pods aligned to specific EF domains such as Finance, GBS, PX and Legal/Compliance. Each Pod pairs a PSE with a Product Manager to co-own a domain’s innovation backlog—from idea intake through proof-of-concept delivery and transition to enterprise scale. The ideal candidate brings a rare combination of Full stack developer and engineering depth, creative problem solving, and business fluency. They are equally comfortable writing code, influencing senior leaders, and connecting across organizational boundaries. A PSE thinks like an AI architect, builds like a full-stack engineer, and operates like a strategic partner—driving measurable impact through technology that advances science.

Requirements

• Bachelors degree in Computer Science, Data Science, Engineering, or related technical field (PhD or Master’s preferred) or equivalent professional experience.
• 8+ years of experience in software engineering, data science, or applied AI, including 3+ years in a lead technical or product innovation role.
• Proven ability to build working prototypes and AI applications using modern languages, Vibe Coding and Agentic AI frameworks
• Strong grasp of machine learning and generative AI concepts, including LLMs, NLP, and multimodal systems.
• Excellent communication and storytelling skills; capable of translating complex ideas to non-technical audiences.
• Demonstrated success influencing senior stakeholders and driving alignment in a matrixed, global organization.
• EXPERT-LEVEL SKILLS Business Immersion: You are a recognized thought leader in your domain. You influence domain strategy across the business unit, exemplify the business immersion mindset that defines forward-deployed engineering, and shape how engineering engages with the business.
• Data Integration: You define data integration patterns and best practices across the business unit. You architect large-scale data flows, solve the most complex integration challenges, and are the authority on enterprise data integration.
• Full-Stack Development: You work comfortably in any language and rapidly acquire new skills as needed. You deliver production solutions in days not months, shape full-stack practices across the business unit, and exemplify polymathic engineering.
• Multi-Audience Communication: You shape communication practices across the business unit. You represent engineering externally, communicate at board and executive level, and are recognized as an exceptional communicator who bridges any audience gap.
• Problem Discovery: You shape approaches to problem discovery across the business unit. You are recognized for transforming ambiguous situations into clear opportunities, influence how teams engage with business problems, and are the go-to person for the most undefined challenges.
• Rapid Prototyping & Validation: You shape culture around rapid validation and iterative delivery across the business unit. You are recognized for transformative fast delivery, define standards for prototype-to-production, and exemplify the "deliver in days" mindset.
• Stakeholder Management: You shape stakeholder practices across the business unit. You manage executive relationships, represent engineering at the highest levels, and are recognized for exceptional stakeholder partnerships.
• Team Collaboration: You create collaborative culture across the business unit. You transform dysfunctional team dynamics, are recognized for building exceptional teams, and mentor others on collaboration excellence.
• PRACTITIONER-LEVEL SKILLS AI Evaluation & Verification: You lead AI governance initiatives across teams in your area, create evaluation standards and checklists, and train engineers on rigorous AI verification. You design review processes for AI-assisted work.
• AI Literacy: You guide AI adoption decisions across teams in your area, assess AI risks and benefits systematically, and train engineers on responsible AI usage. You design human-in-the-loop workflows.
• AI-Augmented Development: You optimize AI tool usage across teams in your area, train engineers on AI-augmented workflows, evaluate new AI development tools, and establish practices that balance AI speed with verification rigor.
• Architecture & Design: You design complex multi-component systems end-to-end, evaluate architectural options for large initiatives across teams, guide technical decisions for your area, and mentor engineers on architecture. You balance elegance with delivery needs.
• Code Quality & Review: You establish and enforce quality standards across teams in your area. You mentor engineers on effective code review, ensure verification depth for AI-assisted development, and drive testing strategies.
• Developer Experience: You lead developer experience initiatives across teams in your area. You design comprehensive self-service platforms, establish DX metrics, conduct systematic user research, and mentor engineers on platform-as-product thinking.
• Knowledge Management: You lead knowledge management initiatives across teams in your area, create knowledge systems and taxonomies, establish practices that make institutional knowledge persistent, and mentor others on knowledge sharing.
• Pattern Generalization: You lead pattern generalization initiatives across teams, define criteria for when to generalize vs keep custom, and establish intake processes for receiving validated solutions from Forward Deployed Engineers. You mentor engineers on abstraction design.
• Service Management: You lead service management practices for multiple services across teams, optimize service portfolios for your area, balance service investments, and train engineers on service-oriented thinking.
• Site Reliability Engineering: You define reliability standards across teams in your area, drive post-incident improvements systematically, design capacity planning processes, and mentor engineers on SRE practices.
• Technical Writing: You define documentation standards across teams in your area, create documentation systems and templates, train engineers on spec-driven development, and ensure documentation quality across projects.
• WORKING-LEVEL SKILLS Cloud Platforms: You design cloud-native solutions, manage infrastructure as code, implement security best practices, and make informed service selections. You troubleshoot cloud-specific issues.
• Data Modeling: You create efficient data models that balance normalization with query performance. You optimize queries, handle schema migrations safely, and choose appropriate storage technologies.
• DevOps & CI/CD: You build complete CI/CD pipelines end-to-end, manage infrastructure as code (Terraform, CloudFormation), implement monitoring, and design deployment strategies for your services.
• Lean Thinking & Flow: You optimize team processes systematically, measure and improve cycle time, remove bottlenecks proactively, and deliver rapidly while maintaining quality.
• Technical Debt Management: You prioritize debt systematically based on risk and impact, balance debt reduction with feature work, and make pragmatic trade-offs. You know when to take on debt intentionally.
• Time Management & Deep Work: You protect focused time for complex work, balance multiple priorities without dropping balls, minimize context switching, and help others understand your capacity.
• 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.
• This position requires permanent work authorization in the United States.

Nice To Haves

• Experience in pharma or corporate finance computing environments.
• Familiarity with regulated domains (e.g., GxP, SOX).
• Track record of leading cross-functional innovation initiatives from ideation to adoption.
• Contributions to open-source projects, technical publications, or patents in AI/ML.

Responsibilities

• Rapidly design and build AI- and data-driven prototypes addressing high-value GBS use cases (e.g., predictive modeling, scientific data integration, knowledge assistants, document intelligence, or lab automation).
• Collaborate with enterprise data, platform, and engineering teams to ensure scalability and secure handoff of validated solutions.
• Apply best practices in software development, data science, and MLOps to deliver maintainable, well-documented prototypes.
• Serve as the primary AI and technology thought partner for senior GBS leaders (VP/SVP level).
• Translate scientific and operational pain points into technical opportunities with clear business value.
• Influence decision-makers through demonstrations, storytelling, and measurable outcomes.
• Work with Product Managers to source, assess, and prioritize ideas in the GBS Innovation Backlog.
• Conduct feasibility assessments and align solutions to enterprise architecture, data governance, and AI safety standards.
• Help define success metrics, business cases, and transition plans for scaled adoption.
• Build bridges between research scientists, enterprise Digital & Technology, data engineering, and AI platform teams.
• Share learnings and reusable assets across Pods to accelerate innovation velocity.
• Mentor emerging technical talent and help establish the culture of AI in service of science.

Benefits

• participation in Pfizer’s Global Performance Plan with a bonus target of 20.0% of the base salary and eligibility to participate in our share based long term incentive program
• 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

What This Job Offers

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