Postdoctoral Fellow-R&D Science Engineer

Pfizer • San Diego, CA

1d

About The Position

Pfizer is building an AI first R&D engine where artificial intelligence is a foundational scientific force, redefining how medicines are discovered, developed, and delivered from molecule to patient. As part of Pfizer’s R&D Postdoctoral Fellow Program, AI focused science engineers are embedded where science happens, working directly within our core research organizations, from Quantitative Systems Pharmacology, Inflammation & Immunology and Oncology to Vaccines and Internal Medicine. Fellows collaborate across the R&D enterprise, bringing AI to critical challenges in Internal Medicine, Immunology, Infectious Diseases, and Oncology to help drive the discovery and development of breakthrough medicines. As an AI R&D Postdoctoral Fellow, you will work shoulder-to-shoulder with leading scientists, clinicians, and drug developers, translating complex biology and clinical challenges into deployable AI solutions. Your work will extend beyond experimentation; your models and methods will directly inform molecular design, study strategy, and decision-making across the drug development lifecycle. This program is built for emerging science engineers, typically within one to two years of postgraduate training, who want their work to matter beyond publications. At Pfizer, we invite you to use your power for purpose by applying AI at the intersection of biology and medicine, tackling real problems that can influence how breakthrough therapies are discovered and developed, with the potential to improve outcomes for patients around the world.

Requirements

• PhD in a relevant discipline such as Computer Science, Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence, Biomedical Engineering, Applied Mathematics, Statistics or Biostatistics, Computational Biology, Systems Biology, Computational Chemistry, Bioinformatics, Biomedical Informatics, Immunology, or a related field.
• Early career researcher (no more than 2-years of postdoc working experience)
• Able to commit to a minimum two-year postdoctoral fellowship.
• Demonstrated scientific achievement through first author publications, peer reviewed contributions, or significant scientific presentations.
• Experience applying AI/ML to real world problems, including predictive modeling, generative models, representation learning, or ML system design.
• Proficiency in Python and modern ML frameworks such as PyTorch and/or TensorFlow.
• Experience working with large, complex, or heterogeneous datasets, including data curation, model evaluation, and scalable computing environments (cloud and/or HPC).
• Ability to collaborate across disciplines including biology, chemistry, pharmacology, statistics, engineering, or clinical science, translating computational approaches into scientific context.
• Familiarity with reproducible and responsible AI practices, including version control, transparent reporting, and awareness of model limitations and bias.
• Strong communication skills, intellectual curiosity, and a mission driven interest in advancing science and improving patient outcomes.

Nice To Haves

• Exposure to applied research or R&D workflows where analytical outputs inform decisions.
• Code or reproducible research artifacts (e.g., GitHub, GitLab).

Responsibilities

• Design, develop, and apply advanced AI and machine learning methods to address high impact scientific challenges across the drug discovery and development lifecycle.
• Translate models across datasets, modalities, and disease areas using approaches such as transfer learning, representation learning, and domain adaptation.
• Perform integrative and metanalyses of largescale, multisource datasets to generate robust, generalizable insights.
• Curate, harmonize, and quality control complex scientific and clinical datasets to enable rigorous statistical analysis and machine learning model development.
• Collaborate closely with multidisciplinary teams spanning biology, chemistry, pharmacology, clinical science, and data science to ensure AI solutions are scientifically grounded and decision relevant.
• Communicate scientific findings clearly and transparently through internal forums and external publications, producing high impact, peer reviewed work while safeguarding confidential information and supporting reproducibility.

Benefits

• Relocation assistance may be available based on business needs and/or eligibility.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Education Level: Ph.D. or professional degree