Senior Director, R&D & Capital Strategy Lead

Pfizer • New York City, NY

2d • Hybrid

About The Position

ROLE SUMMARY The Senior Director , Global Workplace Experience (GWE), R&D & Capital Strategy Lead reports directly to the Senior Vice President, GWE and serves as the enterprise leader accountable for the strategy, governance, and performance of Pfizer’s global, mission‑critical R&D workplace and capital portfolio. This role provides executive oversight of regulated and non‑regulated research, clinical manufacturing, vivarium, and administrative facilities, as well as a complex capital investment portfolio, ensuring delivery against scope, schedule, budget, regulatory, and design standards. As a trusted executive partner, this leader sets long‑term vision and drives operational excellence, resilience, sustainability, and risk management across all sites, aligning facilities, services, investments, and talent with enterprise priorities to support approximately 12,000 R&D colleagues and enable Pfizer’s R&D strategy and pipeline delivery. This role leads a large, diverse organization of professional leaders and external partners, with accountability for ~200 FTEs and an annual operating budget in excess of $500M and capital portfolio exceeding $200M. The Senior Director oversees sites including: East Region: NHCRU, Groton, Cambridge, R&D Andover, Pearl River West Region: La Jolla, Bothell, & St. Louis International Region: London, Sandwich, & Chennai KEY ACCOUNTABILITIES & RESPONSIBILITIES Enterprise Strategy & Governance Establish and continuously refresh the Strategic Master Plan for R&D workplaces, ensuring alignment to evolving portfolio, modality, and operating model shifts across the enterprise. Set the enterprise‑level vision, standards, and governance for workplace operations, services, and infrastructure across a multi‑site, multi‑regulatory environment (GxP/GMP and non‑GxP), including EH&S Serve as an executive advisor to senior R&D and enterprise leadership on workplace strategy, capacity, risk, and investment trade‑offs. Set the enterprise strategy for sustainability across R&D workplaces, defining policies, standards, and governance needed to advance Pfizer’s Net Zero Carbon goals. Operational Excellence & Risk Stewardship Ensure uninterrupted, compliant, and resilient operations of critical R&D infrastructure supporting discovery through development and clinical manufacturing. Proactively identify, evaluate, and mitigate operational, regulatory, and infrastructure risks that could negatively impact the R&D pipeline, business continuity, or colleague safety. Lead enterprise crisis management, business resilience planning, and incident response for R&D workplaces. Lead the development and execution of a multi‑year decarbonization roadmap for all R&D sites, including energy transformation, building efficiency, clean‑tech adoption, and Scope 1–3 emissions reduction initiatives Financial Stewardship & Value Creation Own and deliver financial performance across OPEX and CAPEX portfolios, driving productivity, cost discipline, and long‑term value realization. Champion transformational efficiency initiatives and continuous improvement programs that enhance site reliability, service quality, and colleague experience. Provide executive‑level financial transparency, forecasting, and investment rationale to senior leadership and governance forums. Executive Partnership & Stakeholder Leadership Build and maintain trusted partnerships with senior stakeholders across R&D, GWS, PX, Finance, Digital, EHS, Security, and Compliance, ensuring alignment of priorities and outcomes. Influence executive leadership teams and site councils by clearly articulating the strategic value, risk mitigation, and return on investment of workplace initiatives. Balance and resolve competing enterprise priorities through strong executive presence, data‑driven decision‑making, and principled trade‑off management. Portfolio & Service Oversight Provide executive oversight of a broad portfolio of workplace services, including: Facility operations and maintenance Capital project delivery Utilities and critical infrastructure R&D equipment services Environmental Health & Safety, Security, and Crisis Management Vivarium and specialized research support environments Grounds, cleaning, and soft services Colleague experience offerings (cafés, fitness centers, concierge, conferencing, A/V, meeting productivity tools) Ensure all services are delivered through a rigorous performance management framework that drives safety, quality, compliance, cost efficiency, and colleague engagement. Build sustainability capability and awareness across GWE teams, vendors, and partners through coaching, development, accountability frameworks, and cultural reinforcement. Leadership, Talent & Culture Lead, develop, and inspire a high‑performing organization of directors, managers, individual contributors, OTE colleagues, and strategic suppliers. Build leadership depth and succession capability while fostering a culture of accountability, inclusion, innovation, and continuous improvement. Drive colleague engagement and change leadership during periods of transformation, growth, or portfolio realignment. Vendor & Partner Ecosystem Management Set enterprise expectations and governance for Facility Management providers, vendors, and external partners. Drive vendor performance, innovation, and accountability to improve operational outcomes, site reliability, and colleague experience. Leverage scale and partnerships to create organizational advantage across PX, GWE, R&D, and enabling functions. Capital & Project Leadership Provide executive oversight for a complex portfolio of capital projects, ensuring adherence to scope, schedule, budget, regulatory requirements, and design and engineering standards. Ensure projects advance enterprise objectives while delivering safe, compliant, and future‑ready R&D environments. Drive consistency, transparency, and accountability across capital planning, prioritization and investment approval processes globally for all R&D, Commercial and Hub sites Lead multi-year capital portfolio planning for R&D, including laboratories, digital platforms and enabling infrastructure. Partner with R&D leadership to evaluate tradeoffs between internal investment, external partnerships, outsourcing, and technology acquisition Apply portfolio analytics, scenario modeling, space planning and risk-adjusted valuation to inform capital allocation decisions Support organizational transformation initiatives related to R&D operating model evolution and ACD activity. Ensure all major capital investments incorporate carbon impact analysis, sustainability benchmarking, resiliency factors, and long‑term operational efficiency targets.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in engineering, science or relevant technical field
• 12+ years relevant work experience
• 3 years of direct facilities operations, capital management, and project execution preferably in pharmaceutical labs or manufacturing industries
• Experience successfully navigating a large organization and managing multiple stakeholder interests on global, complex projects or operations
• Strong business acumen and professionalism with the ability to interact effectively with colleagues in all functional areas, including Senior Leadership
• Excellent oral, written and overall communication skills
• Outstanding project management and organizational skills
• Ability to influence and motivate others without express authority
• Demonstrates highly developed team leadership skills and the ability to manage internal / external resources to achieve project objectives
• Ability to identify business issues/opportunities and to frame business questions
• Discretion and the ability to deal with confidential information
• Track record of strong networking/influencing skills and for working collaboratively with others across functions and markets
• Embraces, supports and leads change
• Advanced Microsoft Office capabilities, particularly Excel, PowerPoint, and Word
• Advanced technical capabilities, CADD, CMMS, CAFM and other facilities management systems

Nice To Haves

• MBA preferred
• Pharmaceutical management experience preferred

Responsibilities

• Establish and continuously refresh the Strategic Master Plan for R&D workplaces
• Set the enterprise‑level vision, standards, and governance for workplace operations, services, and infrastructure across a multi‑site, multi‑regulatory environment
• Serve as an executive advisor to senior R&D and enterprise leadership on workplace strategy, capacity, risk, and investment trade‑offs.
• Set the enterprise strategy for sustainability across R&D workplaces
• Ensure uninterrupted, compliant, and resilient operations of critical R&D infrastructure supporting discovery through development and clinical manufacturing.
• Proactively identify, evaluate, and mitigate operational, regulatory, and infrastructure risks
• Lead enterprise crisis management, business resilience planning, and incident response for R&D workplaces.
• Lead the development and execution of a multi‑year decarbonization roadmap for all R&D sites
• Own and deliver financial performance across OPEX and CAPEX portfolios, driving productivity, cost discipline, and long‑term value realization.
• Champion transformational efficiency initiatives and continuous improvement programs
• Provide executive‑level financial transparency, forecasting, and investment rationale to senior leadership and governance forums.
• Build and maintain trusted partnerships with senior stakeholders across R&D, GWS, PX, Finance, Digital, EHS, Security, and Compliance
• Influence executive leadership teams and site councils
• Balance and resolve competing enterprise priorities through strong executive presence, data‑driven decision‑making, and principled trade‑off management.
• Provide executive oversight of a broad portfolio of workplace services
• Ensure all services are delivered through a rigorous performance management framework
• Build sustainability capability and awareness across GWE teams, vendors, and partners
• Lead, develop, and inspire a high‑performing organization of directors, managers, individual contributors, OTE colleagues, and strategic suppliers.
• Build leadership depth and succession capability while fostering a culture of accountability, inclusion, innovation, and continuous improvement.
• Drive colleague engagement and change leadership during periods of transformation, growth, or portfolio realignment.
• Set enterprise expectations and governance for Facility Management providers, vendors, and external partners.
• Drive vendor performance, innovation, and accountability
• Leverage scale and partnerships to create organizational advantage across PX, GWE, R&D, and enabling functions.
• Provide executive oversight for a complex portfolio of capital projects
• Ensure projects advance enterprise objectives while delivering safe, compliant, and future‑ready R&D environments.
• Drive consistency, transparency, and accountability across capital planning, prioritization and investment approval processes globally for all R&D, Commercial and Hub sites
• Lead multi-year capital portfolio planning for R&D, including laboratories, digital platforms and enabling infrastructure.
• Partner with R&D leadership to evaluate tradeoffs between internal investment, external partnerships, outsourcing, and technology acquisition
• Apply portfolio analytics, scenario modeling, space planning and risk-adjusted valuation to inform capital allocation decisions
• Support organizational transformation initiatives related to R&D operating model evolution and ACD activity.
• Ensure all major capital investments incorporate carbon impact analysis, sustainability benchmarking, resiliency factors, and long‑term operational efficiency targets.

Benefits

• eligible for participation in Pfizer’s Global Performance Plan with a bonus target of 25.0% 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
• relocation assistance may be available based on business needs and/or eligibility

What This Job Offers

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