Sr. Director, Strategic Partnerships, External Surfaces

Pfizer • New York City, NY

4d • Hybrid

About The Position

The Sr. Director, Strategic Partnerships, External Surfaces is a senior orchestration role responsible for bringing structure, coherence, and momentum to Pfizer’s partnerships with the external surfaces that Consumer and HCP audiences use today and will increasingly use going forward. Reporting to the Head of DPX, this role serves as the operating lead across these partnerships and as a trusted second to senior leadership, governing the set of relationships while concentrating energy on moving the most strategic ones forward. This is a builder’s role for a transition stage. Many of these partners are becoming the surfaces where consumers and clinicians now begin, the assistants, platforms, and channels people increasingly turn to before they reach a Pfizer-owned property. A central purpose of this role is ensuring Pfizer shows up on those emerging entry points with the same quality and credibility it brings to the surfaces it owns. As Pfizer formalizes how it works with leading technology, AI, and platform companies, this leader stands up and runs the connective infrastructure: the governance, the operating cadence, the prioritization, and the measurement that turn a set of individual relationships into a coordinated, high-performing portfolio. Governance concentrates on the handful of top cross-pillar partners who deliver across multiple pillars at once, spanning media, surface experiences, and internal capabilities within a single relationship, where the value, complexity, and executive attention are greatest. It requires someone fluent across every dimension of these partnerships, from media and commercial opportunities to co-developed experiences to internal capability building, who can hold the full picture and move between the strategic and the operational without losing either. While senior leadership remains the principal point of contact for partner executives, this role is expected to drive the most strategic relationships operationally on leadership’s behalf and, where needed, to step in and carry them directly.

Requirements

• 12+ years of relevant experience, with a proven track record of building and managing strategic partnerships in or adjacent to the technology, AI, media, or healthcare ecosystems.
• Demonstrated ability to orchestrate complex, cross-functional work and bring structure to ambiguity, standing up governance, operating models, and ways of working that did not previously exist.
• Experience leading significant external relationships and joint business plans, with the executive presence to represent the organization credibly with senior partner leadership.
• Strong commercial and strategic judgment, with the ability to move fluidly between high-level strategy and hands-on operational execution.
• A genuine, current understanding of the technology and emerging-capability landscape and its implications for marketing, product, and customer experience.
• Track record of working collaboratively across functions, geographies, and companies to drive shared outcomes.
• Strong situational leadership and the ability to lead through influence in highly matrixed environments.
• Bachelor’s degree required.
• Strong writing and presentation skills, with the demonstrated ability to influence senior leaders and colleagues at all levels.
• Discretion and trustworthiness in dealing with confidential information.
• 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

• Advanced degrees preferred
• Role model for the PFE Values (Courage, Excellence, Equity, Joy).
• Deep understanding of the healthcare ecosystem and the regulatory context of a pharmaceutical environment.
• Experience working with technology, AI, or platform companies, whether through partnerships, business development, or product collaboration.
• Experience operating in a transformation or stand-up context, where the operating model is still being built.

Responsibilities

• Build and run the governance and operating model for the top cross-pillar partnerships, those spanning multiple pillars across media, surface experiences, and internal capabilities: the prioritization, the decision forums, the operating rhythm, and the reporting that keep a complex set of relationships coordinated and accountable.
• Maintain a clear, tiered view of the portfolio, ensuring each partnership has defined objectives, ownership, and a path to measurable value, and that effort is matched to opportunity.
• Serve as the connective layer across the internal teams that touch these partnerships, so the organization engages each partner coherently rather than through fragmented, duplicative conversations.
• Work in close partnership with the business unit and franchise partnership leads who drive deep, domain-specific partnership work, providing the shared governance, coordination, and cross-portfolio view that connect their efforts.
• Act as the operating lead for the most strategic partner relationships, driving them forward on behalf of senior leadership and ensuring commitments, milestones, and joint plans stay on track.
• Prioritize the partnerships and surfaces that are becoming primary entry points for consumers and clinicians, ensuring Pfizer establishes a credible, high-quality presence on the platforms where audiences increasingly begin their journeys.
• Step in to carry the highest-tier partnerships directly when needed, with the judgment and executive presence to represent Pfizer credibly with senior partner counterparts.
• Prepare senior leadership for partner engagements, ensuring the principal point of contact is always well briefed and aligned.
• Maintain deep, current fluency across every dimension of the partnerships, including media and commercial opportunities, co-developed products and experiences, and internal capability building, and understand the live initiatives running within each.
• Translate partnership ambition into joint business plans with clear objectives, KPIs, and value, and monitor performance against them.
• Connect partnership activity back into the broader marketing and product agenda, so partner capabilities reach the teams and surfaces that can use them.
• Maintain a sharp external view of the technology and AI landscape, emerging capabilities, and the competitive environment, and bring that perspective into how Pfizer prioritizes and evolves its partnerships.
• Identify where new partnerships or expanded engagement could create advantage, and make the case for where to invest, deepen, or step back.

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