Tooling Evolution Lead Engineer

Pfizer • New York City, MA

5d • Hybrid

About The Position

Engineering Activation & Tooling is responsible for tools, access, and onboarding that help engineers across Pfizer’s eight platforms begin delivering from Day One, and for keeping the engineering tool estate current as developer and AI capabilities evolve. Pfizer is seeking an experienced, principal-level individual contributor to own the evaluation, industrialization, and lifecycle of engineering and AI developer tools across the organization.

The role owns the governed tool-intake and evaluation lifecycle, from proposal through an evidence-based decision to make a tool available, pilot it, mark it as declining, or reject it. The successful candidate will define and evolve a shared evaluation framework; build an industrialization pathway that moves successful pilots into the supported core estate; and maintain a portfolio-level view of tools as they progress through piloting, scaling, steady state, or decline. The framework and maturity tiers inform the self-service onboarding portal used by engineers and product managers across all eight platforms.

The role partners with the Engineering & AI and Product & Delivery Guilds, which scout tools and support adoption, and with Tooling Operations, which provides usage, cost, and license telemetry. It uses that evidence to guide scale-up, retirement, and rationalization decisions, including migration paths for tools being phased out. The role also owns the adoption and value-realization story for tools that pass evaluation and serves as a technical and governance authority for platform owners and other teams.

The position is hybrid and requires work from the assigned Pfizer office two to three days per week, or as needed by the business. Collaboration across time zones is required, with minimal travel of 20–25%. Candidates must be authorized to work in the United States by any employer; U.S. work visa sponsorship is not available.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field, or equivalent practical experience.
• At least 8 years of professional experience in software engineering, platform or developer-tooling product management, or a closely related technical field, including direct ownership of a tooling, platform, or developer-experience roadmap.
• Demonstrated experience evaluating, selecting, or governing engineering tools or SaaS platforms at enterprise level, balancing technical fit, cost, security, and developer experience.
• Hands-on experience evaluating or rolling out AI-assisted development tools, such as GitHub Copilot or agentic coding assistants, within the last 12–18 months.
• Technical fluency across CI/CD, IDEs, SaaS integration patterns, and cloud-native architectures sufficient to conduct credible evaluation discussions with engineers and vendors.
• Experience translating enterprise governance, security, or compliance requirements into processes engineers will follow.
• Proven ability to influence and align stakeholders across a large, matrixed organization without formal authority, including platform owners, security and compliance teams, and community or guild leads.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to communicate evidence-based cases to engineers and senior stakeholders.
• Must be authorized to be employed in the United States by any employer; U.S. work visa sponsorship is not available.
• Must be able to work from the assigned Pfizer office two to three days per week, or as needed by the business.

Nice To Haves

• Prior experience in a large, regulated enterprise, such as pharmaceutical, healthcare, financial services, or aerospace.
• Experience running a portfolio-management or tool-rationalization process, including retiring or deprecating tools based on usage evidence.
• Experience with Model Context Protocol (MCP) or similar emerging AI-tooling integration standards.
• Experience partnering with communities of practice, guilds, or developer-relations functions as an intake or adoption channel.
• Experience designing or applying a multidimensional evaluation or scoring framework for technology or vendor decisions.
• Familiarity with SaaS license administration, chargeback or showback models, or consumption-based cost telemetry.
• Track record of taking a proof of concept through to a fully industrialized, enterprise-supported capability.
• Breadth of diverse leadership experience and capabilities, including influencing and collaborating with peers, developing and coaching others, and guiding colleagues’ work.

Responsibilities

• Own and run the governed tool-intake and evaluation lifecycle, from proposal through a scored, evidence-based decision: available, pilot, declining, or rejected.
• Define and evolve the evaluation framework and keep its criteria current as new developer and AI tooling categories emerge.
• Build and run the industrialization pathway that moves successful pilots into the supported, published core estate, including a fast-track lane for tools accessed through an already-governed gateway.
• Maintain a live portfolio view of tools across the estate, tracking their status as piloting, scaling, steady-state, or declining.
• Partner with the Engineering & AI Guild and Product & Delivery Guild on tool intake and adoption, while owning evaluation decisions.
• Partner with Tooling Operations to use usage, cost, and license telemetry to make evidence-led retirement and rationalization decisions, including defining migration paths for tools being phased out.
• Own the adoption and value-realization story for tools that pass evaluation, demonstrating that they deliver their intended value.
• Serve as the technical and governance authority for evaluation maturity tiers used in the onboarding portal and relied upon by platform owners.
• Influence and collaborate with peers, develop and coach others, and guide colleagues’ work toward meaningful outcomes and business impact.
• Work with cross-functional teams across different time zones and travel as required (20–25%).

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.
• Medical, prescription drug, dental, and vision coverage.
• Eligible to participate in Pfizer’s Global Performance Plan, with a bonus target of 20% of base salary.
• Eligible to participate in a share-based long-term incentive program.
• Relocation assistance may be available based on business needs and/or eligibility.
• Comprehensive benefits and programs intended to support colleagues’ health and life events.

What This Job Offers

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