Pfizer

Head of AI & Agentic Platform Engineering

Pfizer$300K — $500K+*
Pharmaceuticals & Biotech
11 - 15 years of experience
Job Overview by Ladders

Qualifications

  • 12+ years in software or infrastructure engineering, with 7+ years in AI/ML platform, MLOps, or AI infrastructure roles at a significant scale.
  • Proven experience with multi-tenant AI/ML platform infrastructure, compute provisioning, model training pipelines, and production monitoring.
  • Hands-on expertise in LLM gateway or model serving infrastructure, including multi-model routing and cost attribution.
  • Proficient in MLOps platform experiences that enhance deployment velocity and reliability.
  • Strong practices in Infrastructure as Code (IaC) within multi-cloud environments, particularly with Terraform.
  • Ability to lead platform teams with a product-focused, SLA-driven approach.
  • Experience collaborating across organizational boundaries, particularly with security and governance teams.

Responsibilities

  • Own the enterprise LLM gateway and access control infrastructure for all AI interactions at Pfizer.
  • Design and manage the model serving infrastructure ensuring low-latency and scalable deployments.
  • Establish the runtime infrastructure for autonomous AI agents, ensuring stateful process management and coordination.
  • Develop observability protocols for monitoring LLM usage and performance across Pfizer's systems.
  • Provision enterprise compute resources, optimizing for GPU, TPU, and CPU across cloud and on-premises environments.
  • Implement automated MLOps processes for streamlined deployment and monitoring of AI models.
  • Create a governance framework via an enterprise AI model registry, tracking models' lifecycle and compliance.

Benefits

  • Hybrid work model with flexibility in work location.
  • Opportunity to lead cutting-edge AI infrastructure initiatives at a major pharmaceutical company.
  • Access to a culture that prioritizes continuous learning and development for its teams.
  • Engagement in impactful AI projects that shape the future of healthcare.
  • Collaborative work environment that encourages cross-functional teamwork and innovation.
Full Job Description

ROLE SUMMARY

The Head of AI & Agentic Platform Engineering owns the infrastructure layer that makes Pfizer's AI ambitions executable, the compute, LLM gateway, MLOps machinery, and observability platform on which every AI workload at Pfizer runs. This is not a supporting function. It is the capability that determines whether Pfizer's AI strategy moves at the speed of ambition or the speed of infrastructure constraints. The platform this team builds is the difference between a data scientist who spends two weeks provisioning an environment and one who is running experiments on day one, and between an AI model that takes six months to reach production and one that ships in days through a governed, automated deployment pipeline.

The scope of AI workloads this platform must support is broad. Each Pfizer domain (i.e., R&D, Commercial, Global Supply, Enabling Functions) has distinct compute, latency, governance, and reliability requirements, and this platform must serve all of them without compromise. As Pfizer advances from assistive AI tools toward autonomous agentic systems that take multi-step actions across the enterprise, the demands on this platform will grow in both complexity and consequence. The LLM gateway, agent orchestration layer, and observability infrastructure this leader builds today must be architected for that future from the outset.

The team of engineers is organized across four pods, LLM Gateway & Model Serving, Compute & Environments, Runtime Enablement and Registry, Deploy & Trust, each owning a distinct and critical layer of the AI infrastructure stack including agent lifecycle management.

ROLE RESPONSIBILITIES

Gateway & Serving

  • Enterprise LLM gateway, access control, multi-model routing, rate limiting, cost attribution, and audit logging for all LLM interactions across Pfizer, including agentic AI workloads.
  • Model serving infrastructure, low-latency inference, auto-scaling, and multi-region deployment for production models.
  • Agentic AI runtime, the infrastructure layer that supports autonomous AI agents taking multi-step actions across Pfizer's systems. This is meaningfully different from stateless LLM inference: agents require stateful process management, short-term and long-term memory, tool-calling orchestration, and the ability to coordinate with other agents. As Pfizer's agentic AI portfolio grows, this layer becomes one of the most strategically critical components of the platform. The Head of AI & Agentic Platform Engineering is expected to architect this capability proactively, not wait for agent use cases to arrive and then retrofit the infrastructure.
  • Gateway observability, real-time usage monitoring, cost attribution by team and use case, and anomaly detection. Enterprise tool and MCP registry, the governed catalog of tools, APIs, and data sources that AI agents are permitted to call at runtime. As the number of agent-callable tools grows across Pfizer, this registry becomes the mechanism by which the platform enforces what agents can do, not just what they can say. Built and maintained in close partnership with the Trusted AI team's agent governance function.

Compute & Environments

  • Enterprise compute provisioning, GPU, TPU, and CPU infrastructure across cloud and on-premises, including capacity planning, FinOps governance, and utilization optimization.
  • Pre-configured AI environments, reproducible, governed workspaces that enable data scientists to focus on scientific problems, not infrastructure.
  • Infrastructure as Code, automated, auditable environment provisioning across development, staging, and production.
  • HPC support, infrastructure capable of supporting large-scale scientific simulation and molecular modeling workloads (preferred, not required).

Runtime Enablement

  • MLOps platform, experiment tracking, model versioning, automated evaluation, deployment pipelines, and model registry, with integration into Trusted AI's risk classification and sign-off process.
  • Production observability, monitoring, alerting, and dashboarding for AI systems in production: latency, throughput, drift detection, and model health.
  • Developer experience, APIs, SDKs, and documentation that enable federated teams to deploy production models without deep infrastructure expertise.

Registry, Deploy & Trust

This pod was previously a standalone Trust Engineering team. Its integration into AI & Agentic Platform Engineering reflects a deliberate architectural decision: agent lifecycle management, register, deploy, monitor, govern, retire, is infrastructure, and the operational boundary between deploying a model and operating an agent has collapsed. The pod owns:

  • Enterprise AI model registry, the authoritative record of every AI model and agent in development, staging, and production across Pfizer, including metadata, version history, risk tier, Trusted AI validation status, ownership, and complete audit trail.
  • Deployment pipeline infrastructure, automated pipelines through which models and agents move from development to staging to production, with Trusted AI sign-off gates enforced as first-class pipeline steps. Includes release management, canary deployments, A/B testing, and rapid rollback capabilities.
  • Production monitoring and drift detection, continuous observation of AI system performance in production: prediction quality, output distributions, latency, throughput, and drift. For agentic systems, monitoring extends to agent behavior, action sequences, tool usage, decision consistency, and anomalous behavior detection.
  • Guardrails and policy enforcement, the technical implementation of Trusted AI's governance policies as executable runtime controls: input/output filtering, PII detection, agent action controls, permission scoping, circuit breakers, and prompt injection defenses designed in partnership with the CISO organization.
  • GxP-compliant audit trail, complete, tamper-evident logging of every deployment event, configuration change, and model transition, meeting the documentation standards required for AI systems operating in regulated pharmaceutical environments.

BASIC QUALIFICATIONS

  • 12+ years in software or infrastructure engineering, with 7+ years in AI/ML platform, MLOps, or AI infrastructure roles at significant scale.
  • Demonstrated experience building and operating multi-tenant AI/ML platform infrastructure, compute provisioning, model training pipelines, model serving, and production monitoring.
  • Deep hands-on experience with LLM gateway or model serving infrastructure, multi-model routing, inference optimization, access control, and cost attribution at enterprise scale.
  • Proven MLOps platform experience with documented outcomes in deployment velocity, reliability, and developer satisfaction.
  • Strong IaC practices in a multi-cloud architecture (Azure, AWS, GCP including Terraform expertise.
  • Experience leading platform teams with an SLA-driven, product-minded operating model.
  • Demonstrated ability to collaborate across organizational boundaries, with adjacent platform teams, security functions, and governance stakeholders.
  • Ability to translate infrastructure architecture and trade-offs for both technical teams and senior business stakeholders.
  • Experience with encryption and security tools, techniques, and best practices.
  • Experience operating AI infrastructure in a regulated environment with GxP controls, audit trail requirements, and validated environment obligations.
  • 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.

PRFERRED QUALIFICATIONS

  • Experience building or operating ML platform infrastructure at a major technology company (Google, Meta, Microsoft, OpenAI, or equivalent) at petabyte scale with thousands of concurrent ML engineers.
  • Experience designing agentic AI infrastructure, specifically the orchestration layer, memory architecture (short-term context, long-term persistent memory), tool-calling and MCP integration, agent-to-agent communication, and the safety architecture required to constrain autonomous agents operating in production. Candidates who have built or operated agent runtimes at scale, whether in a research or product context, will be strongly preferred.
  • Deep LLM-specific infrastructure experience: KV cache management, speculative decoding, quantization trade-offs, and concurrent multi-model serving.
  • HPC environment experience, job schedulers (SLURM, LSF, or equivalent), parallel file systems, and large-scale scientific compute workloads.

Other Job Details:

  • Last Day to Apply: 7/28/2026
  • Work Location Assignment: Hybrid

About Pfizer

Hospira, Inc. is the provider of injectable drugs and infusion technologies. Through its broad, integrated portfolio, Hospira is uniquely positioned to Advance Wellness™ by improving patient and caregiver safety while reducing healthcare costs. The company is headquartered in Lake Forest, Ill., and has approximately 16,000 employees.

Pfizer Careers

Joining Pfizer’s global team offers more than just job opportunities; it’s a chance to be a part of a company that leads with science and innovates for better health. As a leading biopharmaceutical company, Pfizer is at the forefront of transforming lives through innovation, leadership, and diversity. Work You’ll Do At Pfizer, you will collaborate with some of the brightest minds in the industry, engaging in work that enhances global health and saves lives. Our culture thrives on intellectual curiosity, professional growth, and inclusivity, making every day a learning opportunity. Here, your skills will be honed, your professional acumen will be expanded, and you will be part of a team that values the power of diverse insights to drive success. Pfizer’s Leadership and Growth Lead and innovate with Pfizer, where we value the growth of each employee. Our leadership is committed to providing employees with the training and resources needed to excel in their careers. Pfizer offers a variety of career paths, including roles in research, marketing, finance, technology, and more, each offering a unique blend of challenges and rewards. Internship and Employment Opportunities Start your career with Pfizer through our internship programs or dive straight into a full-time position. We are hiring individuals who are passionate about healthcare and who seek to make a difference in the world. Our internships provide invaluable industry experience, networking opportunities, and a potential pathway to full-time employment. Benefits and Culture Pfizer is dedicated to fostering a workplace where all employees feel valued and can achieve their full potential. We offer competitive benefits packages that support the health, well-being, and financial security of our employees and their families. At Pfizer, you’ll find a culture that encourages collaboration, innovation, and continuous learning. Join Our Team Explore the numerous job opportunities at Pfizer by searching open positions that match your skills and interests. We look for driven, curious, and innovative team players who are ready to advance their careers in a transformative company. Stay Connected Keep up to date with career tips, insider perspectives, and industry-leading insights you can put to use today—all from the people who work here. Personalize your subscription to receive job alerts, latest news, and insider tips tailored to your preferences. Discover the exciting and rewarding career opportunities that await at Pfizer. Interview and Resume Tips Prepare for your future with Pfizer by utilizing our resources for resume building and interview preparation. We provide guidance on how to effectively showcase your skills and experiences to align with the needs of a position at Pfizer. Our goal is to help you succeed in securing a role that suits your professional goals and personal growth aspirations. Pfizer: A Place Where You Can Make a Difference Every position at Pfizer contributes to our mission of making the world a healthier place. Whether through direct patient care, research innovation, or corporate roles that support our operations, your work will have global impact. Join us in our journey to change lives—explore Pfizer careers today.
Learn more about Pfizer
Size
79,000 employees
Market Cap
$285.9 billion
Industry
Net Income
$9.6 billion
Founded
1849
5 Year Trend
+9%
Revenue
$41.9 billion
NASDAQ

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