Pfizer

Sr. Director, Engineering Lead

Pfizer$214K — $358K *
US-Anywhere
+ 3 other locationsRemote
Information Technology
11 - 15 years of experience
Job Overview by Ladders

Qualifications

  • Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or related field with 12+ years relevant experience.
  • Recognized thought leader influencing business strategy and engineering engagement.
  • Expert in defining data integration patterns and large-scale data flows.
  • Proficient in full-stack development, capable of rapid skill acquisition and production solutions.
  • Exceptional communicator shaping practices across different audience levels.

Responsibilities

  • Drive delivery of critical technical initiatives and engineering practices.
  • Lead and develop a team of technical leaders and manage talent strategy.
  • Shape technology-driven business strategy and engage with executives.
  • Design AI-augmented engineering workflows and evaluate new tools.
  • Establish reliability standards, promote resilience, and mentor engineers.
  • Implement documentation standards and promote knowledge management.
  • Drive process efficiency and coordinate cross-functional technical work.

Benefits

  • 401(k) plan with Pfizer Matching Contributions and additional retirement savings contributions.
  • Paid vacation, holiday, and personal days, plus caregiver/parental and medical leave.
  • Comprehensive health benefits including medical, prescription drug, dental, and vision coverage.
Full Job Description

We are seeking a skilled People Leader with strongexpertisein Engineering who will lead a team of Software Engineers to design, build, andmaintainsoftware systems that deliver business value. In this role, you will focus on code quality, architecture decisions, and reliable delivery whileleveragingAI tools to enhance productivity.

You will lead and grow a high-performing team to deliver AI-first digital capabilities and AI-native platforms, shaping both the technology and the talent that will define our digital future.

This role encompasses organization-wide technical strategy, people management and architectural direction. You will define strategic direction and be accountable for outcomes, shape organizationalpracticesandmaintainexternal industry visibility. You will handle organizational-scale complexity creating clarity from chaos.

ROLE RESPONSIBILITIES

  • Delivery: Drive delivery of the most critical technical initiatives and platforms, establish engineering delivery practices, and be the technical authority on high-stakes projects
  • People: Lead team of technical leaders, develop their expert skills shape engineering talent strategy, build high-performing teams, and own succession planning
  • Business: Shape technology-driven business strategy, represent technical perspective at executive level
  • AI: Lead design of AI-augmented engineering workflows for your area, evaluate new AI tools, train engineers on effective AI usage, and balance speed with verification
  • Reliability: Establish SLOs/SLIs across teams, build resilient systems, lead reliability initiatives for your area, mentor engineers on reliability practices, and drive reliability culture
  • Documentation: Establish documentation standards across teams in your area, build knowledge management systems, and mentor engineers on effective technical writing
  • Process: Drive process efficiency within your team, coordinate cross-functional technical work, and lead retrospectives

ROLE BEHAVIOURS

  • Don't Lose Your Curiosity: Shapes organizational culture around curiosity and continuous learning; sponsors experimental initiatives across the organization; recognized as a thought leader in problem discovery; influences industry practices around innovation and exploration
  • Set an example for your team: Consistently demonstrates a clear vision, positive energy, and exemplary expert actions that motivate your team of direct reports to strive for their highest potential
  • Own the Outcome: Defines organizational accountability standards focused on business impact; shapes industry practices around outcome ownership in the AI era; sponsors transformational initiatives with full outcome accountability; recognized externally for ownership culture leadership
  • Be Polymath Oriented: Enables cross-disciplinary learning across the team; inspires creation of holistic solutions spanning technical and business domains; embodies the Renaissance Engineer ideal; translates specialized knowledge into accessible explanations; thinks like a business insider
  • Communicate with Precision: Enables spec-driven development practices; mentors others on precise communication; spans C-level executives to frontline workers; drives clarity as a core value across their function; represents the organization externally
  • Think in Systems: Shapes systems design practices across their function; enables chaos engineering experiments; influences cross-team architecture decisions; creates clarity from complexity; bridges technical systems with business processes

QUALIFICATIONS

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or related field with 12+ years of relevant experience.

EXPERT-LEVEL SKILLS

  • Business Immersion: You are a recognized thought leader across business stakeholders. You influence business strategy, exemplify the business immersion mindset, and shape how engineering engages with the business.
  • Data Integration: You lead definition of data integration patterns and best practices. You enable architecture of large-scale data flows, solve the most complex integration challenges, and are the authority on enterprise data integration.
  • Full-Stack Development: You work comfortably in any language and rapidly acquire new skillsas needed and ensure same for your team of direct reports. You deliver production solutions in days not months, shape full-stack practices, and exemplify polymathic engineering.
  • Multi-Audience Communication: You shape communication practices across teams. You represent engineering externally, communicate at board and executive level, and are recognized as an exceptional communicator who bridges any audience gap.
  • Problem Discovery: You shape approaches to problem discovery. You are recognized for transforming ambiguous situations into clear opportunities, influence how teams engage with business problems, and are the go-to person for the most undefined challenges.
  • Engineering Delivery & Quality: You shape engineering delivery culture. You define standards for quality, reliability, and scalable delivery, and are recognized for driving consistent, high-impact outcomes across complex initiatives.
  • Stakeholder Management: You shape stakeholder practices and manage executive relationships, represent engineering at the highest levels, and are recognized for exceptional stakeholder partnerships.

PEOPLE MANAGER SKILLS

  • Leading the team: You are setting a clear direction for your team, aligning people around shared goals, and ensuring strong communication to drive collective success. You are also developing talent, fostering collaboration, and creating an environment where individuals feel empowered to perform at their best
  • Team Collaboration: You create collaborative culture in your team. You transform dysfunctional team dynamics, are recognized for building exceptional teams, and mentor others on collaboration excellence.
  • Knowledge Management: You grow experts and lead knowledge management initiatives across your team, create knowledge systems and taxonomies, establish practices that make institutional knowledge persistent, and mentor others on knowledge sharing.
  • Time Management & Deep Work: You protect focused time of your direct reports for complex work, balance multiple priorities without dropping balls, minimize context switching, and help others understand your team capacity.

PRACTITIONER-LEVEL SKILLS

  • AI Evaluation & Verification: You lead AI governance initiatives across teams in your area, create evaluation standards and checklists, and train engineers on rigorous AI verification. You design review processes for AI-assisted work.
  • AI Literacy: You guide AI adoption decisions across teams in your area, assess AI risks and benefits systematically, and train engineers on responsible AI usage. You design human-in-the-loop workflows.
  • AI-Augmented Development: You optimize AI tool usage across teams in your area, train engineers on AI-augmented workflows, evaluate new AI development tools, and establish practices that balance AI speed with verification rigor.
  • Architecture & Design: You design complex multi-component systems end-to-end, evaluate architectural options for large initiatives across teams, guide technical decisions for your area, and mentor engineers on architecture. You balance elegance with delivery needs.
  • Code Quality & Review: You establish and enforce quality standards across teams in your area. You mentor engineers on effective code review, ensure verification depth for AI-assisted development, and drive testing strategies.
  • Pattern Generalization: You lead pattern generalization initiatives across teams, define criteria for when to generalize vs keep custom, and establish intake processes for receiving and scaling validated solutions. You mentor engineers on abstraction design.
  • Service Management: You lead service management practices for multiple services across teams, optimize service portfolios for your area, balance service investments, and train engineers on service-oriented thinking.
  • Site Reliability Engineering: You define reliability standards across teams in your area, drive post-incident improvements systematically, design capacity planning processes, and mentor engineers on SRE practices.
  • Technical Writing: You define documentation standards across teams in your area, create documentation systems and templates, train engineers on spec-driven development, and ensure documentation quality across projects.

WORKING-LEVEL SKILLS

  • Cloud Platforms: You design cloud-native solutions, manage infrastructure as code, implement security best practices, and make informed service selections. You troubleshoot cloud-specific issues.
  • Data Modeling: You create efficient data models that balance normalization with query performance. You optimize queries, handle schema migrations safely, and choose appropriate storage technologies.
  • DevOps & CI/CD: You build complete CI/CD pipelines end-to-end, manage infrastructure as code (Terraform, CloudFormation), implement monitoring, and design deployment strategies for your services.
  • Lean Thinking & Flow: You optimize team processes systematically, measure and improve cycle time, remove bottlenecks proactively, and deliver rapidly while maintaining quality.
  • Technical Debt Management: You prioritize debt systematically based on risk and impact, balance debt reduction with feature work, and make pragmatic trade-offs. You know when to take on debt intentionally.


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.
Work Location Assignment:Hybrid

On site strongly preferred. Remote locations will only be considered for internal candidates who are already designated remote.

Last Date to Apply for Job: 7/28/2026

The annual base salary for this position ranges from $214,900.00 to $358,100.00. In addition, this position is eligible for participation in Pfizer27s Global Performance Plan with a bonus target of 22.5% of the base salary and eligibility to participate in our share based long term incentive program. We offer comprehensive and generous benefits and programs to help our colleagues lead healthy lives and to support each of life27s moments. Benefits offered include a 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, and health benefits to include medical, prescription drug, dental and vision coverage. Learn more at Pfizer Candidate Site 2D U.S. Benefits | (uscandidates.mypfizerbenefits.com). Pfizer compensation structures and benefit packages are aligned based on the location of hire. The United States salary range provided does not apply to Tampa, FL or any location outside of the United States. This role is posted in multiple locations. If you are applying for the role in an secondary job posting location where pay transparency regulations apply, your Talent Advisor will share the local pay information with you during the first interview.

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

Candidates must be authorized to be employed in the U.S. by any employer.

U.S. work visa sponsorship (such as TN, O-1, H-1B, etc.) is not available for this role now or in the future.

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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