Director, AI Engineering Excellence Lead
- United States - Illinois - Lake Forest
- United States - California - La Jolla
- United States - Washington – Bothell
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- United States - New York - New York City
- United States - Pennsylvania - Collegeville
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- Greece - Thessaloniki Pylaia
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- United States - California - South San Francisco
The AI Engineering Excellence Lead drives coherence, quality, and scalability across the Applied AI Engineering function. This role drives technical rigor, documentation standards, and cross-functional alignment across AI Engineering. You will lead a team of AI engineers and technical writers to ensure that every AI solution meets enterprise-grade standards for quality, maintainability, and compliance.
This role focuses on technical delivery orchestration working in close partnership with Pfizer’s central Portfolio Management and Program Operations teams to ensure alignment on reporting, governance, and prioritization.
The AI Engineering Excellence Lead will be responsible for establishing the AI Engineering Community of Practice, maintain cross-pillar synchronization, and promote the visibility of Applied AI Engineering (A2E).
Reporting into the Head of Applied AI Engineering, you will manage a team of senior AI Engineers and Technical writers. This role blends deep technical leadership, product engineering strategy, and direct enablement of enterprise use cases. You will partner closely with business and technical stakeholders to design and deliver robust, scalable solutions that demonstrate the value of AI across our enterprise. This role is execution-oriented with strong influence on the AI solution lifecycle—from ideation to hand-off.
Leadership & Oversight
• Lead a cross-functional team of AI Engineers and Technical Writers focused on engineering excellence, documentation, and operational rigor.
• Represent AI Engineering across the enterprise, serving as the primary interface with business, platform, and cross-center teams.
• Drive alignment between the Applied AI Engineering vision and execution through clear standards, frameworks, and delivery practices.
Technical Translation & Feasibility
Translate business requirements into technical deliverables that align with AI solution design, enterprise architecture and platform capabilities.
Guide internal teams and clients on feasibility, scope, and best practices for AI engineering, including performance, scalability, and compliance considerations.
Lifecycle Integration
Align and integrate engineering work across the Applied AI Engineering organization, ensuring smooth handoffs and consistent standards between the teams.
Define and enforce A2E protocols for design reviews, code quality, and deployment readiness.
Planning & Governance
Own A2E OKRs, capacity planning, and cross-functional coordination with Solution Design, AI & Data Platforms, and Creation Centers (CCs).
Maintain a centralized engineering playbook and reusable frameworks for rapid, compliant delivery.
Establish an AI Engineering Community of Practice that will act as the central hub setting best practices and standards across the enterprise for AI Engineering.
Documentation & Training
Lead the creation of technical documentation, solution diagrams, and operational runbooks for AI solutions.
Maintain and evolve technical documentation, training, and onboarding materials for AI Engineering practices.
Develop and deliver training programs on A2E standards, handoff protocols, and reusable frameworks for engineers and stakeholders.
BASIC QUALIFICATIONS
8–10+ years software/AI engineering roles, with 3+ years in technical leadership or engineering excellence functions.
Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering or related discipline.
Deep understanding of modern AI engineering practices (MLOps, LLMOps, API integration, RAG architectures, observability, safety), and enterprise-grade delivery.
Proven ability to translate business needs into technical designs and guide feasibility assessments.
Excellent stakeholder management and communication skills; ability to influence across engineering, product, and compliance teams.
Strong understanding of AI/ML solution delivery lifecycle and associated quality/safety practices.
Experience managing cross-team dependencies and communicating status at multiple levels of the organization.
Exceptional organizational and communication skills — able to synthesize and report progress clearly.
PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS
Experience leading engineering excellence programs or center of excellence initiatives.
Background in agile delivery or lean execution frameworks tailored for AI experimentation and productization.
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.
Other Job Details:
Last Date to Apply for Job: December 25, 2025
Work Location Assignment: Must be able to work from assigned Pfizer office 2-3 days per week, or as needed by the business
Relocation assistance may be available based on business needs and/or eligibility.
Sunshine Act
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EEO & Employment Eligibility
Pfizer is committed to equal opportunity in the terms and conditions of employment for all employees and job applicants without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, age, gender identity or gender expression, national origin, disability or veteran status. Pfizer also complies with all applicable national, state and local laws governing nondiscrimination in employment as well as work authorization and employment eligibility verification requirements of the Immigration and Nationality Act and IRCA. Pfizer is an E-Verify employer. This position requires permanent work authorization in the United States.
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Breakthroughs that change patients’ lives
Research confirms what intuition tells us: that purpose-driven companies perform better, are more innovative, attract and retain the best people, and know how to unleash the power of those people. Pfizer’s purpose—Breakthroughs that change patients' lives—fuels everything we do and reflects our passion for building on our legacy as one of the greatest contributors of good to the world.
Each word in our purpose has meaning and reflects the value we strive to bring to patients and society:
“Breakthroughs” - These are the innovations, scientific and commercial, that we seek to deliver every day. All colleagues, regardless of role, level or location, strive for breakthroughs every day.
“Change” - We want to do more than simply improve patients’ medical conditions; we want to dramatically change their lives for the better.
“Patients’ lives” - We consider not only patients, but everyone they touch—including their families, caregivers, and friends—and everything they love to do. It’s an intentionally holistic view.
Our purpose ensures that patients remain at the center of all we do. We live our purpose by sourcing the best science in the world; partnering with others in the healthcare system to improve access to our medicines; using digital technologies to enhance our drug discovery and development, as well as patient outcomes; and leading the conversation to advocate for pro-innovation/pro-patient policies.
Every decision we make and every action we take is done with the patient in mind—and to nurture an environment where breakthroughs can thrive.
Our Values
To fully realize Pfizer’s purpose, we have established a clear set of expectations regarding “what” we need to achieve for patients and “how” we will go about achieving those goals.
The “how” is represented by four simple, powerful values—courage, excellence, equity, and joy—that define our company and our culture.
Courage: Breakthroughs start by challenging convention, especially in the face of uncertainty or adversity. This happens when we think big, speak up, and are decisive.
Excellence: We can only change patients’ lives when we perform at our best together. This happens when we focus on what matters, agree who does what, and measure our outcomes.
Equity: We believe that every person deserves to be seen, heard, and cared for. This happens when we are inclusive, act with integrity, and reduce healthcare disparities.
Joy: We give ourselves to our work, but it also gives to us. We find joy when we take pride, recognize one another, and have fun.
Pfizer Digital
Pfizer Digital takes immense pride in being at the forefront of innovation, harnessing cutting-edge smart technology that profoundly impacts the lives of our patients.
With the transformative potential of digital solutions, we revolutionize how we discover, develop, and deliver medicines, enabling us to achieve breakthroughs faster and more efficiently.
By streamlining and automating transactional processes, we create valuable time and resources, empowering our talented team to focus on meaningful work that truly makes a difference in healthcare and beyond.
Benefits at Pfizer
Pfizer offers competitive compensation and benefits programs designed to meet the diverse needs of our colleagues. Our Pay for Performance Philosophy and Practices reward colleagues based on the contributions they make to our business.
Our Competitive Benefits Programs help our colleagues by:
- Promoting Health and Wellness to help colleagues maintain and improve their physical and mental wellbeing. Pfizer offerings include health and disability insurance, preventative health programs, medical screenings, free or reduced-cost vaccinations, discounts on Pfizer products, mental health support, nutrition and fitness counseling and more.
- Strengthening Colleagues’ Financial Security by providing company contributions to retirement plans, life insurance and financial planning education to help colleagues achieve their financial goals.
- Providing Benefits and Time off for the Moments that Matter to ensure Pfizer colleagues have the time away from the office to recharge, recover and return to work as the best version of themselves. Vacation, Holiday time and Sick time are just the beginning, with a 12 week parental leave policy for both parents of a new born, 10 day of caregiver leave for those times when your family needs you whether it’s a child, spouse or parent, bereavement leave, and additional country-specific programs.
- And so much more, depending on your country and site, Pfizer offers childcare facilities or discount programs, on-site health and/or fitness centers, movement and mindfulness solutions, “Log in for your Day” work flexibility and so much more.
For U.S. based jobs, view an overview of Pfizer’s U.S. benefits program (opens in a new window)