Senior Manager, Site Reliability Engineer (SRE)
- India - Chennai
ROLE SUMMARY
The IT Operations and Global Command Center organization delivers excellence in the pursuit of breakthroughs that change patients’ lives through industry-leading infrastructure operations performance. . We ensure optimal performance of global application hosting and network services that power Pfizer's business processes. We strive to revolutionize service dependability by applying advanced analytics to drive predictive detection, identifying potential issues with our services and intervening before they disrupt our business. We place data at the heart of what we do and apply a relentless focus on continuous improvement to enable Pfizer’s business processes and patient outcomes.
We are seeking a highly-skilled and experienced Site Reliability Engineer (SRE) Hosting Operations team. This role will be accountable for the reliability, scalability, and performance of our Hosting infrastructure services for all Pfizer business units globally. This includes Server, Storage, Data Protection, Database, Middleware, HCI operations. The successful candidate will apply SRE principles to drive operational excellence, continuous improvement, and deliver tangible business outcomes that support the organization’s strategic goals.
ROLE RESPONSIBILITIES
- Act as the primary point of guidance the India Hosting SRE team, providing mentorship, coordinating shift coverage, and acting as a reliable escalation point to ensure operational continuity across domains and regions.
- Foster a culture of reliability and continuous improvement by proactively identifying operational gaps, supporting peer development, and reinforcing best practices across the Hosting SRE team in India
- Strong hands-on support across two technology domains listed below:
Virtualization platforms ( VMware, HCI )
Operating Systems (RedHat, Windows)
If you don't meet every requirement but have relevant experience in similar technologies, and can demonstrate the ability to succeed in this role, we encourage you to apply
- Identify areas for improvement & automation opportunities by using data analysis skills and develop proactive solutions to enhance system reliability & reduce toil (manual effort).
- Automate everything: Build and maintain IaC/CM ( Ansible etc.) and scripting (PowerShell, Bash, Python) to administer, patch, and configure VMs, HCI stack, servers end‑to‑end.
- Be comfortable leveraging AI tools and platforms to enhance operational efficiency, with a proactive mindset to rethink and transform traditional workflows through intelligent automation and innovation.
- Stakeholder Engagement: Act as a point of contact for technical and audit queries from internal and external stakeholders, ensuring timely and accurate responses that reflect deep system understanding and compliance awareness.
- Lead root cause analysis (RCA) events including assisting the addressing identified corrective actions and service/process improvements with an SRE mindset.
- Ensure strong observability across Hosting infrastructure by developing effective monitoring and alerting, enabling predictive operations in partnership with the Command Center. Act as an escalation point for L2/L3 teams on complex issues, resolving tickets within SLA in coordination with clients.
- Cross-Functional Readiness: While domain expertise is required, the role requires a flexible mindset and readiness to support adjacent domains such as Unix , Database, Storage etc . This ensures operational continuity and resilience across Hosting SRE function.
- Provide technical leadership for the Hosting domain during major incident response by actively participating & managing on-call and shift rotations, working closely with the Command Center to ensure timely resolution and maintain infrastructure reliability.
BASIC QUALIFICATIONS
- Bachelor's degree in a technical field or equivalent practical experience
- 10 year+ of experience in HCI & Virtualization administration / engineering roles
- Demonstrate strong leadership and communication skills by taking ownership in driving projects and technical issues, as well as mentoring junior team members.
- Solid experience with the following technologies: HCI Technologies ( VxRail, vSan, VMware) , Operating systems knowledge. Certifications in any of the following areas. Hosting technologies (DB, Mid-Tier, OS), AI, Observability or Cloud are considered a plus
- Development skills in one of the programming language such as : Java, Python, C/C#/C++, PowerShell, GitHub, CI/CD with Coding best practices to design, develop, and maintain tools and scripts for system monitoring, automation, and troubleshootingHosting technologies.
- Strong data literacy and analytical skills to interpret system metrics, identify trends, and support predictive operations
- Knowledge of configuration management and infrastructure as code tools like Ansible, Terraform, and others.
PHYSICAL/MENTAL REQUIREMENTS
Data Literacy - the ability to analyze, interpret and use data to provide actionable insights
NON-STANDARD WORK SCHEDULE, TRAVEL OR ENVIRONMENT REQUIREMENTS
- Occasional travel (<10%)
- Willingness to work in split shifts (morning/evening) and participate in on-call rotations to support the 24/7 nature of the Operations environment
Work Location Assignment: Hybrid
Pfizer is an equal opportunity employer and complies with all applicable equal employment opportunity legislation in each jurisdiction in which it operates.
Information & Business TechBreakthroughs 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)