Senior Manager, DevOps Engineer
- Greece-Thessaloniki Chortiatis
ROLE SUMMARY
As Senior Manager, DevOps Engineer (Individual Contributor), you will be the build, release, and reliability backbone for our Python SDK—a pip-installable package that provides reusable, modular AI capabilities (RAG components, agent/tool cookiecutters, MCP adaptors, standardized interfaces). You will design automated pipelines that enforce code quality, security, reproducibility, benchmarking, and integration tests for the SDK and ensure compatibility and operability for platform services that consume it.
You’ll collaborate closely with:
Embedded AI Architecture & Solution Design to prioritize capabilities and validate interfaces against real solution patterns.
AI Engineering to align PI increments and integrate external technologies into the SDK.
Digital Creation Centers & Forward Impact Teams (FITs) as consumers of the SDK in products/services, capturing feedback to refine release ergonomics.
Evaluation & QA, Developer Experience, and LLMOps & AI Integration engineers to make quality and operability automatic.
Why this Role Matters
For a Python SDK to scale safely, we need rock‑solid packaging, dependency hygiene, and CI/CD: reproducible builds, secure artifacts, versioning discipline, and automated tests/benchmarks that guard against regressions. Your work turns modular capabilities into enterprise‑grade libraries that downstream services can rely on—ensuring consistent behavior, faster time‑to‑first‑success, and audit‑ready releases.
ROLE RESPONSIBILITIES
1) Python Packaging, Build & Distribution
Own build and release for the SDK: wheel/sdist creation, and reproducible builds.
Enforce semantic versioning, backward compatibility checks, and changelogs; design safe migration paths (deprecation policies, compatibility shims).
Standardize artifact repositories: internal PyPI (Dev/Stage/Prod indices), package signing, and promotion workflows with automated quality gates.
2) CI/CD for Libraries & Supply Chain Security
Design CI/CD pipelines (e.g., GitHub Actions/Azure DevOps/GitLab CI) to automate linting, type checking, unit/integration tests, coverage, and style enforcement (black/ruff/mypy/pytest).
Integrate dependency auditing and vulnerability scanning, license compliance, and SBOM generation; implement artifact signing and provenance (SLSA‑like controls).
Codify policy‑as‑code (e.g., OPA/Conftest) so releases only ship when tests, coverage, docs, and security gates pass.
3) Benchmarking, Performance & Integration Testing
Collaborate with Evaluation & QA Engineers to build benchmark harnesses for RAG components, connectors, rankers, and agent/tool modules; track latency/cost envelopes and regressions over time.
Orchestrate integration tests against common stacks (vector databases, storages, identity providers) to validate interface contracts used by platform services.
Maintain regression baselines and performance dashboards; fail builds on significant regressions.
4) Operability for Consumers (SDK↔Service Parity)
Embed observability hooks appropriate for libraries (structured logging, configurable metrics/traces) so services consuming the SDK can integrate telemetry consistently.
Define interface contracts and runtime configuration patterns (config schema, secrets management integration points) that downstream services must honor.
Partner with platform teams to publish service readiness guides built on SDK interfaces (env parity, retry/backoff, error models).
5) Environments, Reproducibility & Tooling
Design isolated test environments and fixtures for data, vector stores, and external dependencies; leverage tox/pytest‑xdist for matrix runs.
Own Infrastructure-as-Code limited to test/development environments and CI runners; ensure deterministic builds and environment parity.
Optimize pipeline performance (caching wheels, parallelization) and track DORA‑style delivery metrics to continuously improve.
6) Developer Experience & Contribution Workflows
Collaborate with Developer Experience Engineers to produce developer‑ready artifacts (quickstarts, sample apps, docs bundles generated during CI).
Standardize contribution workflows: feature branches, PR checks, mandatory tests/benchmarks/docs acceptance criteria; enable community extensions safely.
Provide CLI/tooling or cookiecutters that scaffold new SDK modules with tests, docs, and benchmark hooks prewired.
7) Collaboration & Continuous Improvement
Align pipeline policies with AI Capability Architecture Lead and ensure SDK interface consistency for downstream service teams.
Close feedback loops with Embedded Architecture, Solution Design, AI Engineering, Creation Centers, and FITs to prioritize pipeline and release ergonomics improvements.
Lead post‑release retrospectives to reduce defects, MTTR, and onboarding friction for consuming teams.
QUALIFICATIONS
Basic Qualifications
7+ years in DevOps/SRE/Build & Release engineering, with significant experience in Python packaging and library delivery (wheels/sdists, internal PyPI).
Expert in CI/CD for libraries (GitHub Actions/Azure DevOps/GitLab CI) and artifact management (PyPI/private indices, container registries as needed for test harnesses).
Strong hands‑on with cloud‑native development and CI runners; proficiency with IaC for build/test environments.
Proven track record implementing quality gates: automated tests, secrets management, test coverage, dependency/security scanning, SBOMs/signing, policy‑as‑code.
Experience embedding observability hooks for libraries and defining interface contracts for service consumers.
Preferred Qualifications
Familiarity with GenAI/LLM ecosystems (RAG pipelines, vector stores, agent/tool frameworks, MCP adaptors) and their benchmarking/testing needs.
Background in performance engineering for Python (profiling, async/concurrency, I/O, data pipelines) and managing latency/cost regressions.
Experience with open-source contribution workflows, multi‑language SDK delivery (Python primary; TypeScript/Java nice-to-have), and semantic versioning discipline.
Exposure to regulated environments and audit‑ready release documentation.
Comfortable partnering across architecture, QA, DX, LLMOps, platform, and product teams in a matrixed organization.
Work Location Assignment: Hybrid
Purpose
Breakthroughs that change patients' lives... At Pfizer we are a patient centric company, guided by our four values: courage, joy, equity and excellence. Our breakthrough culture lends itself to our dedication to transforming millions of lives.
Digital Transformation Strategy
One bold way we are achieving our purpose is through our company wide digital transformation strategy. We are leading the way in adopting new data, modelling and automated solutions to further digitize and accelerate drug discovery and development with the aim of enhancing health outcomes and the patient experience.
Flexibility
We aim to create a trusting, flexible workplace culture which encourages employees to achieve work life harmony, attracts talent and enables everyone to be their best working self. Let’s start the conversation!
Equal Employment Opportunity
We believe that a diverse and inclusive workforce is crucial to building a successful business. As an employer, Pfizer is committed to celebrating this, in all its forms – allowing for us to be as diverse as the patients and communities we serve. Together, we continue to build a culture that encourages, supports and empowers our employees.
Disability Inclusion
Our mission is unleashing the power of all our people and we are proud to be a disability inclusive employer, ensuring equal employment opportunities for all candidates. We encourage you to put your best self forward with the knowledge and trust that we will make any reasonable adjustments to support your application and future career. Your journey with Pfizer starts here!
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)