Senior Director, Digital Clinical Creation Center Trial Design & Study Start-Up
- United States - Washington – Bothell
- United States - Connecticut - Groton
- United States - Pennsylvania - Collegeville
- United States - New York - New York City
Use Your Power for Purpose
At Pfizer, technology impacts everything we do. Our digital and ‘data first’ strategy is dedicated to implementing innovative and impactful technology solutions across all functions, from research to manufacturing. By digitizing drug discovery and development, identifying solutions, and making our work easier and faster, you will be contributing to countless lives. Whether you are streamlining processes or enhancing efficiency, your role is crucial in making a significant difference.
ROLE SUMMARY
The Senior Director, Digital Clinical Creation Center Trial Design & Study Start-Up leads the digital clinical team responsible for technologies that enable clinical trial design and study start-up—the critical beginning phase of the clinical trial process. As part of the R&D Creation Center’s Clinical Development Solutions Team, this role sets strategic direction, oversees product management, and drives AI-powered innovation for Pfizer’s clinical operations platforms and systems. You will guide a global team delivering scalable, intelligent, and patient-centric solutions that accelerate trial initiation and execution across Pfizer and its biotech partners.
As a senior leader, you will shape the strategy for clinical platforms and systems, integrating advanced technologies such as generative AI, real-time data pipelines, and predictive analytics to improve trial efficiency and decision-making. In collaboration with Digital peers and Pfizer R&D Clinical Development & Operations teams, you will deliver technical services—including architecture, quality, analytics, and data management—to design, build, and implement innovative, cost-effective, and sustainable solutions. This leader is accountable for project and enhancement delivery for over 30 systems, including Veeva Study-Start-up, ClinSpark, Planisware, and AI technologies.
The ideal candidate brings experience at the intersection of clinical development and digital technologies, a passion for impact at scale, extensive experience scaling and creating delivery model efficiencies, a commitment to developing talent, and the curiosity and courage to innovate AI in an evolving digital and healthcare landscape.
ROLE RESPONSIBILITIES
In order of importance, indicate the primary responsibilities critical to the performance of the role. It is recommended not to list actual tasks but focus on 5-8 essential responsibilities that highlight accountability and level of judgment required.
ROLE RESPONSIBILITIES
Vision and Strategy
- Defines and owns the vision and strategy for digital clinical capabilities that enable clinical trial design and study start-up , emphasizing a product-centric model that supports Pfizer’s development strategy through cutting-edge digital technologies.
- Anticipates technology trends, prioritizing investments in AI and automation that enable scalable, efficient delivery and accelerate clinical planning and study startup.
- Collaborates across Digital and business areas to architect and scale innovations that strengthen Pfizer’s clinical development strategy and deliver measurable business outcomes.
Strategic Leadership
- Establishes, matures, and governs a strategic product and digital operating model, ensuring clear ownership, accountability, and continuous evolution to meet business needs.
- Operationalizes emerging technologies through robust governance frameworks, aligning with regulatory, compliance, and clinical objectives.
- Designs and leads a strategic vendor framework to manage partnerships with critical vendors (e.g., Veeva, Planisware), ensuring quality delivery and scalability.
- Leads AI delivery to embed machine learning and automation into the clinical planning and study startup workflows, while building process mining capabilities to identify inefficiencies and drive continuous improvement in the digital delivery model.
Program Delivery Leadership
- Owns global digital program delivery, ensuring efficient scaling of solutions and streamlined delivery processes across clinical platforms.
- Drives delivery of global, enterprise, and SaaS solutions with a focus on accelerating study startup and optimizing clinical planning.
- Oversees delivery management and engineering leadership for clinical planning and study startup projects, a solutions portfolio (30+ applications), and financials ($20M), ensuring predictable, high-quality outcomes.
- Demonstrates command of modern delivery methodologies (Agile, DevSecOps) and enforces practices that reduce cycle times and improve delivery efficiency.
- Accountable for financial stewardship, including accurate forecasting, cost optimization, and strategic sourcing to scale delivery without compromising quality.
Team Leadership
- Creates an environment that champions a product mindset, continuous improvement, and AI innovation while delivering complex solutions at scale.
- Mentors and coaches team members to build technical capabilities and a product mindset, fostering a culture of accountability, collaboration, and agility.
- Cultivates expertise in solutions engineering, digital product management, program/project management driving reskilling and talent growth across Digital and Pfizer.
- Develops solutions to highly complex problems, ensuring decisions align with enterprise priorities and clinical development objectives.
Strategic Relationships
- Builds strong partnerships with clinical development leaders, acting as a trusted advisor for digital strategies that accelerate study startup and planning.
- Aligns digital product roadmaps with evolving patient and trial needs, translating complex capabilities into specific, actionable business value.
- Fosters collaboration between clinical operations and digital innovation teams to embed clinical priorities into technology roadmaps, ensuring shared ownership and scalable delivery.
BASIC QUALIFICATIONS
- 12+ years life sciences experience preferred or equivalent experience leading platforms and large-scale systems
- 10+ years of experience in a leadership capacity with increasing scope of responsibility
- Demonstrated ability to create and implement high impact strategic plans in a large, matrixed global organization
- Demonstrated ability and experience in technology solutions delivery in a pharmaceutical or regulated environment with demonstrated capabilities managing large scale, enterprise software requirements definition, designs and implementations in global 24-by-7 environments
- Must have proven experience in being an excellent, engaging leader and manager, with proven capabilities in using talent and succession planning processes to establish plans for managing talent inside and outside the organization and for improving diverse leadership bench strength. Proven ability to mentor technical leaders; recruit and retain top talent and develop colleagues
- Proven success as a data-centric, innovative, business-minded technology leader, ideally with:
- Experience managing large-scale clinical scientific and operational data
- Familiarity with data collection, aggregation, transformation, and creation of analytics and submission-ready datasets
- Proven experience leading product management teams or functions, with accountability for strategy, execution, and cross-functional alignment
- Demonstrated track record of leading large, global technical teams in developing enterprise-scale technology and solution strategies
- Must have proven ability to manage communication as a vehicle to ensure alignment of strategies and day-to-day operations to team members and business unit partners in support of commercial digital products, services and experiences
- Ability to gain credibility with senior leadership and effectively influence and collaborate
PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS
- 13+ years of experience with advanced degree with progressive leadership growth.
- Experience building and scaling the product management discipline within an organization, including defining frameworks, processes, and talent development strategies.
- Experience specifically in pharmaceutical clinical development
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.
NON-STANDARD WORK SCHEDULE, TRAVEL OR ENVIRONMENT REQUIREMENTS
- Limited expectations for travel; candidates must be capable of travel within the region, to other regions.
- Digital is a 7x24x365 endeavor.
- This role may require physical or virtual participation on a weekend, holiday, or after normal business hours.
Work Location Assignment: Hybrid
Last Date to Apply for Job: 1/31/2026
The annual base salary for this position ranges from $214,900.00 to $341,100.00. In addition, this position is eligible for participation in Pfizer’s 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 life’s 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 – 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.Relocation assistance may be available based on business needs and/or eligibility.
Sunshine Act
Pfizer reports payments and other transfers of value to health care providers as required by federal and state transparency laws and implementing regulations. These laws and regulations require Pfizer to provide government agencies with information such as a health care provider’s name, address and the type of payments or other value received, generally for public disclosure. Subject to further legal review and statutory or regulatory clarification, which Pfizer intends to pursue, reimbursement of recruiting expenses for licensed physicians may constitute a reportable transfer of value under the federal transparency law commonly known as the Sunshine Act. Therefore, if you are a licensed physician who incurs recruiting expenses as a result of interviewing with Pfizer that we pay or reimburse, your name, address and the amount of payments made currently will be reported to the government. If you have questions regarding this matter, please do not hesitate to contact your Talent Acquisition representative.
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.
Pfizer endeavors to make www.pfizer.com/careers accessible to all users. If you would like to contact us regarding the accessibility of our website or need assistance completing the application process and/or interviewing, please email disabilityrecruitment@pfizer.com. This is to be used solely for accommodation requests with respect to the accessibility of our website, online application process and/or interviewing. Requests for any other reason will not be returned.
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)