Staff Software Engineer
- United States - Massachusetts - Cambridge
- United States - Connecticut - Groton
- United States - Massachusetts - Andover
- United States - New York - New York City
ROLE SUMMARY
Pfizer is committed to the application of computational science in the areas of drug discovery and development and has recently initiated a large-scale migration of computational infrastructure to cloud. This role leverages extensive experience in scientific computing to deliver robust high-performance solutions supporting computational workloads across the organization.
We are seeking an experienced individual contributor to own project migrations, user support, onboarding, documentation, communication, and training efforts related to the High-Performance Computing (HPC) environment. You will work with a team of engineers to ensure robust, scalable, high-performance cloud native infrastructure that underpins modernization of the scientific computing platform. You will be the primary bridge between our R&D scientists and cloud infrastructure.
Critical business capabilities that utilize Pfizer HPC resources include in silico drug discovery, protein folding/structure prediction, quantum chemistry, bioinformatics, pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics (PK/PD) modeling, ML/AI, and fluid dynamics. Experience in one or more of these scientific domains is highly desirable.
ROLE RESPONSIBILITIES
Lead solution design and migration strategy for R&D teams transitioning legacy scientific workloads to cloud based HPC platforms, ensuring alignment with performance, scalability, security, and cost objectives.
Partner with scientific stakeholders to translate research needs into platform level infrastructure requirements, providing senior technical guidance on compute, storage, and parallelization approaches.
Serve as the senior technical authority for complex HPC operational issues, defining troubleshooting frameworks, escalation paths, and long term remediation strategies for scheduler, dependency, and workflow failures.
Own the strategy, quality, and governance of HPC documentation and knowledge assets, ensuring documentation remains accurate, accessible, and aligned with platform standards, onboarding needs, and evolving best practices.
Lead platform level communications and stakeholder engagement related to HPC operations, including maintenance, capacity changes, and upgrades, ensuring transparency, predictability, and minimal disruption to scientific workloads.
Define and oversee user enablement and training strategy for HPC platforms, ensuring researchers are equipped to use cloud resources efficiently, responsibly, and in accordance with platform best practices.
Own the end to end lifecycle strategy for scientific software platforms, including selection, deployment models, upgrade planning, and deprecation, to ensure reliability, reproducibility, and broad usability across research domains.
Establish containerization standards and adoption models for scientific workflows, overseeing the transition of complex applications to container based execution environments and ensuring consistency across teams and platforms.
Set and govern application performance optimization standards across cloud instance types, guiding workload placement decisions to maximize performance, scalability, and cost efficiency.
BASIC QUALIFICATIONS
B.S. with 7+ years or Ph.D. with 3+ years of experience in high performance computing, cloud computing, and life sciences.
Deep Linux systems expertise supporting the design, standardization, automation, and reliable operation of scientific computing platforms and services.
Excellent written and verbal communication skills with the ability to clearly communicate complex technical concepts to scientific, technical, and platform stakeholders.
Demonstrated ability to lead resolution of complex technical issues while providing clear status updates and communication back to scientific stakeholders.
Deep foundational technical expertise across HPC and cloud platforms, including Linux, Slurm, Kubernetes, GitOps, Google Cloud Platform, Spack, Cluster Toolkit, infrastructure-as-code-tooling, GPU architectures, and related scientific software ecosystems.
PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS
Advanced experience with at least one of AWS and GCP, including knowledge of core compute and storage services relevant to HPC.
Experience designing, operating, or supporting distributed computing environments, including Kubernetes-based environments such as GKE.
Prior experience with HPC deployment utilities including Google Cluster Toolkit
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
Occasional travel for internal meetings and conferences.
Relocation support available
Work Location Assignment: Hybrid
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.

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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)