AI Product Lead
- Europe - Any Pfizer Site
- United Kingdom - Walton Oaks
ROLE SUMMARY
The AI Product Lead is a product management role within the AI Capability function, responsible for defining, prioritizing and driving AI initiatives from strategy and roadmap through to delivery. Product management is the core of this role, bringing structure, strategic thinking and roadmap discipline, with technical ownership and AI innovation as secondary but integral capabilities that give the role genuine credibility in a fast-moving, technically complex environment. Reporting to the AI Capability Lead, the AI Product Lead works closely with Creative Builders, engineers and contractor PODs to shape what gets built and ensure it gets built well. You will own the product roadmap for AI initiatives, translating business priorities into clear, sequenced delivery plans, managing scope, dependencies and risks across concurrent workstreams. This role sits at the point where strategy meets execution, ensuring what is delivered is robust, commercially relevant and fit for enterprise adoption. The ideal candidate is a technically fluent product or programme manager, someone whose technical depth is what makes them effective in this role, not an optional extra. You will have worked closely with engineers, data teams and AI practitioners, and be confident evaluating technical approaches, identifying risks and making credible judgement calls on what gets built and how. You understand enough about how AI solutions are designed and built to genuinely shape them, own the roadmap with conviction, and hold contractors to account on quality and approach.
ROLE RESPONSIBILITIES
Plan and manage AI initiatives from intake through to delivery, ensuring technical approach, tooling selection and solution design are clearly defined and agreed with engineering teams, and that decisions remain grounded in business requirements and technical best practice.
Own the product roadmap for AI initiatives, defining and prioritizing what gets built, sequencing work against business value and strategic need, maintaining a clear backlog, and ensuring Creative Builders, contractor and vendor teams are working on the right things at the right time.
Assess and challenge technical approaches across the portfolio, bringing sufficient technical fluency to evaluate AI architectures, LLM integrations and automation frameworks for feasibility, quality, compliance and scalability, and to push back confidently where approaches fall short or introduce unacceptable risk.
Lead and coordinate multiple contractor teams and vendor pods, providing technical direction and delivery oversight across parallel workstreams, managing performance and ensuring output meets the required standard.
Serve as the technical bridge between business stakeholders and engineering teams, translating ambiguous requirements into precise technical specifications, and maintaining alignment between stakeholder intent and engineering execution throughout delivery.
Manage vendor relationships and contractor performance, including SoW delivery, milestone tracking and quality assurance, with sufficient technical depth to identify risks and challenge delivery approaches when needed.
Define and embed standards for AI delivery at scale, covering development practices, quality gates, tooling norms and delivery frameworks, and actively support the rollout and adoption of these standards across vendor and contractor teams.
Support the transition of completed AI initiatives into scaled delivery by managing knowledge transfer, technical documentation and acceptance criteria with Delivery, GSO and the wider C4 organisation.
Define, track and report on project-level KPIs and OKRs, covering delivery velocity, technical quality and operational readiness, and using insights to improve approach and report progress to the AI Capability Lead.
BASIC QUALIFICATIONS
Experience in product management or technical programme management, with a demonstrable track record of owning roadmaps and driving AI or digital initiatives in large-scale enterprise environments. Candidates must bring genuine technical fluency, not just familiarity with technical environments, the ability to engage with engineers, evaluate approaches and make credible technical judgements is a core requirement of this role.
Hands-on technical fluency with AI and digital technologies, including GenAI platforms, LLMs, automation frameworks, agentic tools and integration patterns, sufficient to evaluate approaches, challenge engineers and make credible technical decisions.
Proven experience managing and coordinating multi-vendor contractor teams and external delivery pods, with the ability to provide technical direction, manage performance and hold suppliers to account.
Strong product ownership skills, including backlog management, acceptance criteria definition, prioritization and stakeholder alignment, across complex, cross-functional AI delivery programmes.
Ability to translate ambiguous business requirements into precise technical specifications and delivery plans, maintaining alignment between stakeholder intent and engineering execution.
Strong delivery instincts, comfortable managing scope, timelines, dependencies and change across multiple concurrent workstreams in fast-moving environments.
Working knowledge of GenAI stacks (LLMs, vector stores, agents, orchestration, guardrails), data governance, security and compliance requirements in an enterprise context.
Excellent communication skills with the ability to engage credibly at both technical and executive level, and to translate complex technical concepts for non-technical audiences.
Formal qualification in project management (e.g. PMP, PRINCE2 Practitioner) and/or a technical discipline (computer science, engineering, AI/ML) preferred.
Work Location Assignment: Hybrid (some office presence is required)
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 Confident
We are proud to be a Disability Confident Employer and we encourage you to put your best self forward with the knowledge and trust that we will make any reasonable adjustments necessary to support your application and future career. Our mission is unleashing the power of our people, especially those with unique superpowers. Your journey with Pfizer starts here!
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)