Principal Software Engineer – Developer Experience

ROLE SUMMARY

We are seeking a skilled Software Engineer who will design, build, and maintain software systems that deliver business value. In this role, you will focus on code quality, architecture decisions, and reliable delivery while leveraging AI tools to enhance productivity. You will verify and review AI-generated code to ensure it meets our quality standards.

In this forward-deployed role, you will be embedded directly with business units including Commercial, Manufacturing, and R&D. You will operate like a "startup CTO," bridging the gap between building products and solving real business problems through rapid solution delivery and deep domain expertise. As part of the discovery-to-scale pipeline, you will identify recurring patterns and hand off validated solutions to Platform Engineers for generalization into enterprise capabilities.

This role encompasses organization-wide technical strategy and architectural direction. You will define strategic direction and be accountable for outcomes, shape organizational practices and maintain external industry visibility. You will handle organizational-scale complexity creating clarity from chaos.

ROLE RESPONSIBILITIES

• Delivery: Drive delivery of the most critical technical initiatives, establish engineering delivery practices across the business unit, and be the technical authority on high-stakes projects
• People: Develop technical leaders, shape engineering talent strategy across the business unit, and build high-performing engineering teams
• Business: Shape technology-driven business strategy, represent technical perspective at executive level, and be recognized as a bridge between engineering and business
• AI: Design AI-augmented engineering workflows for your area, evaluate new AI tools, train engineers on effective AI usage, and balance speed with verification
• Process: Design and implement engineering processes across teams in your area, lead continuous improvement, and optimize for engineering productivity
• Documentation: Establish documentation standards across teams in your area, build knowledge management systems, and mentor engineers on effective technical writing

ROLE BEHAVIOURS

• Don't Lose Your Curiosity: Shapes organizational culture around curiosity and continuous learning; sponsors experimental initiatives across the organization; recognized externally as a thought leader in problem discovery; influences industry practices around innovation and exploration
• Own the Outcome: Defines organizational accountability standards focused on business impact; shapes industry practices around outcome ownership in the AI era; sponsors transformational initiatives with full outcome accountability; recognized externally for ownership culture leadership
• Be Polymath Oriented: Champions cross-disciplinary learning; creates holistic solutions spanning technical and business domains; translates specialized knowledge into accessible explanations; thinks like a business insider
• Communicate with Precision: Creates spec-driven development practices; mentors others on precise communication; spans C-level executives to frontline workers; drives clarity as a core value across their function; represents the organization externally
• Think in Systems: Shapes systems design practices across their function; influences cross-team architecture decisions; creates clarity from complexity; bridges technical systems with business processes

EXPERT-LEVEL SKILLS

• Business Immersion: You are a recognized thought leader in your domain. You influence domain strategy across the business unit, exemplify the business immersion mindset that defines forward-deployed engineering, and shape how engineering engages with the business.
• Data Integration: You define data integration patterns and best practices across the business unit. You architect large-scale data flows, solve the most complex integration challenges, and are the authority on enterprise data integration.
• Full-Stack Development: You work comfortably in any language and rapidly acquire new skills as needed. You deliver production solutions in days not months, shape full-stack practices across the business unit, and exemplify polymathic engineering.
• Multi-Audience Communication: You shape communication practices across the business unit. You represent engineering externally, communicate at board and executive level, and are recognized as an exceptional communicator who bridges any audience gap.
• Problem Discovery: You shape approaches to problem discovery across the business unit. You are recognized for transforming ambiguous situations into clear opportunities, influence how teams engage with business problems, and are the go-to person for the most undefined challenges.
• Rapid Prototyping & Validation: You shape culture around rapid validation and iterative delivery across the business unit. You are recognized for transformative fast delivery, define standards for prototype-to-production, and exemplify the "deliver in days" mindset.
• Stakeholder Management: You shape stakeholder practices across the business unit. You manage executive relationships, represent engineering at the highest levels, and are recognized for exceptional stakeholder partnerships.
• Team Collaboration: You create collaborative culture across the business unit. You transform dysfunctional team dynamics, are recognized for building exceptional teams, and mentor others on collaboration excellence.

PRACTITIONER-LEVEL SKILLS

• AI Evaluation & Verification: You lead AI governance initiatives across teams in your area, create evaluation standards and checklists, and train engineers on rigorous AI verification. You design review processes for AI-assisted work.
• AI Literacy: You guide AI adoption decisions across teams in your area, assess AI risks and benefits systematically, and train engineers on responsible AI usage. You design human-in-the-loop workflows.
• AI-Augmented Development: You optimize AI tool usage across teams in your area, train engineers on AI-augmented workflows, evaluate new AI development tools, and establish practices that balance AI speed with verification rigor.
• Architecture & Design: You design complex multi-component systems end-to-end, evaluate architectural options for large initiatives across teams, guide technical decisions for your area, and mentor engineers on architecture. You balance elegance with delivery needs.
• Code Quality & Review: You establish and enforce quality standards across teams in your area. You mentor engineers on effective code review, ensure verification depth for AI-assisted development, and drive testing strategies.
• Developer Experience: You lead developer experience initiatives across teams in your area. You design comprehensive self-service platforms, establish DX metrics, conduct systematic user research, and mentor engineers on platform-as-product thinking.
• Knowledge Management: You lead knowledge management initiatives across teams in your area, create knowledge systems and taxonomies, establish practices that make institutional knowledge persistent, and mentor others on knowledge sharing.
• Pattern Generalization: You lead pattern generalization initiatives across teams, define criteria for when to generalize vs keep custom, and establish intake processes for receiving validated solutions from Forward Deployed Engineers. You mentor engineers on abstraction design.
• Service Management: You lead service management practices for multiple services across teams, optimize service portfolios for your area, balance service investments, and train engineers on service-oriented thinking.
• SiteReliability Engineering: You define reliability standards across teams in your area, drive post-incident improvements systematically, design capacity planning processes, and mentor engineers on SRE practices.
• Technical Writing: You define documentation standards across teams in your area, create documentation systems and templates, train engineers on spec-driven development, and ensure documentation quality across projects.

BASIC QUALIFICATIONS

Bachelor’s degree in computer science, engineering, or related field with 12-15 years of relevant experience.

Pfizer is an equal opportunity employer and complies with all applicable equal employment opportunity legislation in each jurisdiction in which it operates.

To learn more about acceptable and prohibited uses of AI during the recruitment process, please review our candidate AI-use guidelines available on Pfizer Careers.