Sr Director, Clinical Excellence Group Lead (I&I)
- United States - Massachusetts - Cambridge
The Inflammation & Immunology Clinical Excellence & Innovation organization is seeking an experienced and enterprise-minded clinical development leader to serve as Senior Director, Clinical Excellence Group Lead. This highly visible role provides strategic clinical, scientific, operational, and people leadership across a portfolio of complex clinical development programs.
The successful candidate will lead and develop a team of clinical scientists while ensuring clinical integrity, scientific quality, patient safety, and disciplined execution across studies. This leader will also help advance new ways of working, including the responsible integration of AI-enabled, digital, data, and advanced analytics capabilities to improve clinical development quality, speed, and decision-making.
KEY RESPONSIBILITIES
Team Leadership & Change Management
- Lead, mentor, and develop a team of high-performing clinical scientists, fostering a culture of collaboration, accountability, continuous learning, intellectual curiosity, and agility.
- Act as a change champion, guiding a highly tenured organization through digital transformation and new ways of working.
- Drive change management initiatives that encourage the adoption of innovative tools and process optimizations without compromising scientific rigor.
- Build strong, collaborative partnerships with Clinical Operations, Data Science, Biostatistics, Digital/Technology, Regulatory, Medical Affairs, Portfolio Strategy, and Business Operations to align clinical science objectives with broader enterprise goals.
Business Operations & Enterprise Strategy
- Apply strong business acumen to identify operational bottlenecks within clinical development and lead cross-functional workstreams to design and implement scalable solutions.
- Develop and implement fit-for-purpose operating practices, tools, and governance approaches that enable a well-controlled, flexible organization with strong fiscal management, cross-team communication, and efficient workflows.
- Establish and leverage standardized frameworks to evaluate clinical program designs, resource needs, and workflows through an operational efficiency lens, ensuring resources are optimized and key milestones are supported.
- Partner with Finance and Corporate/Portfolio Strategy functions to build financial models and scenario analyses that inform program- and portfolio-level decision-making.
- Develop business insights, metrics, and dashboards to inform decision-making, monitor therapeutic area performance, and identify opportunities to improve quality, speed, productivity, and portfolio impact.
- Navigate a complex matrix environment with an enterprise mindset, ensuring that innovation strategies in I&I can scale and align with broader Pfizer corporate objectives.
AI-Enabled Clinical Development & Innovation
- Lead the identification, strategic development, and implementation of AI/ML and advanced analytics tools to optimize clinical trial design and execution.
- Direct applied AI/ML approaches across the continuum, including:
- Protocol design and optimization
- Site selection and feasibility assessment
- Patient recruitment and enrollment strategies
- Query management and workflow automation
- Data cleaning, anomaly detection, and signal identification
- Safety risk prediction and proactive mitigation
- Partner closely with data science, digital, and technology teams to translate complex AI use cases into practical, scalable, compliant workflows for study teams.
- Incorporate AI-derived insights and data-driven approaches into overarching clinical strategy and regulatory deliverables.
Core Clinical Leadership
- Oversee the clinical execution and integrity of a portfolio of medium- to high-complexity clinical studies within the I&I pipeline.
- Provide senior-level clinical oversight in protocol design, development, and strategic clinical documentation (protocols, CSRs, regulatory submissions).
- Oversee clinical data review, safety surveillance, and risk management at the program level.
- Serve as a senior clinical escalation point and strategic partner for Product Team Leads, Global Development Leads, investigators, and internal study teams.
- Contribute to evaluation of external opportunities, business development assessments, or due diligence activities as needed, based on clinical expertise, therapeutic area knowledge, and project-specific needs.
QUALIFICATIONS
Basic Qualifications
- Education: Advanced scientific or clinical degree required; MD, PhD, PharmD, or equivalent advanced degree strongly preferred.
- Experience:10+ years with a MBA/MS or 7+ years with PhD of progressive clinical research and development experience in the pharmaceutical or biotechnology industry, including demonstrated experience supporting global clinical programs in regulated GxP environments.
- Leadership: Proven people leadership experience with a track record of building, mentoring, developing, and inspiring high-performing clinical or cross-functional teams.
- Business Acumen: Demonstrated ability to bridge clinical science with business operations, successfully leading cross-functional workstreams to solve complex operational challenges.
- Communication: Exceptional executive presence and communication skills, with the ability to influence without authority across all levels of a matrixed organization.
AI & Digital Expertise
- Demonstrated strategic or applied experience using AI, machine learning, automation, digital tools, or advanced analytics to improve clinical development, research, or operational workflows.
- Familiarity with AI-enabled clinical development use cases, such as protocol optimization, recruitment and enrollment planning, data review, query management, safety risk prediction, or workflow automation.
- Proven ability to partner with data science, digital, technology, clinical operations, bioinformatics, commercial, medical affairs, and other business stakeholders to define requirements, shape use cases, and support deployment of technical solutions.
- Strong understanding of data governance, model risk, compliance, privacy, and ethical AI considerations in pharmaceutical development.
Preferred Qualifications
- Demonstrated strategic experience applying AI, machine learning, automation, digital tools, or advanced analytics to optimize clinical development, research, or portfolio decision-making.
- Deep subject matter expertise in Inflammation & Immunology therapeutic areas.
- Direct experience leading organizational change management or digital transformation initiatives.
- Experience with real-world data, digital endpoints, and decentralized or innovative clinical trial technologies.
- Experience in portfolio strategy, resource planning, financial modeling, or business analytics.
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.

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.
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.

Medical
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 Research & Development
Pfizer Research & Development serves as the beating heart of Pfizer's trailblazing product pipeline, the essence of our mission to bring life-changing medicines to the world.
With an unwavering commitment to innovation, we use a multidisciplinary approach that blends scientific expertise, cutting-edge technologies, and strategic collaborations, igniting a powerful engine that propels groundbreaking discoveries into life-saving treatments for patients in need.
Through our relentless pursuit of progress, we envision a future where cutting-edge medicines pave the way to healthier, happier lives worldwide.
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)