Principal Engineer, Digital R&D DP&TS AI Engineering

Use Your Power for Purpose. Pfizer’s mission to deliver breakthroughs that change patients’ lives is rooted in our commitment to science and innovation. Within Discovery, Preclinical, and Translational Solutions (DP&TS), we accelerate the journey from target identification to clinical translation by leveraging advanced digital technologies, AI, and data-driven insights. We are building a high-impact, outcome-oriented Artificial Intelligence engineering team focused on enabling compliant, scalable, secure, and resilient AI architectures while minimizing constraints around experimentation.

We are seeking a dynamic and technically accomplished Principal Engineer with deep knowledge of deploying AI at scale. You will be part of a team of AI engineering experts who thrive on solving problems at scale, learning and applying new techniques/services in this rapidly evolving landscape. This role is critical to building cutting-edge capabilities that power scalable secure, and innovative use of AI across the R&D organization.

This role is not narrowly defined. We are seeking self-starters who take initiative, adapt quickly, and possess a diverse skill set. You will be expected to learn rapidly, collaborate effectively, and deliver impactful outcomes.

Reporting to the Senior Director of DP&TS AI Engineering, this role will define and deliver the AI strategy that supports solution delivery, ensuring alignment with scientific goals, regulatory requirements, and enterprise digital strategy. You will lead a team of AI engineers and collaborate closely with product, data science, and Digital partners to deliver secure, scalable, and high-performance capabilities. You will have direct reports with direct accountability for setting direction, deploying resources, and leading pay, performance, goal setting, and development discussions.

In this role, you will drive architectural decision, champion engineering excellence, and steer cross-functional collaboration to deliver resilient, high-impact solutions. This global role empowers you to shape AI strategies, mentor technical talent, and influence product direction across regions and business units. You will also be a catalyst for DevSecOps adoption, embedding security and automation seamlessly into the development lifecycle to ensure trusted delivery at scale.

What You Will Achieve

• Advance Responsible Innovation and Domain-Specific AI Adoption: identify emerging technologies and champion thoughtful experimentation with AI/ML techniques while ensuring transparency, interpretability, and ethical data use in R&D contexts.
• AI Thought Leadership: Demonstrate hands-on mastery of AI tools and techniques relevant to our customers, reducing cognitive load for AI developers across the business.
• Establish Core AI Standards: develop and maintain AI standards for use of Large Language Models, Agent frameworks, Model Context Protocol servers, Coding Agents, LLM/Agent Ops tools and techniques, etc.
• AI Ready Data: Ensure data is AI Ready for any relevant use cases and that digital leadership and customers are aligned with how we define AI Ready. Develop tools and processes to support common needs of application teams in their AI readiness journey.
• Champion DevSecOps Across Research and Analytical Workflows: embed security and automation into development pipelines, ML model development, and platform operations to ensure privacy, compliance, security and traceability.
• Influence Technical Direction and Cross-Functional Alignment: shape engineering roadmaps and advocate for cohesive AI strategies that balance innovation, risk management, and business priorities.
• Govern Platform Standards and Lifecycle Accountability: establish and uphold AI design standards, lifecycle policies, and governance models that maintain flexibility and scalability without compromising control or integrity.
• Lead and Mentor Talent in AI Engineering: guide engineers and scientists in best practices, critical thinking, and cross-disciplinary collaboration to build future-ready AI solutions. Lead and grow a high-performing team of AI engineers. Foster a culture of continuous learning, elevating technical excellence, and shaping leadership potential.

Here Is What You Need (Minimum Requirements)

• Bachelor’s degree in a relevant field (e.g., Computer Science, Data Science, Bioinformatics, Engineering, or related discipline) or Master’s or PhD in a relevant field.
• Strong experience of hands-on infrastructure and software engineering experience.
• Architecting AI-first applications in highly regulated environments.
• Architecting scalable generative AI services.
• Building and securing data pipelines and infrastructure supporting advanced analytics and machine learning.
• Leading DevSecOps initiatives in regulated environments (e.g., GxP, HIPAA).
• Proficiency in Python, Typescript, Java, or other modern high-level language.
• Deep expertise with production grade LLM and MLOps, Agent application and infrastructure observability.
• Experience managing automated and human-in-the-loop evaluations of non-deterministic outputs.
• Broad experience extracting knowledge from complex documents/data files.
• Deep understanding of modern data architectures (e.g., lakehouses, distributed systems).
• Demonstrated experience in working with regulated data, compliance frameworks, and secure development practices.
• Ability to lead complex engineering efforts across global, cross-functional teams.
• Fluent in English; capable of clear technical communication across scientific and engineering disciplines.

Domain Expertise

• Experience supporting pharmaceutical R&D, life sciences, or computational biology.
• Familiarity with biomedical data standards (e.g., HL7 FHIR, CDISC) and FAIR data principles.

Technical Leadership

• Proven success in designing AI/ML platforms for scientific discovery or clinical research.
• Experience leading transformation of diverse data assets into AI Ready data relevant for given business priority use cases.
• Strong record of mentoring and growing engineering talent in high-complexity domains.

Strategic Capabilities

• Thought leadership in platform strategy, ethical AI adoption, and responsible innovation.
• Experience influencing cross-functional decisions, especially at the intersection of science and technology.

Work Location Assignment: Hybrid (some office presence is required).

This role is posted in multiple locations. If you are applying for the role in a secondary job posting location where pay transparency regulations apply, your Talent Advisor will share the local pay information with you during the first interview.

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!

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.