ActiveJobs

Sr. Director, Engineering Lead

Pfizer · 5 Locations

Full-timeOn-sitePosted 14 July 2026
Apply on Company Site →

Job description

We are seeking a skilled People Leader with strong expertise in Engineering who will lead a team of Software Engineers to 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 lead and grow a high-performing team to deliver AI-first digital capabilities and AI-native platforms, shaping both the technology and the talent that will define our digital future. This role encompasses organization-wide technical strategy, people management 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 and platforms, establish engineering delivery practices, and be the technical authority on high-stakes projects People: Lead team of technical leaders, develop their expert skills shape engineering talent strategy, build high-performing teams, and own succession planning Business: Shape technology-driven business strategy, represent technical perspective at executive level AI: Lead design of AI-augmented engineering workflows for your area, evaluate new AI tools, train engineers on effective AI usage, and balance speed with verification Reliability: Establish SLOs/SLIs across teams, build resilient systems, lead reliability initiatives for your area, mentor engineers on reliability practices, and drive reliability culture Documentation: Establish documentation standards across teams in your area, build knowledge management systems, and mentor engineers on effective technical writing Process: Drive process efficiency within your team, coordinate cross-functional technical work, and lead retrospectives ROLE BEHAVIOURS Don't Lose Your Curiosity: Shapes organizational culture around curiosity and continuous learning; sponsors experimental initiatives across the organization; recognized as a thought leader in problem discovery; influences industry practices around innovation and exploration Set an example for your team: Consistently demonstrates a clear vision, positive energy, and exemplary expert actions that motivate your team of direct reports to strive for their highest potential 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: Enables cross-disciplinary learning across the team; inspires creation of holistic solutions spanning technical and business domains; embodies the Renaissance Engineer ideal; translates specialized knowledge into accessible explanations; thinks like a business insider Communicate with Precision: Enables 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; enables chaos engineering experiments; influences cross-team architecture decisions; creates clarity from complexity; bridges technical systems with business processes QUALIFICATIONS Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or related field with 12+ years of relevant experience. EXPERT-LEVEL SKILLS Business Immersion: You are a recognized thought leader across business stakeholders. You influence business strategy, exemplify the business immersion mindset, and shape how engineering engages with the business. Data Integration: You lead definition of data integration patterns and best practices. You enable architecture of 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 skillsas needed and ensure same for your team of direct reports. You deliver production solutions in days not months, shape full-stack practices, and exemplify polymathic engineering. Multi-Audience Communication: You shape communication practices across teams. 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. 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. Engineering Delivery & Quality: You shape engineering delivery culture. You define standards for quality, reliability, and scalable delivery, and are recognized for driving consistent, high-impact outcomes across complex initiatives. Stakeholder Management: You shape stakeholder practices and manage executive relationships, represent engineering at the highest levels, and are recognized for exceptional stakeholder partnerships. PEOPLE MANAGER SKILLS Leading the team: You are setting a clear direction for your team, aligning people around shared goals, and ensuring strong communication to drive collective success. You are also developing talent, fostering collaboration, and creating an environment where individuals feel empowered to perform at their best Team Collaboration: You create collaborative culture in your team. You transform dysfunctional team dynamics, are recognized for building exceptional teams, and mentor others on collaboration excellence. Knowledge Management: You grow experts and lead knowledge management initiatives across your team, create knowledge systems and taxonomies, establish practices that make institutional knowledge persistent, and mentor others on knowledge sharing. Time Management & Deep Work: You protect focused time of your direct reports for complex work, balance multiple priorities without dropping balls, minimize context switching, and help others understand your team capacity. 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. Pattern Generalization: You lead pattern generalization initiatives across teams, define criteria for when to generalize vs keep custom, and establish intake processes for receiving and scaling validated solutions. 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. Site Relia

Verified and listed by ActiveJobs. Applications are made directly on Pfizer's own career page — we never sit in the middle.