Director, Research & Development Support

Role Summary

Lead the Research & Development (R&D) Support and Services portfolio for Clinical and Research within Pfizer’s R&D Support & Services organization. Own the applications portfolio, oversee service management functions (availability, performance, business continuity), ensure SLAs are met with Application Support & Maintenance providers, and coordinate with infrastructure, Digital, and business lines to keep a stable portfolio vital for advancing drug candidates to regulatory submission.

Responsibilities

• People Management: Build, mentor, and empower a high-performing team, cultivating a culture of innovation, accountability, and continuous learning.
• In partnership with the Business, Digital Creation Center, Shared Service teams, and vendor partners, define and manage the SLAs and OLAs for the R&D applications in a manner compliant with Digital Service Management methodologies. The key outcome is improved effectiveness of service delivery, measured through periodic reporting to stakeholders at the appropriate level of detail and content.
• Apply innovative thinking to identify, design, and implement automation opportunities. Focus on implementing automation, self-service, and GenAI capabilities.
• Change Management: Understand the impact and value of proposed and executed application and systems changes, manage approval processes and outcomes, and ensure maintenance requests stay within contracted maintenance volume through governance.
• Life Cycle Management: Plan upgrades and develop technology roadmaps to create a path forward aligned with application use, importance, value, and performance requirements; produce a Life Cycle Three-Year Plan.
• Performance Analysis: Review application performance and monitor data to proactively direct corrective actions to meet SLAs and customer requirements.
• License Management: Manage software licenses in partnership with Procurement, including financial planning and optimizing license value.
• Incident and Problem Management: Lead incident and problem management activities when necessary.
• Define and evolve the support model/plan for new applications.
• Audit and inspection support: Address questions on operations, access controls, and change management.
• Support shared service initiatives while representing the needs of the R&D portfolio.
• Disaster recovery: Facilitate DR designs, own DR testing, and maintain supporting documentation.
• Collaborate with project teams during the development lifecycle to develop support/deployment plans and ensure production readiness (support model, monitoring, SLAs, budget).

Qualifications

• Required: Graduate degree in Information Management, Computer Science, Engineering, Technology Management, Financial Management, or Business Management.
• Required: 7+ years of experience as an information technology professional in roles such as Operations Director, systems engineer, support specialist, technology team lead, or technology manager.
• Required: Experience working in a matrixed organization with relationship-building and effective engagement capabilities; demonstrated collaboration in team settings, including virtual teams with business partners.
• Preferred: Prior experience managing application support and services in research and/or clinical settings.

Skills

• Strong leadership and people management
• Service management and SLA/OLA governance
• Automation, self-service, and GenAI implementation
• Change, incident, and problem management
• Lifecycle planning and vendor/Procurement collaboration
• Audit/compliance and security controls awareness

Education

• Graduate degree as listed in Qualifications.

Additional Requirements

• Travel up to 20% of the time.
• Some weekend and off-hours work is required due to business continuity and operational responsibilities.