Senior Director, Targets and Mechanisms Solutions

Role Summary

The Senior Director, Targets and Mechanisms Solutions, as part of the R&D Creation Center’s Discovery, Pre-Clinical, and Translational Solutions Team, will lead strategic direction, product management, and AI-driven innovation for Pfizer’s Targets and Mechanisms platforms and systems. You will oversee a global team responsible for delivering scalable, sustainable, and science-centric solutions that power research execution across Pfizer and any in-scope external partners. As a senior leader, you will drive strategic planning for your organizations platforms and systems, integrating advanced technologies including AI, data pipelines, and predictive analytics to enhance efficiency and decision-making.

Responsibilities

• Targets and Mechanisms Solutions Enablement
  • Deliver technical services including ecosystem architecture, quality, analytics, and data management to design, build, and deliver innovative, cost effective, and sustainable solutions to identify biological targets for therapeutic modulation.
  • Enable Pfizer’s Research Units (RUs): Oncology, Vaccines, Internal Medicine, Inflammation & Immunology (I&I), and Integrative Biology (IB); understanding disease pathophysiology; target identification, qualification, and selection; leveraging omics data; mining literature and proprietary data; supporting reverse-translational efforts from clinical data; shaping preclinical model strategy; building translational biomarker frameworks; prioritizing indications and expansion opportunities.
• Vision and Strategy
  • Define and own the vision and strategy for digital Targets and Mechanisms Solutions capabilities, with a focus on AI innovation and product capability roadmaps to support Pfizer's research strategy.
  • Define and own the Ecosystem Architecture, building a modular, interoperable digital ecosystem that integrates scientific data products, metadata frameworks, and platform interoperability across systems.
  • Anticipate technology trends, prioritize AI-focused investments, and collaborate to pilot and scale innovations.
  • Identify external solutions and maintain awareness of best practices; participate in/pre-competitive consortia as applicable.
• Strategic Leadership
  • Establish and mature a strategic product and platform operating model to drive scalable innovation.
  • Operationalize emerging technologies with governance to ensure alignment with objectives, regulatory and compliance requirements.
  • Design and lead a strategic vendor framework for high-impact partnerships.
  • Launch and scale AI programs to embed AI into core workflows and build process mining capabilities for continuous improvement.
• Program Delivery Leadership
  • Accountable for global Digital & Technology program delivery, overseeing technology implementation with business case, KPIs, and financial management for complex delivery activities.
  • Deliver global, enterprise, SaaS solutions and, as needed, custom software development; oversee delivery management and engineering leadership of the portfolio and its finances.
  • Demonstrate command of software development methodologies (Agile, Waterfall, DevSecOps) with accountability for business outcomes.
  • Manage financial forecasting, cost control, supplier partnerships, and earned value; ensure GxP solutions are audit-ready and compliant.
• Team Leadership
  • Lead with a focus on continuous improvement and innovation; mentor and coach team members; cultivate learning, reskilling, and talent growth across Digital and Pfizer.
  • Develop solutions to highly complex problems and influence decisions across divisions and business units.
• Strategic Relationships
  • Build partnerships with research leaders; align Digital & Technology strategy with evolving research needs; translate capabilities into business value.
  • Collaborate across cross-functional Digital & Technology teams; foster collaboration between research and innovation teams to accelerate solution delivery.

Qualifications

• Required: Education: Bachelor’s degree in a relevant discipline.
• Experience/ Technical Skills/ Tools: 12+ years life sciences experience preferred or equivalent experience leading platforms and large-scale systems; 10+ years in a leadership role with increasing scope; proven ability to create and implement high-impact strategic plans in a large global organization; experience delivering technology solutions in pharmaceutical or regulated environments with enterprise software in global 24x7 operations; proven ability to mentor leaders, recruit and develop talent; experience leading data-centric, innovative technology leadership; experience managing large-scale scientific, clinical, and operational data; familiarity with data collection, transformation, and analytics; proven product management leadership with cross-functional alignment; ability to work autonomously or in a matrix environment; proven track record of leading large, global technical teams and influencing senior leadership.
• Preferred: Master’s degree in Information Management, Computer Science, Engineering or Technology Management; 15+ years of leadership experience; experience scaling product management and in pharmaceutical clinical development; coding or hands-on software engineering experience; experience with omics analysis; PMP Certification and Agile Certification.

Education

• Bachelor’s degree in a relevant discipline.
• Preferred: Master of Science degree in Information Management, Computer Science, Engineering or Technology Management.

Additional Requirements

• Limited travel expectations; capable of traveling within the region and to other regions.
• Digital is a 7x24x365 endeavor; role may require participation outside normal business hours.