Senior Director, Targets and Mechanisms Solutions

Role Summary

The Senior Director, Targets and Mechanisms Solutions will lead strategic direction, product management, and AI-driven innovation for Pfizer’s Targets and Mechanisms platforms and systems within the R&D Creation Center’s Discovery, Pre-Clinical, and Translational Solutions Team. You will oversee a global team delivering scalable, sustainable, and science-centric solutions that power research execution across Pfizer and in-scope external partners, driving strategic planning for platforms and systems and integrating AI, data pipelines, and predictive analytics to enhance efficiency and decision-making. The ideal candidate combines experience at the intersection of research and digital technologies with a passion for impact at scale and a commitment to growing others.

Responsibilities

• 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 (Oncology, Vaccines, Internal Medicine, Inflammation & Immunology, Integrative Biology) through understanding disease pathophysiology, target identification/qualification/selection, and leveraging omics data to generate hypotheses.
• Mine scientific literature and proprietary data; support reverse-translational efforts from clinical data; shape preclinical model strategy for human relevance and de-risking; build translational biomarker frameworks linking preclinical insights to early clinical decisions; prioritize indications and expansion opportunities using genetics and multi-omics.
• Define and own the vision and strategy for digital Targets and Mechanisms Solutions, including AI innovation and product capability roadmaps to support Pfizer's research strategy with cutting-edge digital technologies.
• Define and own Ecosystem Architecture for a modular, interoperable digital ecosystem integrating scientific data products, metadata frameworks, and platform interoperability across systems; enable AI technologies across the value chain.
• Anticipate technology trends and prioritize investments with AI focus to provide competitive advantage; collaborate to pilot and scale emerging innovations that advance the research strategy; identify external solutions and follow best practices.
• Establish and mature a strategic product and platform operating model to drive scalable innovation; implement governance to align with business objectives, regulatory, and compliance requirements; design and lead vendor frameworks for high-impact partnerships.
• Launch and scale AI programs to embed AI into core workflows and build process mining capabilities to identify inefficiencies and drive continuous improvement.
• Accountable for global Digital & Technology program delivery, including business cases, KPIs, financial management, and delivery of enterprise SaaS and custom software solutions; oversee portfolio financials and ensure regulatory and audit readiness for GxP solutions.
• Lead a team to deliver highly complex solutions, mentoring and coaching for innovation, learning, reskilling, and talent growth; foster collaboration across Digital & Technology and Pfizer.
• Cultivate strategic relationships with research leaders and senior stakeholders; align Digital & Technology strategy with evolving research needs and translate capabilities into business value; ensure cross-functional alignment and joint success in delivering research solutions.

Qualifications

• Required: Education: Bachelor’s degree in a relevant discipline.
• 12+ years of 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, matrixed global organization.
• Experience delivering technology solutions in a pharmaceutical or regulated environment; proven ability to define, design, and implement enterprise software in global 24x7 operations.
• Demonstrated capability to mentor technical leaders, recruit/retain top talent, and develop colleagues; data-centric, innovative, business-minded technology leadership; experience managing large-scale scientific, clinical, and operational data; familiarity with data collection, aggregation, transformation, and analytics creation.
• Proven experience leading product management teams with accountability for strategy, execution, and cross-functional alignment; ability to communicate effectively with senior leadership and influence across a matrix organization.

• Preferred: Master of Science in Information Management, Computer Science, Engineering, or Technology Management.
• 15+ years of experience with progressive leadership growth; experience building and scaling product management disciplines; experience specifically in pharmaceutical clinical development; coding or hands-on software engineering experience; experience with omics analysis.

• Certifications/Training: Project Management Professional (PMP) Certification; Agile Certification.

Education

• Bachelor’s degree in a relevant discipline (Required)
• Master’s degree in Information Management, Computer Science, Engineering, or Technology Management (Preferred)

Skills

• Leadership and people development; talent management and succession planning
• Strategic planning and product management for large-scale, enterprise platforms
• AI/ML, data pipelines, analytics, and translational research data management
• Enterprise software delivery (Agile, Waterfall, DevSecOps) in regulated environments
• Strong communication and stakeholder management across global teams
• Vendor management and external partnerships strategy

Additional Requirements

• Limited travel expectations; travel within the region and to other regions as needed.
• Digital is a 7x24x365 endeavor; role may involve weekend, holiday, or after-hours participation.
• On-premise work location