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Pfizer · 21 hours ago

Principal Software Engineer – Forward Deployed

United States - New York - New York City

Full-time

Onsite

Lead/Staff

$163K/yr - $261K/yr

8+ years exp

Pfizer is a leading biopharmaceutical company seeking a skilled Software Engineer to design, build, and maintain software systems that deliver business value. The role focuses on ensuring code quality, architecture decisions, and reliable delivery while leveraging AI tools to enhance productivity, and involves acting as a technical authority on high-stakes projects within Pfizer Global Supply.

BiotechnologyHealth CareMedicalPharmaceuticalPrecision Medicine

No H1B

Responsibilities

Drive delivery of the most critical technical initiatives, establish engineering delivery practices across the business unit, and be the technical authority on high-stakes projects

Develop technical leaders, shape engineering talent strategy across the business unit, and build high-performing engineering teams

Shape technology-driven business strategy, represent technical perspective at executive level, and be recognized as a bridge between engineering and business

Design AI-augmented engineering workflows for your area, evaluate new AI tools, train engineers on effective AI usage, and balance speed with verification

Establish SLOs/SLIs across teams, build resilient systems, lead reliability initiatives for your area, mentor engineers on reliability practices, and drive reliability culture

Establish documentation standards across teams in your area, build knowledge management systems, and mentor engineers on effective technical writing

Drive process efficiency within your team, coordinate cross-functional technical work, and lead retrospectives

Shapes organizational culture around curiosity and continuous learning; sponsors experimental initiatives across the organization; recognized externally as a thought leader in problem discovery; influences industry practices around innovation and exploration

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

Champions cross-disciplinary learning; creates holistic solutions spanning technical and business domains; embodies the Renaissance Developer ideal; translates specialized knowledge into accessible explanations; thinks like a business insider

Creates 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

Shapes systems design practices across their function; conducts chaos engineering experiments; influences cross-team architecture decisions; creates clarity from complexity; bridges technical systems with business processes

You are a recognized thought leader in your domain. You influence domain strategy across the business unit, exemplify the business immersion mindset that defines forward-deployed engineering, and shape how engineering engages with the business

You define data integration patterns and best practices across the business unit. You architect large-scale data flows, solve the most complex integration challenges, and are the authority on enterprise data integration

You work comfortably in any language and rapidly acquire new skills as needed. You deliver production solutions in days not months, shape full-stack practices across the business unit, and exemplify polymathic engineering

You shape communication practices across the business unit. You represent engineering externally, communicate at board and executive level, and are recognized as an exceptional communicator who bridges any audience gap

You shape approaches to problem discovery across the business unit. 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

You shape culture around rapid validation and iterative delivery across the business unit. You are recognized for transformative fast delivery, define standards for prototype-to-production, and exemplify the "deliver in days" mindset

You shape stakeholder practices across the business unit. You manage executive relationships, represent engineering at the highest levels, and are recognized for exceptional stakeholder partnerships

You create collaborative culture across the business unit. You transform dysfunctional team dynamics, are recognized for building exceptional teams, and mentor others on collaboration excellence

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

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

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

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

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

You lead developer experience initiatives across teams in your area. You design comprehensive self-service platforms, establish DX metrics, conduct systematic user research, and mentor engineers on platform-as-product thinking

You lead knowledge management initiatives across teams in your area, create knowledge systems and taxonomies, establish practices that make institutional knowledge persistent, and mentor others on knowledge sharing

You lead pattern generalization initiatives across teams, define criteria for when to generalize vs keep custom, and establish intake processes for receiving validated solutions from Forward Deployed Engineers. You mentor engineers on abstraction design

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

You define reliability standards across teams in your area, drive post-incident improvements systematically, design capacity planning processes, and mentor engineers on SRE practices

You define documentation standards across teams in your area, create documentation systems and templates, train engineers on spec-driven development, and ensure documentation quality across projects

You design cloud-native solutions, manage infrastructure as code, implement security best practices, and make informed service selections. You troubleshoot cloud-specific issues

You create efficient data models that balance normalization with query performance. You optimize queries, handle schema migrations safely, and choose appropriate storage technologies

You build complete CI/CD pipelines end-to-end, manage infrastructure as code (Terraform, CloudFormation), implement monitoring, and design deployment strategies for your services

You optimize team processes systematically, measure and improve cycle time, remove bottlenecks proactively, and deliver rapidly while maintaining quality

You prioritize debt systematically based on risk and impact, balance debt reduction with feature work, and make pragmatic trade-offs. You know when to take on debt intentionally

You protect focused time for complex work, balance multiple priorities without dropping balls, minimize context switching, and help others understand your capacity

Qualification

AI-Augmented DevelopmentFull-Stack DevelopmentData IntegrationArchitecture & DesignCloud PlatformsDevOps & CI/CDSite Reliability EngineeringTechnical WritingStakeholder ManagementKnowledge ManagementRapid Prototyping & ValidationAI Evaluation & VerificationAI LiteracyTime Management & Deep WorkTechnical Debt ManagementLean Thinking & FlowTeam CollaborationProblem Discovery