Director, Customer Data Platform Engineering

About the team

At Pfizer we make medicines and vaccines that change patients' lives with a global reach of over 780 million patients.  Pfizer Digital is the organization charged with winning the digital race in the pharmaceutical industry.  We apply our expertise in technology, innovation and our business to support Pfizer in this mission.

The Biopharma, Patient & CDI (BPC) team creates technology solutions for our external customers.  This includes all digital (web, mobile, omni-channel, & devices) products, platforms, services and experiences in service of patients, HCPs, payors, pharmacists, or clinical sites.

Within BPC, the Platform DevOps team are accountable for the platforms at Pfizer that allow the creation, configuration, launch, and support of all externally facing digital (web, mobile, omni-channel, & device) products, services, and experiences, servicing all external customer types at Pfizer. This includes our Marketing Technology (Martech) platform codenamed "Rosalind".

Rosalind manages the customer data that Pfizer collects from its integrated websites, mobile apps and marketing platforms. We have a range of traditional MarTech as well as journey orchestration, channel and analytics tools. Our platform has evolved over 8 years to send millions of emails and manage billions of customer interactions and events.

Our mission is to change how customer data is managed, from fragmented implementations to a coherent customer-data ecosystem of services dedicated to the collection and management of profiles, consents and organised data. Our goal is to improve customer experience and especially to improve patient outcomes through intelligent, inventive and compliant use of the data collected as people interact with Pfizer's customer-facing systems and assets.

Role Summary

We seek a skilled and experienced Principal Engineer to join Rosalind and help deliver our Customer Data Platform services. You will be accountable for technical engineering decisions, solution designs, and delivery, as well as elements of the operation of your assigned services.

In this technical leadership role, you will act as the executor and the visionary behind technical solutions. You will lead teams of between 10 and 25 technical resources to solve complex engineering problems, craft the technical designs and ensure a successful delivery of high-quality products and services from inception to completion. This role requires exceptional technical knowledge, strong management skills, and the ability to collaborate effectively with cross-functional teams while sharing responsibility with other program leads for achieving the desired objectives.

You will also be accountable for delivery of security-and privacy-first capabilities while creating an environment where engineers can do their best work as measured by a quarterly Developer's Experience survey, and alignment and contribution to the service network and technical engineering standards.

Key Responsibilities

A normal work week consists of leading one or more teams of engineers to deliver and implement technical solutions, following your design approach to meet your assigned program objectives and KPIs. You will also collaborate closely and often with Chief Marketing Office (CMO) Leads, Digital Leads, and Product Owners, to ensure that technical decisions and their implementation align with broader strategic priorities.

You represent engineering in program and stakeholder meetings, as such you'll need to be able to think on your feet: provide consultation, identify risks based on a variety of factors, and rely on your past experiences to identify potential solutions and develop ballpark estimates.

In many situations you will be working with technology that is new to Pfizer and requires you to learn quickly, be able to read and understand documentation, and architect robust and scalable solutions that align with our business objectives.

Using influence more than authority, you will lead teams of engineers on the implementation of the solution. Individual members of the team are responsible for delivering on their commitments, but the team supports each other. The team pride themselves on the quality of their code, our delivery practices and breadth of our test coverage. You will be expected to document your work.

Key responsibilities for a Principal Engineer are listed below:

Technical Leadership

• Serve as the top technical authority on projects, making decisions on technology choices, design approaches, solution architecture and implementation.

• Lead and oversee the entire lifecycle excellence of engineering projects, ensuring alignment with architectural vision and adherence to best practices.

• Responsible for maintaining good code quality by promoting and ensuring secure code hygiene.

• Responsible for guiding the correct configuration of SaaS solutions to ensure security and compliance.

• Build a team able to manage change. Take appropriate risks to achieve the desired results, balancing risks to stability and current norms versus the need for constant change, improvement, and simplification.

• Facilitate the conversation between Enterprise Architects, Business Architects, Vendors and Developers, by providing technical clarity on solution(s) to build and code to write, move content from ideation into delivery to move from concept to reality.

Cross-Team Collaboration

• Act as a translator between business stakeholders and technical engineers, to ensure that technical, security and privacy considerations are represented in strategic discussions and business objectives are being met by our solutions.

• Align objectives, dependencies, and schedules across multiple teams to keep teams unblocked, and to ensure seamless projects execution.

• Collaborate with other Principal Engineers, and through the Principal Engineers Forum, to share best practices, quality standards, address improvement areas, and ensure effective communication of information.

• Collaborate with security teams to monitor vulnerabilities, implement defenses, and ensure compliance with security best practices.

• Collaborate with digital operations and support to ensure smooth BAU operations.

Excellence by Design

• Continuously discover, define, architect, deliver, and enable solutions that support program OKRs.

• Offer deep technical expertise, providing insights and guidance, ensuring solutions are secure, compliant, scalable, maintainable, and efficient.

• Advocate for the adoption of best practices, new technologies, automation, and continuous improvement initiatives in both technical and privacy domains.

• Foster a DevOps model of success by building a culture of shared responsibilities and transparency leading to higher quality and quicker delivery of outcomes.

• Stay updated on emerging technologies, industry trends, and best practices, and apply this knowledge to improve engineering processes and drive innovation within the organization.

• Ensure that privacy and security are an integral part of the system design, not merely layered on.

Coaching & Mentorship

• Participate in or lead code reviews, where applicable.

• Provide technical guidance and mentorship to junior and mid-level engineers, facilitate knowledge sharing and taking an active role in supporting the development of the wider team and their careers. Foster a culture of excellence, innovation, and continuous learning within the engineering team.

• Act on Developer Experience (DX) survey findings and feedback from the engineering team members, to drive continuous improvement initiatives to increase the "Ease of Delivery" of the team.

Incident Management & Recovery

• Lead or assist in the response to security incidents, ensuring rapid containment, mitigation, and recovery.

• Lead troubleshooting during operational outages, guiding the team to diagnose and resolve issues quickly.

• Work towards system resilience and implement post-mortem analyses to identify root causes and prevent future incidents.

• Ensure that solutions are designed with data privacy considerations from the outset.

Qualifications and education requirements (include 'basic' and 'preferred' qualifications / skills)

In order to fulfil the responsibilities listed above, we expect that you possess and demonstrate:

• Extensive experience in software engineering, with a focus on leading complex projects.

• Deep technical expertise from a well-documented background as a senior-level engineer.

• Strong problem-solving and analytical abilities, with a keen attention to detail.

• A broad technical knowledge of digital pharmaceutical sciences platforms and best practices across both user interfaces and back-end systems, as a "jack of all trades".

• Proven technical leadership skills, mentorship, with the ability to motivate and inspire team members and fellow engineers towards achieving common goals.

• Exceptional interpersonal skills, with the ability to communicate effectively in a matrix environment with geographically distributed resources, and establish strong partnerships with senior non-technical stakeholders, with a talent to explain complex topics simply.

• Ability to influence and work with cross-functional teams to deliver complex projects in accordance with broader strategies.

• Deep understanding of software development methodologies and best practices for implementing principles of privacy & security 'by design'.

• Understanding of the implications, regulations, and best practices of data handling in the pharmaceutical industry.

• Understanding of the DevSecOps best practices that should be in place, driving an "Everything as Code instead of paperwork" mentality.

• Familiarity with the multiple policies, standards, systems, and organizations within the pharmaceutical industry, to minimize risk of challenges or duplication in implementation.

Qualifications & Education Requirements

• Bachelor's or Master's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field.

• Minimum of 10 years' experience with increasing responsibility delivering digital solutions, products, and services.

• Professional certifications in engineering leadership are a plus.

• Demonstrable experience operating in a DevOps environment.

• Proven capability handling large scale, enterprise software delivery in a global 24/7 environment.

At a technical level, we are looking for engineers with qualifications and expertise in the following areas:

• Experience driving and participating in technical discovery to architect and deliver solutions that meet program business objectives.

• Systems thinking experience demonstrated by architecting complex solutions that require integrating multiple solutions.

• Demonstrated hands-on experience using AWS services to build real-life large-scaled solutions.

• Understanding of CI/CD practices, RESTful APIs, integration patterns, microservice patterns and other areas of interest to modern software development.

• Excellent experience with API-led development using Postman and Open API 3.0 is a must.

• Excellent experience with Agile team processes, including Scrum and Kanban delivery - we enjoy working with lean methods.

• Experience with the types of process problems that come when trying to build complex, new applications and comfortable when things are uncertain and require problem solving.

• Excellent experience estimating complex technical stories and breaking them down.

• Strong written and spoken English with excellent asynchronous collaboration and communication.

We don't expect you to know everything, but we want people with sufficient experience to do most of the job and who are open to learning new things.

Candidate demonstrates a breadth of diverse leadership experiences and capabilities including: the ability to influence and collaborate with peers, develop and coach others, oversee and guide the work of other colleagues to achieve meaningful outcomes and create business impact.

NON-STANDARD WORK SCHEDULE, TRAVEL OR ENVIRONMENT REQUIREMENTS

This is a global role, with vendors largely based in North America. Travel therefore may be required from time to time. Attendance at meetings in the Eastern US time zone will be required.

Last Date to Apply for Job: 4/5/2024

The annual base salary for this position ranges from $134,300.00 to $223,800.00. In addition, this position is eligible for participation in Pfizer's Global Performance Plan with a bonus target of 20.0% of the base salary and eligibility to participate in our share based long term incentive program. We offer comprehensive and generous benefits and programs to help our colleagues lead healthy lives and to support each of life's moments. Benefits offered include a 401(k) plan with Pfizer Matching Contributions and an additional Pfizer Retirement Savings Contribution, paid vacation, holiday and personal days, paid caregiver/parental and medical leave, and health benefits to include medical, prescription drug, dental and vision coverage. Learn more at Pfizer Candidate Site - U.S. Benefits | (uscandidates.mypfizerbenefits.com). Pfizer compensation structures and benefit packages are aligned based on the location of hire. The United States salary range provided applies to the Tampa, FL location only. The salary range provided does not apply to any other United States location or locations outside of the United States.

Relocation assistance may be available based on business needs and/or eligibility.

Sunshine Act

Pfizer reports payments and other transfers of value to health care providers as required by federal and state transparency laws and implementing regulations. These laws and regulations require Pfizer to provide government agencies with information such as a health care provider's name, address and the type of payments or other value received, generally for public disclosure. Subject to further legal review and statutory or regulatory clarification, which Pfizer intends to pursue, reimbursement of recruiting expenses for licensed physicians may constitute a reportable transfer of value under the federal transparency law commonly known as the Sunshine Act. Therefore, if you are a licensed physician who incurs recruiting expenses as a result of interviewing with Pfizer that we pay or reimburse, your name, address and the amount of payments made currently will be reported to the government. If you have questions regarding this matter, please do not hesitate to contact your Talent Acquisition representative.

EEO & Employment Eligibility

Pfizer is committed to equal opportunity in the terms and conditions of employment for all employees and job applicants without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, age, gender identity or gender expression, national origin, disability or veteran status. Pfizer also complies with all applicable national, state and local laws governing nondiscrimination in employment as well as work authorization and employment eligibility verification requirements of the Immigration and Nationality Act and IRCA. Pfizer is an E-Verify employer. This position requires permanent work authorization in the United States.

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