Staff Software Engineer – Forward D...

Role Summary

We are looking for a skilled Software Engineer to design, build, and maintain software systems that deliver business value. This role emphasizes code quality, architectural decisions, and reliable delivery, with a focus on leveraging AI tools to boost productivity. You will be responsible for verifying and reviewing AI-generated code to ensure it meets our high quality standards.

In this forward-deployed position, you will work directly with business units, including Commercial, Manufacturing, and R&D. You will function as a "startup CTO," bridging the gap between product development and solving real business problems through rapid solution delivery and deep domain expertise. As part of the discovery-to-scale pipeline, you will identify recurring patterns and hand off validated solutions to Platform Engineers for generalization into enterprise capabilities.

This role involves multi-team initiatives with area-wide impact. You will set your own direction within broader strategic goals, influence teams in your area, and be recognized as a domain expert. You will manage very high complexity, driving through ambiguity to deliver results.

Role Responsibilities

Business

You will drive business outcomes through technical solutions across your area, influence product roadmaps, and partner effectively with business stakeholders:

• Business Immersion: Immerse yourself in operations to gain insider knowledge. Rapidly acquire domain expertise through direct observation, translate seamlessly between business and engineering, and mentor engineers in your area on immersion techniques.
• Stakeholder Management: Effectively influence senior stakeholders across your area, manage complex stakeholder landscapes with competing agendas, build trust rapidly with new stakeholders, and shield teams from organizational friction.

Delivery

You will lead technical delivery of complex projects across multiple teams, unblock others through hands-on contributions, and ensure engineering quality:

• Data Integration: Navigate complex enterprise data landscapes across teams, build relationships to gain data access, investigate and handle undocumented schemas, and build robust, maintainable integration solutions. Mentor engineers in your area on data integration challenges.
• Full-Stack Development: Rapidly build complete applications across any technology stack for teams in your area. Select the right tools for each problem, balance technical debt with delivery speed, and mentor engineers on full-stack development.
• Problem Discovery: Proactively seek out undefined problems. Embed with users to discover latent needs, coach engineers in your area on problem discovery techniques, and transform ambiguity into clear problem statements.
• Rapid Prototyping & Validation: Lead rapid delivery initiatives across teams in your area, coach on prototype-first approaches, establish trust through consistent fast delivery, and define clear criteria for prototype-to-production transitions.

Machine Learning

You will architect end-to-end ML systems across teams, handle challenging modeling scenarios, mentor engineers on ML practices, and establish ML standards for your area:

• Model Development: Design end-to-end ML systems for complex problems across teams, handle challenging modeling scenarios (imbalanced data, concept drift), mentor engineers in your area, and establish ML practices.
• Model Fine-Tuning: Architect fine-tuning pipelines for complex use cases across teams, implement advanced techniques (LoRA, PEFT, multi-task learning), mentor engineers on fine-tuning practices, and establish model customization standards.
• Retrieval Augmentation: Architect RAG systems for complex use cases across teams, implement advanced techniques (hybrid search, reranking, query expansion), mentor engineers on RAG best practices, and establish RAG standards.

Artificial Intelligence

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

• AI-Augmented Development: 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.

People

You will coach multiple engineers on career growth, lead hiring for technical roles across your area, and shape team technical culture:

• Multi-Audience Communication: Influence through communication at all levels—from frontline to executive. Handle difficult conversations skillfully, train engineers in your area on effective communication, and represent teams across the function.
• Team Collaboration: Build high-performing teams across your area, navigate complex interpersonal dynamics, foster psychological safety, and create environments where diverse perspectives are valued and heard.

Qualifications & Experience

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or related field with 9+ years of relevant experience.

Extensive experience leading complex technical projects with multi-team impact.

Role Behaviors

• Don't Lose Your Curiosity: Drive team curiosity through challenging questions; create environments where exploration and experimentation are encouraged; model problem discovery orientation; seek out ambiguity rather than avoiding it.
• Own the Outcome: Drive an accountability culture focused on outcomes, not deliverables; own business relationships and impact metrics across your function; make trade-offs between custom solutions and generalizable work; ensure verification rigor for AI-generated code.
• Be Polymath Oriented: Bridge gaps between engineering, design, business, and science; rapidly immerse in new domains; speak the language of Commercial, Manufacturing, or R&D; make better decisions by understanding broader context.
• Communicate with Precision: Separate requirements, designs, and tasks with precision; enable AI to generate accurate code through clear specifications; translate between technical and business language; facilitate productive discussions.
• Think in Systems: Map complex system interactions across technical and business domains; anticipate cascading effects; design systems that degrade gracefully; understand how technology changes impact business operations.

Location: Chennai or Mumbai

Pfizer is an equal opportunity employer and complies with all applicable equal employment opportunity legislation in each jurisdiction in which it operates.

Information & Business Tech