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Forward Deployment Sr. Manager

Pfizer

Forward Deployment Sr. Manager

Posted An Hour Ago

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4 Locations

In-Office

Senior level

Artificial Intelligence • Healthtech • Machine Learning • Natural Language Processing • Biotech • Pharmaceutical

We’re in relentless pursuit of breakthroughs that change patients’ lives.

The Role

Builds rapid AI and agentic prototypes, proofs of concept, and validated MVPs. Responsibilities include engineering RAG pipelines, integrating models and APIs, developing small language models, implementing evaluation and safety guardrails, and contributing to the AI layer of the AICL platform. The role partners with product, data, technology, and governance teams, documents technical handovers, and supports decisions about scaling AI solutions into production.

Summary Generated by Built In

1. Role Summary
The Forward Deployment Engineer (FDE) owns the how - building working AI solutions fast. Within the AITO AI engineering pool, the role turns prioritized ideas and product requirements into hands-on prototypes, proofs of concept and validated minimum viable products, proving technical feasibility for flagship AI opportunities (0→1).
Working side by side with the AI Product Owner in a PO-led POD, the engineer designs, builds, integrates and evaluates AI and agentic solutions on the China AI platform, contributes to small language models and the AI layer of the AI Empowered Consumption Layer (AICL), and hands validated work to Digital & Technology (D&T) and PIC for production, scale and sustainable ownership.
2. Key Accountabilities

Design, build and integrate AI and agentic solutions - rapid prototypes, proofs of concept and validated MVPs - for high-value opportunities.

Engineer agentic applications and RAG pipelines: retrieval, model and API integration, orchestration, prompt and context engineering, and human-in-the-loop workflows, using China AI platform reference architectures and guardrails.

Contribute to small language model and domain model development - data preparation, fine-tuning, distillation and evaluation - deployed through the China LLM foundation and AI platform release gate.

Build the AICL AI layer (agents, retrieval and orchestration) as one POD with the D&T Data Engineering & Semantics team (CL layer) and GCA DSM (business definitions and unified KPIs).

Build evaluation, testing and guardrails to prove feasibility, quality and safety before scale.

Partner daily with the AI Product Owner to translate requirements into working solutions and iterate on feedback; surface constraints, effort and risk early to inform scale or stop decisions.

Prepare clean, documented handovers to D&T and PIC, including architecture notes, evaluation evidence and known limitations.

Apply model-cost / cost-per-outcome awareness in design and model choices.

Contribute reusable patterns, components and sample agents to the China AI platform and builder community.

3. Required Capabilities & Competencies

Hands-on AI / software engineering: rapid prototyping, applied development and integration of AI and agentic solutions; production-quality Python.

Agentic and RAG engineering: embeddings, re-rankers, vector databases, model and API integration, orchestration, prompt and context engineering, evaluation and guardrails.

Working knowledge of small language model fine-tuning and evaluation, MLOps and LLMOps, CI/CD and secure, privacy-aware deployment.

Model-cost / cost-per-outcome awareness and pragmatic engineering trade-offs.

Builder mindset: ships working solutions fast with rigor, curiosity and pragmatic engineering judgment, with strong cross-functional collaboration.

Bachelor's degree or above in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Artificial Intelligence, Data Science or a related discipline.

8+ years of relevant technology experience, including 5+ years of hands-on software, data or AI engineering experience and demonstrated delivery of AI/ML or agentic solutions.

Ability to work across business, product, technology, data and governance stakeholders in a matrixed environment.

4. Key Collaboration
The role works in the AITO AI engineering pool under the AIT Acceleration Lead, partnering daily with the AI Product Owner in a PO-led POD. It builds on the China AI platform and LLM foundation provided by AI Platform & Foundation, delivers the AICL AI layer with D&T Data Engineering & Semantics and GCA DSM, and prepares the acceleration-to-scale handover with D&T Enterprise Engineering, Deployment & Operations and the Pfizer Innovation Center (PIC). It also engages relevant China Business Units and, where useful, International AIT engineering communities.
5. Measures of Success

High-value ideas turned into working, evaluated prototypes and MVPs at speed.

Technical feasibility, quality and safety proven through evaluation and guardrails before scale.

Clean, well-documented handovers that accelerate production engineering by D&T and PIC.

Reusable patterns, components and AICL AI-layer assets adopted across use cases.

Pfizer is an equal opportunity employer and complies with all applicable equal employment opportunity legislation in each jurisdiction in which it operates.
To learn more about acceptable and prohibited uses of AI during the recruitment process, please review our candidate AI-use guidelines available on Pfizer Careers .
Information & Business Tech

Skills Required

Bachelor’s degree or higher in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Artificial Intelligence, Data Science, or a related discipline
8+ years of relevant technology experience
5+ years of hands-on software, data, or AI engineering experience
Demonstrated delivery of AI, machine learning, or agentic solutions
Production-quality Python development experience
Experience engineering agentic applications and RAG pipelines, including embeddings, re-rankers, vector databases, model and API integration, orchestration, and prompt and context engineering
Working knowledge of small language model fine-tuning and evaluation
Working knowledge of MLOps, LLMOps, CI/CD, and secure, privacy-aware deployment
Ability to work across business, product, technology, data, and governance stakeholders in a matrixed environment

What the Team is Saying

Pfizer Compensation & Benefits Highlights

Healthcare Strength — Healthcare coverage is described as comprehensive, with multiple plan options, dental and vision, mental-health services, telehealth, and eligible Pfizer medications at no cost. Family-building benefits such as infertility treatment, adoption, and surrogacy support further reinforce the offering.
Retirement Support — Retirement support includes a 401(k) with employer matching plus an additional company retirement contribution, alongside access to financial-planning resources. This combination is positioned as a meaningful part of total rewards.
Leave & Time Off Breadth — Paid time off includes 15 holidays, three to six weeks of vacation depending on service, and the option to purchase additional vacation weeks, plus dedicated caregiver-leave days. Twelve weeks of paid parental leave and backup care resources add flexibility for family needs.

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The Company

HQ: New York, NY

121,990 Employees

Year Founded: 1848

What We Do

Our purpose ensures that patients remain at the center of all we do. We live our purpose by sourcing the best science in the world; partnering with others in the healthcare system to improve access to our medicines; using digital technologies to enhance our drug discovery and development, as well as patient outcomes; and leading the conversation to advocate for pro-innovation/pro-patient policies.

Why Work With Us

We are the inventors, the problem solvers, the big thinkers — those who surmount any hurdle to deliver breakthrough medicines to the people who are counting on them the most.