Staff Software Engineer – Forward Deployed

ROLE SUMMARY

We are seeking a skilled Software Engineer who will design, build, and maintain software systems that deliver business value. In this role, you will focus on code quality, architecture decisions, and reliable delivery while leveraging AI tools to enhance productivity. You will verify and review AI-generated code to ensure it meets our quality standards.

In this forward-deployed role, you will be embedded directly with business units including Commercial, Manufacturing, and R&D. You will operate like a "startup CTO," bridging the gap between building products 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 encompasses multi-team initiatives with area-wide impact. You will set own direction within broader strategic goals, influence teams in your area and be recognized as a domain expert. You will handle very high complexity driving through ambiguity to deliver results.

ROLE RESPONSIBILITIES

BUSINESS

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

• Business Immersion: You immerse in operations until you think like an insider. You rapidly acquire domain expertise through direct observation, translate between business and engineering seamlessly, and mentor engineers in your area on immersion.

• Stakeholder Management: You influence senior stakeholders effectively across your area, manage complex stakeholder landscapes with competing agendas, build trust rapidly with new stakeholders, and shield teams from organizational friction.

DELIVERY

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

• Data Integration: You navigate complex enterprise data landscapes across teams, build relationships to gain data access, handle undocumented schemas through investigation, and build robust, maintainable integration solutions. You mentor engineers in your area on data integration challenges.

• Full-Stack Development: You build complete applications rapidly across any technology stack for teams in your area. You select the right tools for each problem, balance technical debt with delivery speed, and mentor engineers on full-stack development.

• Problem Discovery: You seek out undefined problems rather than avoiding them. You embed with users to discover latent needs, coach engineers in your area on problem discovery techniques, and turn ambiguity into clear problem statements.

• Rapid Prototyping & Validation: You 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 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: You 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: You 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: You 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 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: 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.

PEOPLE

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

• Multi-Audience Communication: You influence through communication at all levels—from frontline to executive. You handle difficult conversations skillfully, train engineers in your area on effective communication, and represent teams across the function.

• Team Collaboration: You 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 BEHAVIOURS

• Don't Lose Your Curiosity: Drives team curiosity through challenging questions; creates environments where exploration and experimentation are encouraged; models problem discovery orientation; seeks out ambiguity rather than avoiding it

• Own the Outcome: Drives accountability culture focused on outcomes not deliverables; owns business relationships and impact metrics across their function; makes trade-offs between custom solutions and generalizable work; there is no "I must run this by X"; ensures verification rigor for AI-generated code

• Be Polymath Oriented: Bridges gaps between engineering, design, business, and science; rapidly immerses in new domains; speaks the language of Commercial, Manufacturing, or R&D; makes better decisions by understanding broader context

• Communicate with Precision: Separates requirements, designs, and tasks with precision; enables AI to generate accurate code through clear specifications; translates between technical and business language; facilitates productive discussions

• Think in Systems: Maps complex system interactions across technical and business domains; anticipates cascading effects; designs systems that degrade gracefully; understands 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