Pfizer

Principal Software Engineer - Developer Experience

India - Chennai Full time

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 Developer Experience role, you will treat internal platforms as products and developers as customers. You will measure developer productivity, document golden paths, advocate for friction reduction, and ensure high adoption of platform capabilities. You will bridge Platform Engineering with consuming teams, translating developer feedback into platform improvements.

This role encompasses business unit technical strategy and architectural direction. You will define strategic direction and be accountable for outcomes, shape practices across the business unit and maintain external visibility. You will handle business unit complexity creating clarity from ambiguity.

ROLE BEHAVIOURS

  • Communicate with Precision: Shapes industry standards for technical communication; recognized authority on spec-driven AI development; influences organizational communication culture; publishes on precision in the AI era; keynotes at industry conferences

  • Don't Lose Your Curiosity: 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

  • Think in Systems: Defines organizational systems architecture principles; recognized industry authority on complex systems; advises executive leadership on systemic risks and opportunities; publishes thought leadership on systems thinking in technology organizations

  • 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

ROLE RESPONSIBILITIES

DOCUMENTATION

You shape knowledge strategy across the business unit, enable broad knowledge sharing, and are recognized for documentation excellence:

  • Developer Experience: You shape developer experience strategy across the business unit. You create innovative approaches to internal platforms, are recognized for building high-adoption self-service capabilities, and influence industry practices on internal developer platforms.

  • Knowledge Management: You shape enterprise knowledge strategy and governance. You drive learning organization culture, create frameworks that others adopt, and are recognized for building knowledge-sharing organizations.

  • Pattern Generalization: You shape the discovery-to-scale pipeline across the business unit. You define the organizational approach to pattern generalization, balance enterprise standardization with field flexibility, and are recognized for building high-adoption platform capabilities from field discoveries.

  • Technical Writing: You shape documentation culture and standards across the business unit. You innovate on documentation approaches, are recognized for exceptional technical writing clarity, and lead documentation initiatives.

DATA

You define data engineering standards across the business unit, lead enterprise data initiatives, and are the technical authority on data architecture:

  • Data Analysis: You shape analytics culture and strategy across the business unit. You introduce innovative analytical approaches, solve the most complex analytical challenges, and are recognized as an analytics authority.

  • Statistical Modeling: You innovate on statistical approaches for pharmaceutical applications, shape methodology standards, contribute to the field, and are recognized as a statistics authority.

  • Synthetic Data Generation: You shape synthetic data strategy across the business unit, innovate on generation techniques, evaluate emerging tools and methods, and are recognized as an authority on synthetic data for sensitive domains.

PEOPLE

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

  • Multi-Audience Communication: 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.

  • Team Collaboration: 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.

QUALIFICATIONS AND EXPERIENCE

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or related field with 12+ years of relevant experience. Deep technical expertise with a proven track record of organization-wide technical leadership.

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