Scaled AI & Solution Architect

Overview

Global individual contributor role acting as senior technical design authority for Pfizer's Digital Quality (DQ) portfolio, setting AI and solution architecture direction across all DQ products and leading scaled, GxP-compliant adoption of AI and agentic AI.

What you'll do

• Own the target-state solution architecture for the Digital Quality portfolio, spanning quality management, laboratory, manufacturing quality, and safety, environment and occupational health solutions.
• Define how products, platforms, data and integrations fit together, and drive convergence of point solutions onto common architecture, avoiding duplicated capability and unmanaged technical debt.
• Establish, publish and maintain architecture standards, reference patterns, reusable components and engineering guardrails covering integration, data, identity, AI, validation and cyber security.
• Make reuse the path of least resistance for delivery teams, and measure adoption, reuse and the resulting delivery efficiency.
• Define and drive the AI and agentic AI architecture for the DQ portfolio, including use case patterns such as deviation and incident triage, leading-indicator prediction, automated document and content generation, and conversational access to standards and procedures.
• Determine where AI capability should be built once as a shared service versus configured per product, and ensure AI is delivered on enterprise platforms with appropriate human oversight, evaluation, model monitoring and lifecycle management.
• Act as design authority for significant DQ investments, reviewing and approving solution designs at key lifecycle gates and providing architectural assurance on build-versus-buy, platform selection and vendor technical fit.
• Identify multiple viable options for highly complex problems, set out trade-offs in cost, risk, compliance and time to value, and make clear recommendations to Digital and business leadership and governance forums.
• Provide hands-on architectural leadership to Solution Leads, Product Managers, engineers and vendor teams without direct reporting authority, influencing through expertise and evidence.
• Mentor and raise the technical capability of architects and engineers across Digital Quality, and lead architecture and AI Communities of Practice.
• Ensure architectural decisions embed GxP computerised system compliance, data integrity, data privacy and cyber security requirements from the outset, in partnership with Quality, Legal, Privacy, Compliance and Cyber Security.
• Define validation-efficient architecture patterns that allow AI and cloud capability to be deployed at pace while remaining inspection-ready.
• Evaluate emerging AI, data and platform technologies, act independently on self-initiated proofs of concept and technical experiments, and translate proven experiments into scaled, supportable production capability.

What you'll need

• Bachelor's degree required in Information Technology, Engineering, Environmental or Occupational Health Sciences, Life Sciences or a related discipline.
• 10+ years of relevant experience in solution architecture, technical leadership or enterprise software delivery (9+ years with an MS/MBA; 7+ years with a PhD), including demonstrable accountability for architecture across a portfolio of products rather than a single application.
• Demonstrated experience designing and delivering AI or machine learning capability into production, including an understanding of large language model and agentic architecture patterns, retrieval, evaluation and model lifecycle management.
• Strong experience with cloud, integration and data architecture, and with modern software engineering and Agile ways of working; SAFe preferred.
• Experience setting and driving adoption of technical standards across teams that do not report to the incumbent, influencing senior stakeholders through technical credibility.
• Experience across all stages of the system and application lifecycle, from value analysis and business case through deployment to value realisation and technical debt management.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to explain complex technical trade-offs to non-technical senior leaders.

Nice to have

• Experience in the pharmaceutical industry or another highly regulated manufacturing environment, including GxP computerised system validation and data integrity expectations (e.g. GAMP 5, 21 CFR Part 11, Annex 11).
• Working knowledge of quality, or EHS business processes and the platforms that support them (for example Veeva, LIMS, Cority).
• Experience deploying AI in a regulated context, including responsible AI governance, model risk assessment and human-in-the-loop design.
• Recognised architecture certification (e.g. TOGAF) or equivalent cloud architecture certification.
• Track record of external technical contribution, such as industry forums, working groups, publications or conference speaking.

Details

• Location: India - Chennai.
• Work mode: Hybrid.
• Travel: occasional travel up to 20%.
• Working hours: ability to work virtually across regions and time zones, including occasional out-of-hours working to support deployment go-lives and hypercare.
• No direct reports; no direct budget ownership.
• Typical desk job with no specific physical or mental requirements beyond standard office work.