Job Description

Pfizer is seeking a senior, enterprise leader to serve as Head of Strategy, Portfolio & Pipeline Operations for Internal Medicine, reporting to the Chief Internal Medicine Officer, serving as a key member of the Internal Medicine Leadership Team.

This role is responsible for leading Internal Medicine strategy, portfolio management, and operational execution, partnering closely with the Chief Internal Medicine Officer to define and communicate a unified strategy and build a high-value, practice-changing portfolio across development and commercialization.

Operating at the intersection of R&D, commercial, and enterprise functions, this leader will establish and drive a rigorous decision-making framework for pipeline management, ensuring that investments are prioritized effectively and that the portfolio evolves to maximize value. The role also carries end-to-end accountability for advancing the pipeline with urgency, ensuring programs are executed efficiently, risks are anticipated early, and cross-functional teams are mobilized quickly to address critical inflection points.

Beyond portfolio leadership, this individual will serve as a core thought partner to the Chief Internal Medicine Officer and Internal Medicine Leadership Team. This includes helping to shape enterprise prioritization and resourcing decisions, championing Internal Medicine across the organization, and advancing the integration of data, digital, and AI capabilities throughout the category.

Success in this role will require an agile and highly proactive leader who can seamlessly move between long-term strategy and real-time execution—anticipating issues before they fully emerge and rapidly assembling the right cross-functional expertise and resources to address them. This leader will play a critical role in ensuring the organization is both strategically aligned and operationally responsive in a dynamic environment.

• Drive end-to-end strategy across the major pillars of Internal Medicine—obesity/metabolic, migraine/pain, and cardiovascular—building sustainable leadership from target identification through market presence
• Transform Internal Medicine R&D into an AI-native organization, working with colleagues across functions—including Digital—to embed AI in how the pipeline is discovered, developed, and advanced

Key Responsibilities:

Strategy Development & Category Leadership

• Partner with the Chief Internal Medicine Officer to define, refine, and communicate a cohesive Internal Medicine strategy across internal and external stakeholders
• Lead periodic strategy development and review processes, including preparation for and management of governance forums
• Maintain a comprehensive, forward-looking view of the Internal Medicine landscape, including unmet need, value pools, competitive dynamics, clinical pipelines, and emerging science and modalities
• Identify strategic options to build leadership in priority disease areas across short-term and long-term horizons
• Act as a strategic advisor to the Internal Medicine Leadership Team, supporting decisions across portfolio, operations, resourcing, and long-term category positioning

• Portfolio Management & Decision Excellence

• Lead global portfolio management across drug and non-drug investments, including data and AI initiatives
• Establish consistent, objective processes and standards for evaluating business cases and investment decisions
• Enable effective trade-offs and re-prioritization as data evolves or plans shift, ensuring continuous optimization of the portfolio
• Conduct regular end-to-end portfolio reviews and health checks to assess performance against defined thresholds and goals
• Deliver portfolio analytics and insights to enterprise leadership and external stakeholders through dashboards and reporting
• Manage governance processes for pipeline and portfolio decision-making within Internal Medicine
• Lead improvements in cross-functional decision-making framework with Clinical Development, Translational Medicine, Regulatory Affairs, Medical Affairs, Commercial, Market Access, Manufacturing, and Finance.

• Pipeline Development & Business Development

• Support the Chief Internal Medicine Officer in building a differentiated, practice-changing pipeline
• Partner with Business Development and M&A teams to identify, evaluate, and execute external opportunities, including diligence, valuation, and strategic fit assessments
• Oversee and evaluate phase transition decisions and business cases for internal pipeline assets
• Collaborate closely with commercial teams to ensure rigor and transparency in market research, forecasting, and value assessments

Operational Execution & Project Leadership

• Lead a high-performing team responsible for execution across the Internal Medicine portfolio
• Ensure programs are delivered within agreed timelines and budgets, with clear accountability and visibility
• Drive continuous improvement in program planning, team formation, resource allocation, tracking, and reporting
• Establish and scale training and capability-building programs to strengthen execution across teams
• Lead an operational excellence function focused on integrating external best practices, as well as process, technology, and AI innovations to accelerate, de-risk, and reduce development costs
• Ensure seamless integration of newly acquired or in-licensed assets and capabilities into the portfolio and operating model
• Rapidly mobilize cross-functional teams and resources to address emerging risks, challenges, or opportunities across the portfolio, ensuring issues are addressed early and effectively before they escalate

Leadership & Enterprise Impact

• Serve as a key member of the Internal Medicine Leadership Team, contributing to broader category leadership and decision-making
• Partner closely with Commercial, Finance, R&D, Strategy, Business Development, People Experience and other enterprise functions
• Champion Internal Medicine priorities across the enterprise, including resource allocation and strategic investment decisions
• Lead, develop, and retain a high-performing global team, fostering a culture grounded in accountability, collaboration, and innovation

Experience

• PhD, MD, or advanced degree in biomedical, life sciences, or related field
• Approximately 15+ years of experience in biopharma, life sciences, or healthcare, with significant exposure to drug development and commercialization
• Prior experience in strategy consulting from a top-tier firm strongly preferred
• Demonstrated leadership in corporate strategy, portfolio management, and/or business development
• Deep understanding of Internal Medicine and/or broad therapeutic area portfolio management

Capabilities

• Exceptional strategic thinker with the ability to connect science, market dynamics, and enterprise priorities
• Strong financial and analytical acumen; able to evaluate complex business cases and investment trade-offs
• Proven ability to lead in a highly matrixed, global organization, influencing without authority
• Track record of driving operational excellence and process innovation, including adoption of new technologies
• Experience advancing data- and AI-enabled approaches within R&D or commercial environments

Leadership Attributes

• Trusted advisor with strong executive presence and communication skills
• Agile and action-oriented, with the ability to anticipate issues early and mobilize teams quickly
• Collaborative and inclusive leader who can align diverse stakeholders around a common vision
• Comfortable operating in ambiguity, with the ability to balance long-term strategy and real-time execution
• High degree of ownership, accountability, and resilience

Candidate demonstrates a breadth of diverse leadership experiences and capabilities including: the ability to influence and collaborate with peers, develop and coach others, oversee and guide the work of other colleagues to achieve meaningful outcomes and create business impact.

Location

This role is a hybrid site-based role located at Pfizer HQ in New York City, NY.

#LI-PFE

The annual base salary for this position ranges from $274,000.00 to $456,600.00. In addition, this position is eligible for participation in Pfizer’s Global Performance Plan with a bonus target of 30.0% of the base salary and eligibility to participate in our share based long term incentive program. We offer comprehensive and generous benefits and programs to help our colleagues lead healthy lives and to support each of life’s moments. Benefits offered include a 401(k) plan with Pfizer Matching Contributions and an additional Pfizer Retirement Savings Contribution, paid vacation, holiday and personal days, paid caregiver/parental and medical leave, and health benefits to include medical, prescription drug, dental and vision coverage. Learn more at Pfizer Candidate Site – U.S. Benefits | (uscandidates.mypfizerbenefits.com). Pfizer compensation structures and benefit packages are aligned based on the location of hire. The United States salary range provided does not apply to Tampa, FL or any location outside of the United States.

Relocation assistance may be available based on business needs and/or eligibility.

Candidates must be authorized to be employed in the U.S. by any employer.

U.S. work visa sponsorship (such as TN, O-1, H-1B, etc.) is not available for this role now or in the future.

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

Research and Development