Senior Director, Clinical AI/ML, ECD

Role Summary

Worldwide Research, Development, and Medical (WRDM) is recruiting a team experienced in clinical uses of artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML) and predictive modeling. The successful candidate will help us derive insights from Pfizer’s proprietary data and external data to generate hypothesis focused on clinical development and precision medicine approaches.  This focus will be on testing strategies for patient segmentation and potential subpopulations. Individuals in this role will partner with RUs to drive overall strategy and timing of assets, indications, data and analyses for precision medicine efforts under the guidance of the clinical AI/ML head.  The candidate will use prioritized plans to drive decision making and implementation of contemporary AI/ML models and architecture. They will have expertise in biomarker analysis, computer science, computational analytics, data science and/or statistics focused on experience in building and using AI/ML techniques to solve complex problems. Experienced in working on clinical stage assets and precision medicine strategies is required. The candidate will review work and lead individuals in proposing, developing, testing and validating AI/ML tools for use across multiple therapeutic areas. They will also partner with multiple clinical, computational, digital and biological functions to build datasets and implement algorithms for endpoint selection, individualized dosing strategies and/or patient stratification. The candidate will work with internal and external teams to bring the latest solutions and technology to Pfizer including publishing or presenting their work internally and externally.

Role Responsibilities

• Drive the data cycle value chain for key therapy areas (e.g. Immunology & Inflammation, Oncology, Internal Medicine, Rare Disease, Anti-virals) from identification and decomposition of business problems, identification of data sources to solve the problem, and drive usage of insights to advance the mission of Research Units (RU) and Clinical Development.
• Lead discussion focused on a single RU to develop priorities among assets and indications for precision medicine approaches
• Review and supervise data collection/aggregation through model building and deployment to ensure robust performance for all predictive and classification algorithms
• Will be very comfortable with hands-on application of innovative AI/ML methods in clinical development efforts will still be required along with supervisory responsibilities
• Responsible for delivery of information models designed to drive the interrogation of datasets for insights in scientific and business application areas.  These solutions include the application of specialized approaches in classification, regression, clustering, NLP, image analysis, knowledge graphs, digital twins, and/or other techniques
• Identify biomarker rich datasets with RU scientists to enrich the number of potential features for model building
• Prototype, train, validate and deploy novel AI/ML models for patient selection strategies for clinical assets in collaboration with multiple functions across WRDM and Pfizer’s Digital organization.
• Increase Pfizer’s externally facing ML presence within the pharmaceutical industry through presentations and collaboration.
• Ensure Pfizer methodology remains current through knowledge sharing of new tools and/or vendors working in AI/ML.
• Collaborates across the Data and AI community to develop best practices and cross functional opportunities that drive value
• Joint oversight of partnerships with multiple third parties, academic or outsourced partners to shape and drive project outcomes and knowledge building across the organization

Qualifications

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​

• PhD in Computer science, computational biology, Bioinformatics, Biostatistics, Applied Mathematics, Scientific Machine learning, Operations Research, Computational Genomics or related discipline with 7-10 years of relevant experience
• 7-10 years of programming experience in Python, R, Perl, Java, julia, etc.
• 7-10 years of experience in design, development and deployment of solutions using AI/ML approaches in an R&D setting
• Experience creating hypothesis-generating or -confirming analyses to inform strategies for clinical development
• Track record of leading data-driven initiatives that impact decision making
• In-depth knowledge and experience reviewing and programming projects with common AI/ML algorithms
• Demonstrated strong interpersonal and communication skills to lead cross-functional teams
• Experience building rich multi-modal datasets for potential feature selection across multiple data types
• Understanding of different data types in clinical and molecular research (including single cell transcriptomics, proteomics) and how they can be aggregated for precision medicine strategies
• Demonstrated ability to publish and present on new methods and applications of AI/ML
• Experience with high performance computing environments and cloud computing platforms
• Working knowledge of MLOps platform (e.g. dataiku)

Other Job Details:

• Location: Cambridge, MA; any US Pfizer site or US remote based
• Eligible for Relocation Package
• Eligible for Employee Referral Bonus

Pfizer requires all U.S. new hires to be fully vaccinated for COVID-19 prior to the first date of employment.  As required by applicable law, Pfizer will consider requests for Reasonable Accommodations.

Sunshine Act

Pfizer reports payments and other transfers of value to health care providers as required by federal and state transparency laws and implementing regulations.  These laws and regulations require Pfizer to provide government agencies with information such as a health care provider’s name, address and the type of payments or other value received, generally for public disclosure.  Subject to further legal review and statutory or regulatory clarification, which Pfizer intends to pursue, reimbursement of recruiting expenses for licensed physicians may constitute a reportable transfer of value under the federal transparency law commonly known as the Sunshine Act.  Therefore, if you are a licensed physician who incurs recruiting expenses as a result of interviewing with Pfizer that we pay or reimburse, your name, address and the amount of payments made currently will be reported to the government.  If you have questions regarding this matter, please do not hesitate to contact your Talent Acquisition representative.

EEO & Employment Eligibility

Pfizer is committed to equal opportunity in the terms and conditions of employment for all employees and job applicants without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, age, gender identity or gender expression, national origin, disability or veteran status.  Pfizer also complies with all applicable national, state and local laws governing nondiscrimination in employment as well as work authorization and employment eligibility verification requirements of the Immigration and Nationality Act and IRCA.  Pfizer is an E-Verify employer.

Information & Business Tech