ROLE SUMMARY

As Director, AI Architecture Operations Lead, you will own and continuously improve the AI Architecture Design process for all internal AI‑powered business products. You will lead a small, high‑impact operations function consisting of Technical Writers and an Operations Analyst, and you will partner closely with department leads and the AI CoE to drive process rigor, metrics, governance rhythms, and enablement. Your scope includes: standardizing ceremonies and artefacts, centralizing department KPIs and reporting, coordinating intake with the Portfolio team, curating the catalogue of reusable SDKs and platform offerings, and stewarding change management across the AI Architecture & Solution Design department.

Why this Role Matters

This role is the operating system of the AI Architecture & Solution Design department. You provide the connective tissue that turns brilliant designs into repeatable, governable, and reusable practices at scale. By owning the design playbook, ceremonies, and measurement framework, you create the conditions for speed with safety-accelerating time to first value, increasing reuse of SDKs/modules/services, improving documentation quality, and ensuring that architecture decisions are auditable and aligned with enterprise controls. You enable department leaders to steer with data, teams to collaborate predictably, and product lines to benefit from platform thinking rather than bespoke one‑offs.

Candidate Profile

You are an operations‑minded leader who loves turning ambiguity into scalable systems. You blend architecture literacy with process excellence, and you've operated in matrixed environments where cross‑team alignment, portfolio coordination, and change management are daily realities. You are equally comfortable running a quarterly planning cadence, defining documentation standards with Technical Writers, partnering with architects on evaluation coverage, and rolling up dashboards for ELT/ELT‑1 stakeholders. You champion clarity, reusability, transparency, and continuous improvement, and you communicate with precision and empathy.

Process Ownership & Operating Rhythms

• Own the AI Architecture Design Playbook (stages, gates, artefacts, RACI, and SLAs) and keep it current with department leads' approval.
• Maintain standard artefacts & templates: ADRs, reference architecture templates, solution review checklists, evaluation/readiness checklists, risk registers, runbooks, release notes, and decision logs.
• Partner with the Portfolio team to manage funneling and prioritization of business use cases; ensure traceability from intake through design approval.

Metrics, KPIs & Reporting

• Centralize department metrics and dashboards; enable leaders to steer with data. Example KPIs:
  
  
  • Flow & velocity: cycle time from intake → architecture approval; time to first value.
  • Quality & rigor: evaluation coverage, security/privacy readiness, documentation completeness.
  • Reuse & leverage: reuse rate of SDKs/modules/platform services; reduction in bespoke components.
  • Cost & performance: design‑stage cost/performance targets, observability and SLO readiness.
  • Enablement & adoption: playbook adoption, template utilization, onboarding time, rotation program participation.

Documentation Excellence & Knowledge Management

• Lead a team of Technical Writers to define standards for architecture documentation (writing style, minimal viable docs, diagrams, evaluation evidence, and release notes).
• Maintain a single source of truth for patterns, exemplars, ADRs, and design assets; ensure discoverability and lifecycle (versioning, archival, depreciation).

People Leadership, Coaching & Community

• Lead, coach, and performance manage Technical Writers and an Operations Analyst; cultivate craftsmanship in documentation and measurement.
• Collaborate with the AI Solution Design Lead and Embedded AI Architecture Lead to standardize growth frameworks, competency models, and objective skill assessments.

BASIC QUALIFICATIONS

• 10+ years in operations excellence for software/AI organizations, solution/enterprise architecture operations, PMO, or engineering program management in matrixed enterprises.
• Demonstrated ownership of end‑to‑end operating models (process design, ceremonies, artefacts, metrics) across the AI/ML or software SDLC, including evaluation and release readiness.
• Proven experience producing executive‑grade reporting (ELT/ELT‑1), driving alignment, and leading change management across multiple stakeholder groups.
• Track record of improving flow, quality, and reuse via standardized playbooks, measurable KPIs, and effective knowledge management.
• Excellent communication and facilitation skills; adept at navigating governance (security, privacy, compliance) and enabling teams to move fast with safety.

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS

• Background partnering with AI/ML, LLM/GenAI, and platform engineering teams; familiarity with evaluation frameworks, observability, and service SLO readiness at design time.
• Experience in large‑scale or regulated industries (e.g., healthcare, pharma, finance) with audit‑ready documentation and change control.
• Hands‑on familiarity with modern software delivery tooling (e.g., Jira/Azure DevOps, Confluence/Notion, data viz for dashboards) and with documentation standards for architecture artefacts.
• Experience defining and scaling competency models, growth frameworks, and rotation programs for architecture and solution design communities of practice.
• Exposure to MLOps/LangOps concepts, policy/guardrail integration, and data governance considerations as part of architecture design.

Work Location Assignment: Hybrid

Pfizer is an equal opportunity employer and complies with all applicable equal employment opportunity legislation in each jurisdiction in which it operates.

To apply please visit our website www.pfizercareers.com and search job Director/TL, AI Architecture Operations Lead id 4947737.

Please apply by sending your CV and a motivational letter in English.