Senior Cloud Engineering Lead

Pfizer; New York (NY); Hybrid; USD 139,000 - 232,000; Full time

Job summary

Pfizer in New York, NY is seeking a Senior Cloud Engineering Lead to drive architecture and leadership for cloud engineering across Pfizer Digital. You will guide a small team of cloud engineers, champion secure, scalable GCP designs, and advance automation and IaC adoption.

The role emphasizes hands-on leadership, collaboration with global teams, and staying ahead of cloud security trends to deliver business value and patient impact.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree with 6+ years of cloud engineering or related experience; or Master's with 5+; or PhD with 1+ year.
• At least 2 years in a technical leadership role, managing or leading engineering teams.
• Deep expertise in Google Cloud Platform (GCP) with production‑grade design and operation.
• Strong experience with IaC tools such as Terraform, OpenTofu, Pulumi.
• Proficiency in Python and other automation languages for tooling and orchestration.
• Ability to influence across a large, matrixed organization and coach engineers.

Responsibilities

• Provide technical leadership and design expertise for cloud patterns and modern engineering practices.
• Ensure a secure, compliant, productive, and innovative GCP hosting environment at scale.
• Lead a 3–5 person cloud engineering team, mentoring and guiding professional development.
• Design, implement, and manage GCP solutions focusing on security, scalability, and automation.
• Drive adoption of Infrastructure as Code (IaC) using Terraform, OpenTofu, Spacelift, and Python/Pulumi.
• Collaborate with global teams to build GCP cloud‑native capabilities for Pfizer Digital.

Skills

GCP expertise

Security

Automation

Infrastructure as Code

Python

Technical leadership

Education

Bachelor's degree in IT/CS/Engineering

Master's degree in IT/CS/Engineering

PhD in a relevant field

Tools

Terraform

OpenTofu

Pulumi

Spacelift

Job description

ROLE SUMMARY

At the heart of Pfizer's Digital transformation sits Global Cloud Services, enabling modern cloud infrastructure and engineering capabilities that influence business outcomes and provide value to our business, shareholders, and patients every day. We are seeking a Senior Cloud Engineering Lead to join our growing team at Pfizer's Digital hub in New York, NY, United States. This role requires a strategic technical leader with deep expertise in Google Cloud Platform (GCP), a strong emphasis on security, automation, and infrastructure as code. The ideal candidate will bring a hands‑on approach using modern engineering practices and a proven track record in leading and mentoring technical teams. Pfizer seeks individuals that are highly self‑motivated, eager to learn, and effective when working in a team environment. A strong aptitude towards self‑development, continuous learning, and growth is highly desired.

ROLE RESPONSIBILITIES

• The Senior Cloud Engineering Lead provides technical leadership and design expertise, playing a key role in ensuring Pfizer Digital continues to leverage cloud‑native design patterns and modern engineering practices.
• This role will help ensure our Cloud Engineering team delivers a secure, compliant, productive, and innovative GCP hosting environment on a global scale.
• Lead a small technical team of 3–5 cloud engineers, providing guidance, mentorship, and support in their professional development while driving the adoption of modern cloud engineering practices across the organization.
• Lead the design, implementation, and management of GCP solutions focusing on security, scalability, and automation.
• Drive the adoption of Infrastructure as Code (IaC) practices using Terraform, OpenTofu, Spacelift, and Python/Pulumi to ensure efficient and repeatable deployment of cloud resources.
• Manage and mentor a team of 3–5 cloud engineers, providing technical leadership, coaching, and support in their professional development.
• Create modern GCP cloud design patterns and help drive consumption of reusable patterns through partnership with development teams.
• Collaborate with global cloud engineers, developers, and product teams to build GCP cloud‑native capabilities for Pfizer Digital.
• Design and architect standards for the deployment and management of GCP infrastructure.
• Serve as escalation point for operational issues, supporting the on‑call engineering team when needed (minimal operational responsibilities, <5% of time).
• Stay updated with the latest GCP technology, security trends, and engineering practices to keep our infrastructure modern and ahead of potential threats.
• Ensure continuous improvement initiatives are identified, prioritized, and addressed within the cloud environment.
• Champion automation‑first approaches across all cloud engineering activities.
• Work in a cross‑functional, global engineering team while creating and evolving internal engineering standards.

BASIC QUALIFICATIONS

• Bachelor's Degree in Information Technology, Computer Science, Computer Engineering, or a similar discipline.
• Applicant must have a bachelor's degree with at least 6+ years of experience; OR a master's degree with at least 5+ years of experience; OR a PhD with 1+ years of experience in cloud engineering or infrastructure roles.
• At least 2 years of experience in a technical leadership role, managing or leading engineering teams.
• Deep expertise in Google Cloud Platform (GCP) with demonstrated ability to design, build, and operate production‑grade GCP environments.
• Strong experience building and deploying cloud infrastructure using industry‑standard IaC tools such as Terraform, OpenTofu, or Pulumi.
• Proficiency in at least one major programming language (Python strongly preferred) for automation and tooling.
• Demonstrated ability to learn new technologies quickly and adapt to evolving cloud platforms.
• Excellent communicator with the ability to influence horizontally and vertically across a large, complex, and matrixed organization.
• Proven ability to manage priorities and identify outcomes with the greatest business value.
• Strong technical leadership capabilities including the ability to coach, mentor, and develop other engineers.
• Customer‑centric mentality with a bias towards delivering value at the speed demanded by the business.
• Experience integrating application hosting needs with GCP infrastructure capabilities to build secure and well‑architected solutions.

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS

• Expert‑level knowledge in building, maintaining, and deploying infrastructure as code solutions in a DevOps environment.
• Experience with Spacelift or similar IaC automation platforms.
• Advanced GCP expertise including networking (VPC, Shared VPC, Cloud Interconnect), security (IAM, Organization Policies, Security Command Center), and compute/data services (GKE, Cloud Run, BigQuery, Cloud Storage).
• Configuration management experience using Ansible or similar tools.
• Experience qualifying cloud services capabilities for use within GxP or other highly regulated environments.
• Cross‑functional experience managing cloud infrastructure, security, networking, and application development.
• Contributions to open‑source cloud tooling or infrastructure projects.
• Google Cloud Professional certifications (e.g., Professional Cloud Architect, Professional Cloud DevOps Engineer).

WORK LOCATION ASSIGNMENT

Hybrid – New York, NY, United States

PHYSICAL/MENTAL REQUIREMENTS

N/A

NON-STANDARD WORK SCHEDULE, TRAVEL OR ENVIRONMENT REQUIREMENTS

10% travel

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. This position requires permanent work authorization in the United States.

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

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

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.

Pfizer endeavors to make www.pfizer.com/careers accessible to all users. If you would like to contact us regarding the accessibility of our website or need assistance completing the application process and/or interviewing, please email [e-mail]. This is to be used solely for accommodation requests with respect to the accessibility of our website, online application process and/or interviewing. Requests for any other reason will not be returned. 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.

BENEFITS

• 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. The annual base salary for this position ranges from $139,100.00 to $231,900.00. In addition, this position is eligible for participation in Pfizer’s Global Performance Plan with a bonus target of 17.5% of the base salary and eligibility to participate in our share based long term incentive program.

INFORMATION & BUSINESS TECH

Pfizer careers are like no other. In our culture of individual ownership, we believe in our ability to improve future healthcare, and potential to transform millions of lives. We’re looking for new talent to join our global community, to unearth new innovative therapies that make the world a healthier place.

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