Director, CMO Innovation Team

Pfizer • New York, NY

1d • Hybrid

About The Position

At Pfizer, our mission is to cultivate a best-in-class culture of continuous improvement and project management that empowers colleagues and streamlines effective processes. Whether you are managing projects or collaborating with others, your role in this team is crucial in making our work more efficient and faster. This enables us to deliver breakthroughs that transform patients' lives. Your contribution helps simplify complex tasks, fostering an environment where innovation thrives and where every effort is directed towards achieving significant medical advancements. By inspiring a culture of excellence, we ensure that our collective efforts lead to impactful changes in healthcare, ultimately benefiting patients worldwide. The Chief Marketing Office (CMO) Innovation Team is in place to tackle the hardest challenges - those no one has solved before. We serve two main end-user groups – patients and healthcare practitioners (HCPs). We embed ourselves within a business team, taking smart, evidence-based risks, and producing bold, creative solutions that will benefit Pfizer, and the patients and HCPs who depend on us. The Director, CMO Innovation Team will be instrumental in delivering these offerings/experiences as part of the innovation strategy delivering impact to Pfizer’s core business. The role requires strong leadership skills, entrepreneurial resourcefulness, and the ability to influence diverse stakeholders. The successful candidate will demonstrate their balanced ability to understand big strategic problems and execute solutions to solve those problems.

Requirements

• BA/BS with at least 8 years of experience in product management, product marketing, or go-to-market innovation roles, with a proven track record moving projects from problem definition through implementation
• In-depth knowledge of Human-Centered Design, Lean Start-up, and Product innovation principles
• Demonstrated ability to secure buy-in from skeptical audiences by tailoring communications to diverse stakeholders and telling compelling business stories
• Experience managing cross-functional teams and projects
• Ability to design and lead effective workshops or working sessions to build alignment and deliver outcomes
• Demonstrated ability to conduct product and market research, competitor analysis, and translate insights into business opportunities
• Analytical mindset with a strong data-driven approach to decision-making
• Courage to provide objective opinions, especially when evaluating go/no-go innovation decisions
• Ability to manage multiple projects simultaneously and adapt quickly to changing priorities
• Comfort with ambiguity and complex problem-solving
• Capacity to understand complex, interconnected problems holistically
• Strong writing, presenting, and influencing skills
• 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.

Nice To Haves

• Deep understanding of the healthcare ecosystem and experience launching products with external partners
• Some experience having launched an internal or external venture, entrepreneurial experience, or demonstrated mindset
• Demonstrated ability to manage the end-to-end product development lifecycle: planning, design, development, testing, launch, and scaling
• AI Opportunity Sensing - Ability to identify workflows or challenges that could benefit from AI augmentation or automation
• Context Engineering and Prompt Strategy - Ability to design and refine AI interactions to generate useful, business-relevant outputs
• Experience using common AI tools, including generative technologies such as ChatGPT or Microsoft Copilot, to support problem solving and enhance productivity.
• Demonstrated curiosity for exploring how these tools can improve outcomes and understanding of responsible AI practices, including risk management and ethical use

Responsibilities

• Facilitate interviews with leadership teams to identify goals and outcomes, translating them into actionable innovation strategies.
• Oversee (and be hands on) designing rigorous research to uncover customer needs and pain points.
• Translate customer insights into actionable innovation opportunities and forecast their value.
• Apply creative problem-solving frameworks to break down complex issues into testable hypotheses.
• Develop and execute lean experiments, choosing the right approach (prototype, pilot, or full build) and defining success metrics that balance speed with rigor.
• Define and execute a solution roadmap, ensuring alignment with innovation strategy and business objectives.
• Represent the voice of the customer and business in solution/product and feature development, ensuring user-centric solutions and alignment with brand strategy.
• Drive solution strategy and quarterly stage-gate updates to senior leaders, detailing progress against standards and collaborating to leverage launch resources effectively.
• Lead/manage diverse teams across organizational boundaries, tracking complex projects and maintaining focus on overall objectives.
• Be a champion for different ways of working and create an environment that fosters creativity and fun

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.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Director