Head of Scientific Operations, Preclinical & Translational Sciences

ROLE SUMMARY

Reporting directly to the Head of Preclinical & Translational Sciences (P&TS), this role provides strategic and portfolio leadership to enable delivery and strengthen scientific operations across P&TS. The Head of Scientific Operations is accountable for establishing and executing frameworks for strategic planning, portfolio and resource management, and financial oversight, in close partnership with R&D Strategy, Finance, Compliance, and enterprise portfolio governance.

The role ensures alignment with R&D and enterprise priorities by overseeing key elements of strategy implementation, portfolio management, compliance, and financial management of external partnerships. Acting as the P&TS representative in enterprise-level portfolio and financial planning, this leader translates P&TS strategy into actionable insights and clear reporting for senior stakeholders.

In collaboration with the Kendall Square Site Head, the role is accountable for the leadership of Kendall Square Site Affairs, overseeing colleague engagement, site operations, internal communications, and external outreach to maintain Pfizer–Kendall Square as a premier research environment that attracts and retains top talent. The successful candidate will be a strategic, execution-oriented leader and must possess the ability to manage complexity while adopting a collaborative approach to advancing enterprise objectives.

ROLE RESPONSIBILITIES

Business Planning/Strategy

• Strategic planning and implementation: works closely with Preclinical & Translational Sciences LT to plan, develop and implement short and long-term business strategies and align biannual goals to meet R&D objectives.
• Engages with the Preclinical & Translational Sciences LT in providing portfolio and resource insights to identify opportunities and challenges regarding portfolio delivery in their specific areas, by using fit for purpose portfolio management tools and methods to facilitate these conversations; designs cross-P&TS strategies that enable portfolio delivery and works with P&TS LT to implement. Forms close relationships with RUs and partner lines to ensure focus and strategies align with and support work across R&D and the enterprise.
• Strategic thought partnership, planning and oversight of research and technical reviews, portfolio reviews etc.
• Serves as a strategic leader to anticipate needs of Preclinical & Translational Sciences including issues that may impact scientific areas, strategy, and resourcing.

Financial Management

• Responsible for financial planning and management of operating expenses (OPEX), portfolio spend, and capital. Partner with Finance to ensure Preclinical & Translational Sciences achieve its financial commitments while maximizing deliverables.
• Partner with R&D/enterprise level portfolio and financial planning as well as reporting, e.g. represent P&TS in R&D/enterprise level portfolio and financial planning and reporting and translate the P&TS perspective and strategy.
• Works proactively with PX, Strategy and Finance leads to deliver robust financial planning.

External Partnerships

• Responsible for managing P&TS collaborations, advisory boards, and providing external landscaping/competitive intelligence to contextualize business decisions.
• Designs and implements new ways to analyze outcomes and productivity that are transparent to customers and clearly demonstrate the ROI for Preclinical & Translational Sciences functions, measures against benchmarks and recommends solutions to improve performance.
• Represents the team at business venues and meetings and responsible for communications, presentations, interactions with external and internal stakeholders and collaborators.
• Supports interactions between Pfizer and collaborators (including external stakeholders) to foster an appropriate business environment in which to conduct projects and studies.

Kendall Square Site Affairs

• Functions as a key strategic partner for the Cambridge site head and senior leaders at the site where it relates to colleague engagement, site culture, internal site-wide communications and will be a key member of the innovation initiatives that will contribute to the KSQ site and Pfizer, overall. 
• Responsible for overseeing site operations activities related to the KSQ R&D site in partnership with the GWE Site Lead (site facility & enhancement projects, such as space planning and renovations to optimize laboratory and office space utilization).

General Scientific Operations

• Ensures best practices are applied to effectively and efficiently advance our pipeline an