Pharmaceuticals

Supply Chain

Pfizer Supply Chain Document Processing Externship

Build AI-powered document intelligence with Pfizer, automating healthcare and clinical supply documents using OCR, LLMs, and RAG

10 Weeks

Live Sessions Start

February 9, 2026

Start Onboarding Today

In 2023, the U.S. faced its worst drug shortage in a decade, with over 300 essential medications reported in shortage by federal trackers. Patients waited. Hospitals scrambled. Lives hung in the balance.

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Behind every delay? A mountain of paperwork. Shipping labels. Purchase orders. Logistics forms. Documents that humans still read line by line. Now imagine AI that processes thousands of pharmaceutical documents in seconds—flagging compliance risks, extracting critical fields, and preventing shipment delays before they cascade.

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In this externship, you'll build exactly that. You'll write Python scripts that pull text from messy PDFs, build and evaluate OCR pipelines that can read labels no human wants to touch, and create AI-powered search tools that answer questions across thousands of pages instantly. By the end, you'll deliver a working document intelligence system for real-world clinical supply workflows at Pfizer—and walk away with a portfolio project that proves you can build AI that actually matters.

Project Output

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During this Externship, externs will:

Ingest and parse scanned documents
Extract and structure key data fields from multiple document types
Implement intelligent search using RAG pipelines and metadata filters
Build and test modular routing and classification logic
(Optional) Deploy a lightweight user interface for search and querying

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Technologies used:

Python (scripting, data processing)
PyMuPDF, pdfplumber (PDF parsing)
OpenCV, PIL (image preprocessing)
OCR Engines: Tesseract, PaddleOCR, EasyOCR
Vector Search: LlamaIndex, FAISS, Chroma
LLMs: Gemini API or open-source models (e.g., Mistral, Phi-2)
UI Tools: Streamlit, Gradio (optional)

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Final project outputs:

Python pipeline to process document files
Structured JSON output with field-level data and coordinates
Functional RAG pipeline (Gemini or open-source)
Searchable UI using Streamlit or Gradio
Final report, system documentation, and demo

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Why should you care? Here's what you'll get out of this Externship:

Develop a portfolio-worthy AI/ML project
Gain hands-on experience with cutting-edge tools and models
Learn to build robust, production-level systems
Improve data parsing, extraction, and visualization skills
Tackle a real-world, high-impact business use case

Get Started with Onboarding Today Before Live Sessions Begin

Sign-up today for exposure to healthcare and supply chain while learning AI Automation!

Start Project Today

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Diego Juarez

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“My Externship really changed my career trajectory. As students, we often chase after Fortune 500 work experiences, but the intimate experience of getting to work with a startup can actually really help you learn a lot and level up what you can bring to the table. My cohort even had the opportunity to speak with the founder of Crafted Capital and learn from his firsthand experience.”

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Skills You'll Gain

Master AI Document Fundamentals

Build Python Extraction Pipelines

Develop Advanced OCR Systems

Create AI-Powered Search with RAG

Ship a Working Chatbot

Your Schedule

10 Weeks

Project 0

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How AI Reads Pharmaceutical Documents (Week 1)

Project 1

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Learn to Work with Python for AI-Powered Document Processing (Week 2)

Project 2

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Data Extraction from Documents Using Python (Week 3)

Project 3

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Advanced OCR Comparison and Layout-Aware Extraction (Week 4)

Project 4

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Introduction to Retrieval-Augmented Generation "RAG" (Week 5)

Project 5

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Advanced RAG and Open-Source Experiments (Week 6)

Project 6

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Blob Processing, Classification, and Routing (Week 7)

Project 7

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Gradio Chatbot with RAG Integration (Week 8)

Project 8

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Final Integration, Testing, and Evaluation (Week 9)

About Pfizer

Pfizer is one of the world's largest publicly traded pharmaceutical companies, developing and manufacturing medicines and vaccines that reach hundreds of millions of people globally. They partnered with BioNTech to create the first FDA-authorized COVID-19 vaccine. In 2024, Pfizer reported $63 billion in revenue and products reaching 414 million patients worldwide—massive scale. Their clinical supply operations ensure that the right drugs get to the right patients at the right time—a process that depends on flawless documentation across shipping, logistics, and regulatory compliance.

The Home Depot is not accepting or considering any applications for this Externship through other channels.

Meet Your Host

Russell Vassallo

Senior Manager of Material Planning & Logistics

Russell Vassallo is a Senior Manager of Material Planning & Logistics at Pfizer, where he brings over a decade of experience supporting the company’s clinical supply pipeline. Based in Groton, Connecticut, Russell oversees materials management across Pfizer’s clinical portfolio—from early-phase API production through finished, packaged drug product shipped directly to patient studies. His work spans internal and external manufacturing partners, ensuring critical materials are available where and when they’re needed across the global clinical supply chain.

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Russell began his career at Pfizer as an Environmental Health & Safety intern and has progressed through roles in inventory management and materials coordination, building deep operational expertise along the way. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Environmental Science with a concentration in Chemistry from the University of Connecticut and brings a strong interest in process improvement, automation, and sustainability. In addition to his professional work, Russell enjoys his time outside of work traveling, hiking, spending time on the water, and being active playing pickleball and hockey.