Automation Process Lead - AbbVie

AbbVie's mission is to discover and deliver innovative medicines and solutions that solve serious health issues today and address the medical challenges of tomorrow. We strive to have a remarkable impact on people's lives across several key therapeutic areas – immunology, oncology, neuroscience, and eye care – and products and services in our Allergan Aesthetics portfolio. For more information about AbbVie, please visit us at www.abbvie.com. Follow @abbvie on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and LinkedIn.

The Development Sciences Automation lead is responsible for independently planning, coordinating, developing, and implementing automation projects in a high quality and timely manner to support automation-based workflows, along with providing insight for new system design or improvement across US sites within Development Sciences at AbbVie Inc.   These responsibilities span Lake County (Abbott Park and North Chicago), California (Bay Area and Irvine), and Worcester, MA, with an additionally strong collaboration and exchange with the Ludwigshafen, Germany, automation team.

Key Responsibilities Include: 

·        Independently plan, coordinate, develop activities for the implementation of new automation projects/processes or support of existing ones using internal teams and external providers.

·        Investigate new technologies and identify measures to increase process/workflow efficiency or quality by use of automation. Proactively communicate corresponding proposals to leadership.

·        Independently program or supervise the programming at the automation providers, test, and validate new methods/optimize existing scripts, and communicate with end-users/teams to understand their requirements and acceptance benchmarks.

·        Independently support implemented automation solutions through technical or programming troubleshooting and problem solving.

·        Conduct laboratory landscape evaluations to identify process bottlenecks and new automation opportunities.

·        Provide or maintain detailed documentation and key performance indicators using suitable IT tools. Build and maintain a strong network of automation Subject Matter Experts (SME’s) from different Abbvie sites and establish bridges to system vendors.

·        Train automation platform SME’s and users (if not covered by platform SME’s). Mentor junior automation engineers/scientists.

·        Collaborate and regularly communicate with stakeholders (e.g., function Leadership Team or its representative, system owner, and SME’s) as well as the automation team in Ludwigshafen with structured project updates and activity progress against desired timelines and possible delays.

·        Provide a comprehensive and independent communication of new projects to Development Sciences and external (Research and Discovery, Operations) working groups by means of e.g., internal newsletters, SharePoints, and other communication channels.

Qualifications:

• Ph.D. (2+ years), M .S. (5+ years) or BS (8+ years) in engineering or related field with relevant industry experience (In total 4-5 y of in-field experience)


• Hands-on experience with one or more current laboratory liquid handling automation platforms (e.g., Hamilton, Tecan, Beckman)


• Relevant experience in pharmaceutical R&D


• Knowledge of other programming languages such as Python or Visual Basic is a plus



 
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Applicable only to applicants applying to a position in any location with pay disclosure requirements under state or local law: ​

• The compensation range described below is the range of possible base pay compensation that the Company believes in good faith it will pay for this role at the time of this posting based on the job grade for this position. Individual compensation paid within this range will depend on many factors including geographic location, and we may ultimately pay more or less than the posted range. This range may be modified in the future.​
• We offer a comprehensive package of benefits including paid time off (vacation, holidays, sick), medical/dental/vision insurance and 401(k) to eligible employees.​
• This job is eligible to participate in our short-term incentive programs. ​

• This job is eligible to participate in our long-term incentive programs. ​

Note: No amount of pay is considered to be wages or compensation until such amount is earned, vested, and determinable. The amount and availability of any bonus, commission, incentive, benefits, or any other form of compensation and benefits that are allocable to a particular employee remains in the Company's sole and absolute discretion unless and until paid and may be modified at the Company’s sole and absolute discretion, consistent with applicable law.

AbbVie is committed to operating with integrity, driving innovation, transforming lives, serving our community and embracing diversity and inclusion.  It is AbbVie’s policy to employ qualified persons of the greatest ability without discrimination against any employee or applicant for employment because of race, color, religion, national origin, age, sex (including pregnancy), physical or mental disability, medical condition, genetic information, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, marital status, status as a protected veteran, or any other legally protected group status.