Scientific Director, Precision Medicine Immunology- Head of Rheumatology - 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 Precision Medicine Department at Abbvie is committed to advancing drug development and patient care through building a deeper understanding of disease biology and developing tools to optimize clinical decision making and customize treatment for individual patients. Abbvie is seeking a highly motivated and experienced translational scientist to lead a team of senior scientists accountable for driving the development, planning, and execution of the clinical translational research and precision medicine strategy across the rheumatology drug pipeline at Abbvie. 

Key Responsibilities:

• Build and lead an internal team of highly experienced and accomplished translational scientists (Precision Medicine Leads) accountable for defining and implementing the translational research and precision medicine strategy in for disease areas (RA, PsA, SLE, etc..) and assets being developed for rheumatology.
• Responsibilities extend from Lead Optimization in Discovery through mature product life cycle in Development:
• Define translational research strategy in rheumatology to support clinical success of pipeline assets, including PD/TE biomarkers, POM biomarkers, patient selection/stratification strategies, and development of novel disease biomarkers.
• Manage the design, conduct, interpretation and reporting of biomarker data/activities for pipeline assets in line with the development, regulatory and commercial strategies
• Lead asset-specific translational projects/teams in a matrix environment. 
• Coordinates appropriate scientific and medical activities with internal stakeholders (i.e. commercial, clinical operations, discovery, statistics, regulatory, etc.) to execute high quality biomarker strategies in the clinic.
• Ensure, in collaboration with project leaders and asset-specific translational team members, that clinical translational sciences budgets, timelines, publication strategies and regulatory compliance requirements are factored into programs' scientific activities.
• Serve as Precision Medicine Lead for one or more assets within the Immunology pipeline
• Provide subject matter expertise on cross-functional teams defining broader corporate strategy in rheumatology.
• Initiate new areas of investigation and implement cutting-edge technologies that are scientifically meaningful, reliable and can be incorporated directly into a clinical development program.
• Develop productive collaborations with key stakeholders within Abbvie such as Discovery Immunology, CDx, Clinical Development, etc
• Establish external network and build collaborations that complement internal efforts to advance mechanistic understanding of therapeutics and inform development opportunities.
• Prepare and present summaries of translational data for discussions with key stake holders across multiple functional areas.

Significant Work Activities -Continuous sitting for prolonged periods (more than 2 consecutive hours in an 8 hour day)

• PhD and typically 15+ years of experience, Master’s Degree or equivalent education and typically 20+ years of experience, Bachelor’s Degree or equivalent education and typically 25+ years of experience in academia or industry.
• Strong scientific background in immunology, rheumatology or related field supported by publication record in these areas.  
• Expertise in one or more rheumatological diseases is highly desirable.
• Knowledge of clinical trial methodology, regulatory requirements governing clinical trials, companion diagnostics/in vitro diagnostics, protocol design, and/or experience in development strategy preferred.
• Demonstrated leadership in translational sciences (employing pharmacodynamic, predictive and exploratory biomarkers) and experience with development of assays including ligand binding assays, IHC/IF, gene expression profiling, flow cytometry.
• Ability to manage clinical translational programs and teams with moderate supervision.
• Demonstrate creative ‘out of the box’ thinking to solve difficult problems.
• Organization, detail oriented, and effective time management with an ability to adapt to changing priorities.
• Familiarity with data management and visualization tools and collaborating with computational biology to analyze complex data sets emerging from clinical trials.
• Excellent written and oral communication skills, ability to present the results in clear and concise manner.
• Strong interpersonal, influencing and collaboration skills to work in a team-oriented, matrix environment, and the ability to work through conflicts.
• Experience managing senior level scientists (PhD/MS) is a plus.

Key Leadership Competencies:

• Builds strong relationships with peers and cross functionally with partners to enable high performance.
• Inspires others to lead and have a “can-do” attitude to overcome challenges
• Learns fast, grasps difficult concepts, and can change course quickly where indicated.
• Strong communication and teamwork skills are essential as the candidate is expected to interact with diverse groups within Abbvie and through external collaborations.
• Raises the bar and is never satisfied with the status quo.
• Creates a learning environment, is open to suggestions and experimentation for improvement.
• Embraces the ideas of others, nurtures innovation and manages innovation to reality.
• Strong interpersonal and communication skills with demonstrated ability to work within a team environment.

  
Additional Information: 
•    Travel: 10%
•    Job Type: Experienced
•    Schedule: Full-time

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.