Director, Computational HitGen / LeadGen Team Lead

About 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 including immunology, oncology and neuroscience - and products and services in our Allergan Aesthetics portfolio. For more information about AbbVie, please visit us at www.abbvie.com. Follow @abbvie on LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, X and YouTube.

Overview: 

This position brings an opportunity to make innovative contributions that will define how AbbVie leverages AI-native drug discovery across our small molecule portfolio. Reports to Head of Computational Drug Discovery (CDD) and will lead the computational HitGen/LeadGen (HGLG) team. Will implement and enable close collaboration between members of the HGLG team and Drug Discovery partners across the AbbVie community. Must possess a strong track record leveraging modern computational and property-based drug design tools to deliver programs across the phases of a small molecule drug discovery pipeline. The ideal candidate will bring strong experience from across the drug discovery lifecycle from having worked on a broad range of diverse campaigns, and an established external footprint and network. Past experience will have included mentorship of early/mid-career scientists in matrixed and/or direct reporting relationships, with demonstrated ability to lead and influence through cross-functional collaboration.

Responsibilities: 

Provide strategic thought leadership to amplify CDD’s impact on the small molecule pipeline:

• Lead development of a cohesive collection of cutting-edge methods and workflows, to comprehensively address AbbVie’s small molecule portfolio needs (methods for predicting binding affinities of diverse chemotypes, for predicting pharmacological properties for diverse chemotypes (PK parameters, etc.), and for rapidly sampling both enumerated and AI-generated chemical spaces
• Work closely with the small-molecule leadership teams to identify and address gaps where computational predictions are needed
• Advance drug discovery expertise across CDD and collaborate with cross-disciplinary teams from R&D and Information Research to advance programs and ensure computational capabilities are best implemented across programs

Direct activities of the HGLG Team to enable program-level decision making:

• Across AbbVie’s early-stage small molecule portfolio, provide leadership and guidance that will deliver computational tools and workflows to achieve desirable hit/lead criteria. Role will be integral for ensuring alignment across functions and with the longer-term organizational and broader AI-native drug discovery strategies
• Guide HGLG team members in benchmarking experiments to evaluate models’ performance and domain of applicability for AbbVie’s small molecule portfolio
• Establish processes for selecting specific approaches that best suit project needs

Build CDD’s reputation for impact:

• Proactively demonstrate leadership by providing expert advice and shared knowledge with direct reports, peers, and senior management
• Present program updates and research strategies to functional and non-functional leaders as well as potential and existing partners
• Maintain awareness of emerging literature and science in the field and author scientific disclosures/publications
• Maintain scientific presence outside AbbVie with appropriate publication and conference abstract submission highlighting innovative learnings in AI-native drug discovery

• Bachelor’s Degree or equivalent education in science-related field with extensive (typically > 18 years) of related work; Master’s Degree or equivalent education with extensive (typically > 16 years) of related work; PhD in Science or related field with typically 10+ years of related work experience
• Demonstration of successful coaching/mentoring and people management
• Demonstration of setting and driving strategy, in the context of leading a global team
• Highly organized and self-directed, experience leading multiple complex simultaneous research programs or initiatives
• Knowledge and experience in modern computational approaches for drug discovery
• Excellent written and verbal communication, as well as critical evaluation and data-driven decision making
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills with demonstrated ability to think critically and creatively, and provide solutions both individually and collaboratively with internal experts
• Proven team leadership and management abilities, including experience mentoring, guiding, supervising, and developing scientific personnel with various backgrounds and training levels
• Highly collaborative, team-oriented, and considerate of the needs of others
• Strong interpersonal skills and ability to collaborate with diverse groups within the organization and external partners
• Ability to create an inclusive environment where diverse ideas, viewpoints and backgrounds are valued; willingness and ability to lead inclusively and demonstrate a commitment to listen and consider all points of view

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 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 an equal opportunity employer and is committed to operating with integrity, driving innovation, transforming lives and serving our community.  Equal Opportunity Employer/Veterans/Disabled. 

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