AbbVie Posted May 28, 2026

Scientific Director, Clinical and Real World Evidence

North Chicago, IL Full-time
Biostatistics & Data Science Director

AbbVie is the source of truth for this posting and owns the application process. We surface normalized context and market comparison you won't find on the original listing.

About this opportunity

Company Description

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  X ,  Facebook ,  Instagram ,  YouTube ,  LinkedIn  and  Tik Tok .

Job Description

Job Description:

The Quantitative Insights Lab (QuIL) within the Quantitative Medicine and Genomics organization at AbbVie is seeking a Scientific Director who will lead clinical and real world evidence (RWE) strategy, execution, and innovation within AbbVie’s Quantitative Insights Lab (QuIL). This role is both a hands-on scientific contributor and a team leader, driving integration of complex human data, including multi-omics, with clinical, EHR and biobank health datasets. This position is critical for generating integrated evidence that directly informs the R&D pipeline decisions, ensuring scientific and clinical impact across AbbVie’s therapeutic areas. The incumbent will design and implement robust studies, foster data-driven decision-making through advanced analytics and AI, and advance translational research in a highly matrixed and agile environment.

Key Responsibilities:

Serve as scientific and technical lead for clinical and real-world evidence initiatives, contributing subject matter expertise to organizational strategy, project design, and execution.

Lead and enable agile, cross-functional teams for integrated data projects to inform pipeline and strategic decisions, acting as either/both an individual scientific contributor and project leader

Oversee the curation, design and analysis of patient cohorts that leverage clinical, multi-omic, EHR, biobank phenotypic and real-world data to generate actionable insights for drug discovery, biomarker identification, and patient stratification.

Collaborate closely across functions, including other RWD teams, to harmonize data workflows and methodologies and align evidence generation with pipeline needs.

Communicate findings and strategy effectively to internal leadership, external collaborators, and cross-functional partners.

Stay abreast of latest methodologies and best practices for real world data, EHR analytics, multi-omic data integration, and related AI-driven approaches.

Play a key role as a member of the QuIL leadership team, helping to shape QuIL’s strategic direction and supporting broader organizational initiatives.

Qualifications

Required Qualifications:

M.D. degree is required; board certification and clinical expertise strongly preferred.

At least 4 years of hands-on experience in real world evidence (RWE), electronic health record (EHR) analytics, ideally within the pharmaceutical, biotechnology, or academic research environment.

Demonstrated track record in designing and leading interdisciplinary clinical data science initiatives, including both hands-on scientific contribution and project management.

Advanced knowledge of data integration strategies and analytical methodologies for combining clinical, genomic, and real world data sources.

Excellent communication skills, with experience presenting scientific findings to internal and external stakeholders.

Familiarity in key analytics tools/languages (e.g., R, Python, SQL) is preferred but not necessary.

Familiarity with regulatory guidance and considerations for RWE and integrated evidence generation.

Preferred Qualifications:

Previous industry experience in pharmaceutical or biotechnology companies working with large-scale biobank and/or EHR datasets.

Strong track record of relevant scientific publications and presentations.

Demonstrated experience in aligning data science strategies with R&D pipeline objectives and measurable business outcomes

Additional Information

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 thetime 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. ​

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 anybonus, commission, incentive, benefits, or any other form of compensation and benefits that are allocable to a particular employee remains in the Company's soleand 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.

US & Puerto Rico only - to learn more, visit  https://www.abbvie.com/join-us/equal-employment-opportunity-employer.html

US & Puerto Rico applicants seeking a reasonable accommodation, click here to learn more:

https://www.abbvie.com/join-us/reasonable-accommodations.html

Job details

Seniority
Director
Function
Biostatistics & Data Science
Therapeutic area
Not listed
Location
North Chicago, IL
Employment type
Full-time

How this role compares

Computed from every other active Biostatistics & Data Science role in our database, not just this employer's listings.

We currently track 36 comparable Director Biostatistics & Data Science roles across 16 biopharma companies.

36Comparable roles tracked
32Currently active
16Companies hiring similar roles
8Countries represented

Salary context

12 of 36 peers report a salary range (USD, annualized)

Peers share this role's job function and a matching or adjacent seniority level -- not necessarily the same therapeutic area or country.

This roleSubject $211,000/yr – $400,500/yr
Lowest disclosed · Principal Computational Statistician · Lilly $66,000/yr – $193,600/yr
Highest disclosed · Director - Statistics · Lilly $193,500/yr – $338,800/yr
Peer group range $129,800 – $266,150 (median $194,618)

Where these roles are based

Top locations among the 36 comparable roles

United States24
Japan3
India3
United Kingdom2
Italy1
Denmark1

+ 2 more countries

Seniority mix

36 of 36 peers have a known seniority level

Principal25
Director10
Senior Director1

Therapeutic area mix

4 of 36 peers have a known therapeutic area; the rest are genuinely unlabeled, not hidden

Oncology4

Similar opportunities

The closest matches from our peer group, ranked by how similar they are, not how well you'd qualify for them -- treat this as market context, not a guaranteed shortlist; a weak match is labeled as one below.

60%similar
Lilly Director
Same function Same seniority Same country

Open in 2 locations

Indianapolis, United StatesBoston, United States
60%similar
Celgene - Summit (Corp) Princeton LVL, United States Director
Same function Same seniority Same country
60%similar
Celgene - Summit (Corp) Madison, United States Director
Same function Same seniority Same country
60%similar
Celgene - Summit (Corp) Madison, United States Director
Same function Same seniority Same country
60%similar
RayzeBio, Inc San Diego, United States Director
Same function Same seniority Same country
60%similar
Merck Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America Director
Same function Same seniority Same country

How we calculate "similar"

No black box, no LLM guesswork: a deterministic score built from four normalized attributes. Here's this role's own peer group at different match levels, so you can see the mechanism, not just the result.

Every comparison starts from the same 100-point budget: 25 for working in the same function, 40 for the same therapeutic area, 20 for the same or adjacent seniority, 15 for the same country. A dimension we can't confirm on both sides contributes nothing, never a guess, never a free pass.

60%
Director - Statistics
Lilly · Indianapolis, Indiana, United States of America · Director
Function Therapeutic area Seniority Country
60%
Director, Statistical Programming
Celgene - Summit (Corp) · Madison, United States · Director
Function Therapeutic area Seniority Country
60%
Director, Oncology Data Science
Merck · Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America · Director
Function Therapeutic area Seniority Country
60%
Director, Biostatistics
AstraZeneca · Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America · Director
Function Therapeutic area Seniority Country
Unmatched or unknown dimensions score exactly the same: 0 points, never a partial guess. A role we know almost nothing about beyond its function bottoms out at 25%; it never inflates to 100% just because there's little to compare against. Seniority uses a defined ladder (Associate → Manager → Associate Director → Senior → Principal → Director → Senior Director → Executive/VP) so "Director" and "Senior Director" count as adjacent, but "Director" and "Executive/VP" do not.