AbbVie Posted June 2, 2026

Associate Director, CMC Portfolio Management

North Chicago, IL Full-time
Manufacturing & CMC Associate 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

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.

Job Description

The Associate Director, CMC Portfolio Management leads with the development and maintenance of Chemistry, Manufacturing, and Controls (CMC) project plans for Product Presentation & Device Strategy Teams (PPDST) using standardized project management tools and processes. These CMC plans are used for decision making on drug development teams and across the R&D portfolio.  Responsibilities include maintaining accurate PPDST rosters, generation of timeline swim lanes, and scenario planning interacting with Program Development Directors and key external stakeholders within R&D/Ops/Commercial. Additional responsibilities include Early Biologics Excellence (EBE) pre-clinical timeline support. The candidate is expected to quickly excel at program management responsibilities and seek to establish themselves as a strategic leader of their teams and strong representative of the Development Sciences organization to senior leaders and cross-functional partners.

Responsibilities:

Independently provide advanced and extensive project management support to multiple complex (e.g. early-mid stage, requiring a device, etc.) drug development projects, including creation and maintenance of CMC technical plans in Asset Management Platform (AMP), PPDST roster management, and timeline swim lanes for relevant program reviews.

Leads the PPDST Team meetings, including setting agenda topics, capturing action items, and driving discussions with PPDST members. Drives PPDST team accountability to meet project deliverables. Develops multiple project planning scenarios in collaboration with PPDST team members; identifies, monitors, and analyzes business risks. Recognizes when corrective action and planning are necessary and conducts root cause analyses (escalating recommendations to PPDST Team).

Manage activities to ensure functions have the right tools, reports, and AMP data for accurate resource estimates. Supports organization/communication of knowledge management materials (e.g. SharePoint/Team sites, etc.) for PPDST teams.

Independently identifies opportunities for improvement of departmental work processes and manages large and small cross-functional process improvement initiatives. Contributes to defining departmental vision and strategy. Converts departmental and cross-functional goals to tasks and coordinates activities to meet goals. Estimates and manages requirements to achieve defined objectives.

Lead multiple process improvement teams through execution on defined objectives and keep management informed of progress and achieved project milestones. Apply advanced and extensive project management principles and techniques to the coordination and completion of assigned goals and tasks. Prioritize tasks with effective use of time.

Support and advise peer Project Managers/PPDST Co-Chairs on monthly project plan issues and timelines for maintenance and information reporting. Provide data entry for change requests.

Apply advanced project management tools for metrics collection and conduct advanced analysis of project data. Develop guidelines and checklists. Utilize and implement tools to identify novel solutions for metrics collection, data analysis and process improvement.

Serves as local expert for business procedures and recommends solutions to R&D (Development Sciences, Regulatory, etc). Develop and provide advanced training courses, presentations, and guidance to foster best practices. Mentor junior staff on training, presentation development, and delivery.

Establish and maintain strong network within department and external stakeholders. Utilize established organizational network to identify opportunities, gaps and synergies consistent with departmental strategy. Actively manages cross-functional and departmental team behaviors, mediates internal team disputes, and facilitates establishment of high performing teams. May manage Sr. Specialists and/or Program Managers within the department.

Interacts with all levels of employees in support of project coordination. Effectively influences senior R&D leaders regarding project initiatives and direction. Defines performance expectations and assesses progress against plans, processes, and practices to determine effectiveness and areas for process improvement.

Qualifications

Bachelors degree required in a technical or scientific related discipline and 10+ years professional work experience in the pharmaceutical or biotech industry; or Masters degree with 8+ years of work experience; or Doctorate degree with 4+ years of work experience in same disciplines.

Note: Higher education may compensate for years of experience; years of experience may compensate for education

Accreditation in a project management or process improvement discipline highly preferred (e.g. Project Management Professional, LEAN Six Sigma, etc.).

4+ years Project Management experience, including leadership of a cross-functional team required. Must be able to demonstrate knowledge of project management principles. Ability to work independently and represent sound strategies is required.

Must have clear leadership skills that minimally include: strong written and effective interpersonal communication; capability to clearly present, influence, and logically justify proposals; sound judgment; negotiation and conflict management; effective communication across cultures and disciplines; relationship building and fostering teamwork; and training experience.

Job requires knowledge of the drug development process.

Cross-functional and global project team leadership experience required.

Expertise in the tools and techniques of Project Management and/or Business Excellence (e.g., MS Office software, MS Project, Qlikview, Spotfire, etc.) required.

CMC experience required.

Key Stakeholders:

Development project program directors/PPDST Co-Chairs, Asset PMTs, PPDST/AST development team representatives, Dev. Sci. Business Operations, Dev. Sci Finance, and CMC Portfolio Management group.

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 the time of thisposting 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 anduntil 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
Associate Director
Function
Manufacturing & CMC
Therapeutic area
Not listed
Location
North Chicago, IL
Employment type
Full-time

How this role compares

Computed from every other active Manufacturing & CMC role in our database, not just this employer's listings.

We currently track 459 comparable Associate Director Manufacturing & CMC roles across 66 biopharma companies.

459Comparable roles tracked
426Currently active
66Companies hiring similar roles
27Countries represented

Salary context

150 of 459 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 $141,500/yr – $268,500/yr
Lowest disclosed · Senior Scientist II – CMC Developmental Sciences · AbbVie $0/hr – $0/hr (≈ $0–$0/yr)
Highest disclosed · Associate Director Packaging Development · Gilead Sciences, Inc. $182,070/yr – $235,620/yr
Peer group range $0 – $208,845 (median $150,600)

Where these roles are based

Top locations among the 459 comparable roles

United States275
India67
Ireland18
Singapore14
China's Mainland11
Switzerland10

+ 21 more countries

Seniority mix

459 of 459 peers have a known seniority level

Senior251
Manager165
Associate Director43

Therapeutic area mix

0 of 459 peers have a known therapeutic area; the rest are genuinely unlabeled, not hidden

No peers with a known therapeutic area yet.

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 Indianapolis, Indiana, United States of America Associate Director
Same function Same seniority Same country
60%similar
Merck Rahway, New Jersey, United States of America Associate Director
Same function Same seniority Same country
60%similar
AbbVie North Chicago, IL Associate Director
Same function Same seniority Same country
60%similar
AbbVie North Chicago, IL Associate Director
Same function Same seniority Same country
60%similar
Novartis Watertown (Massachusetts), United States Associate Director
Same function Same seniority Same country
60%similar
Gilead Sciences, Inc. Foster City, United States Associate 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%
Associate Director, CMC Project Management
Lilly · Indianapolis, Indiana, United States of America · Associate Director
Function Therapeutic area Seniority Country
60%
Associate Director, Strategy Lead for Submission Automation
AbbVie · North Chicago, IL · Associate Director
Function Therapeutic area Seniority Country
60%
Associate Director, Strategic Sourcing & Supplier Management- Clinical Packaging
Gilead Sciences, Inc. · Foster City, United States · Associate Director
Function Therapeutic area Seniority Country
60%
Associate Director, Supply Chain
Gilead Sciences, Inc. · Foster City, United States · Associate 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.