AbbVie Posted May 1, 2026

Director, Clinical Pharmacology

North Chicago, IL Full-time
Clinical Development 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

Purpose

Communicates/presents key Clinical Pharmacology information/strategy to senior and executive management, regulatory agencies, and external peers. Leads strategic planning for drug development activities and projects to achieve departmental strategies, goals, and objectives. Utilizes scientific expertise to provide appropriate interpretation of data and relates implications of results to management. Serves as liaison to other departments/divisions for any study/project needs. Influences and strategically manages linkages across businesses and understands the impact of business decisions and solutions. Leads teams within Clinical Pharmacology and Pharmacometrics and accountable for effective performance of the teams.

Responsibilities

Independently leads Clinical Pharmacology/PK/PD activities and multiple major projects. Assists R&D senior management in the selection of action plans that best meets drug development business objectives.

Identifies issues impacting multiple complex projects and leads issue resolution. Conducts risk assessments and leads the function in development of contingency plans. Assures project remains in alignment with strategic objectives.

Provides overall timelines to assess portfolio opportunities. Negotiates with other functional areas on project outcomes and deliverables to meet conflicting demands (time, cost, quality/performance).

Provides expert scientific and strategic consultation to R&D, Regulatory, and all levels of management on critical decisions and development plans. Connect scientific, regulatory, and business implications from multiple teams. Influences and strategically manages linkages across businesses and understands the impact of business decisions and solutions.

Responsible for critically evaluating technical, scientific aspects of all AbbVie projects along with CLINICAL PHARMACOLOGY management. Reviews clinical protocols and scientific reports for regulatory filings and anticipates regulatory questions. Leads CLINICAL PHARMACOLOGY regulatory documents writing, submission and response to Regulatory agency comments.

Independently conducts due diligence assessments, summarizes results and represents Clinical Pharmacology on business development teams.

Identifies and develops process improvement initiatives and reviews recommendations with management for approval and sponsorship.

Responsible for leading efforts to develop departmental goals. Makes strategic PK/PD decisions for the department. Provides leadership on strategic clinical pharmacology and drug development.

Manages personnel including development, mentoring, and effective delegation.

Leads teams within department, across Clinical Pharmacology and across functions. Responsible for leadership of cross-functional teams and accountable for effective performance of the team. Actively manages project team behaviors, mediates internal team disputes, and facilitates establishment of healthy and high performing teams.

Qualifications

This is a hybrid opportunity, 3x/week in the Lake County, IL

Qualifications

PhD with typically 9+ years of experience or Pharm D with typically 11+ years of experience in a relevant field, Master's Degree in Science or related field with typically 17+ years of related work, Bachelor's Degree in Science or related field with typically 19+ years or more of related work; (*relevant field includes experience with PK, PBPK, PK-PD, Pharmacometrics or systems pharmacology, Drug metabolism/Transporters)

Excellent interpersonal skills

Advanced knowledge and experience in multiple therapeutic and/or functional areas

Experience across range of development phases

Recognized as an expert with global knowledge of AbbVie and Pharma drug development processes

Must have demonstrated strong leadership competencies in PK/PD, Biopharmaceutics, and Pharmacometric activities from planning, implementation through completion across multiple complex projects

Demonstrated leadership skills with broad scientific and business-related orientations

Demonstrated project management skills such as scope management, progress tracking/driving as well as people and time management

Key contributor to initiatives and advancement of Clinical Pharmacology

Key Leadership Competencies:

• Knows the business and the cross-functional contributions needed to deliver results

• Manages conflict and difficult conversations in a constructive transparent way

• Develops direct reports and capable successors through coaching, stretch assignments and learning opportunities

• Respectfully provides transparent, accurate and timely feedback to help direct reports improve performance

• Creates an inclusive environment where all direct reports can succeed

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 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 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
Clinical Development
Therapeutic area
Not listed
Location
North Chicago, IL
Employment type
Full-time

How this role compares

Computed from every other active Clinical Development role in our database, not just this employer's listings.

We currently track 184 comparable Director Clinical Development roles across 28 biopharma companies.

184Comparable roles tracked
157Currently active
28Companies hiring similar roles
17Countries represented

Salary context

89 of 184 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 $182,000/yr – $346,000/yr
Lowest disclosed · Clinical Research Director (P4-P5) · Lilly $101,379/yr – $181,067/yr
Peer group range $141,223 – $392,100 (median $273,300)

Where these roles are based

Top locations among the 184 comparable roles

United States134
Spain10
United Kingdom9
India5
Poland4
China4

+ 11 more countries

Seniority mix

184 of 184 peers have a known seniority level

Director140
Principal23
Senior Director21

Therapeutic area mix

78 of 184 peers have a known therapeutic area; the rest are genuinely unlabeled, not hidden

Oncology34
Immunology18
Cardiovascular / CVRM7
Neuroscience7
Respiratory6
Dermatology & Aesthetics2
Ophthalmology2
Rare Disease1
Vaccines & Infectious Disease1

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
AstraZeneca Gaithersburg, Maryland, United States of America Director
Same function Same seniority Same country
60%similar
AstraZeneca Gaithersburg, Maryland, United States of America Director
Same function Same seniority Same country
60%similar
AstraZeneca Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America Director
Same function Same seniority Same country
60%similar
AstraZeneca Gaithersburg, Maryland, United States of America Director
Same function Same seniority Same country
60%similar
AstraZeneca Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States of America Director
Same function Same seniority Same country
60%similar
AstraZeneca 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%
Global Development Medical Director, Late Respiratory and Immunology Clinical Development
AstraZeneca · Gaithersburg, Maryland, United States of America · Director
Function Therapeutic area Seniority Country
60%
Senior Medical Director, Kidney Disease, Early Clinical Development CVRM
AstraZeneca · Gaithersburg, Maryland, United States of America · Director
Function Therapeutic area Seniority Country
60%
Medical Director, Respiratory, Early Clinical Development
AstraZeneca · Gaithersburg, Maryland, United States of America · Director
Function Therapeutic area Seniority Country
60%
Senior Medical Director, Clinical Development Rare Cardiology
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.