AbbVie Posted July 30, 2026

Principal Research Data Scientist (Hybrid)

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

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

AbbVie Information Research seeks a Principal Research Data Scientist to design, architect, and develop AI data solutions that drive the advancement of our AI and machine learning ecosystem. In this role, you will collaborate closely with data engineers, data scientists, architects, and business analysts to support world-class research and development, foster technological innovation, and promote continuous improvement.

Responsibilities: 

Collaborate with cross functional team of architects, data scientists, business system analysts, and product owners to understand requirements and deliver fit for purpose solutions.

Design, develop, and maintain scalable AI ready data solutions for diverse data sets to support pharma R&D value chain.

Support projects involving the integration of LLMs (such as GPT or Claude or similar technologies) for data mining, knowledge extraction, and automation of data-driven insights.

Capture and interpret user requirements into expressive data models that enable graph analytics, semantic reasoning, and GenAI integration.

Research and recommend appropriate tools, frameworks, and platforms for graph databases, vector stores, and large language models integration including agent-based solutions.

Provide technical leadership, act as a subject matter expert and advisor to partners on the feasibility and impact of emerging technologies in the AI data space.

Architect solutions to operationalize machine learning models, including model deployment, monitoring, and lifecycle management.

Ensure compliance with applicable AbbVie software development, lifecycle policies, and procedures.

Present complex graphs and GenAI relationships through visualizations, translating technical results into business insights. Create compelling data-driven presentations and dashboards for executives, project sponsors, and non-technical audiences.

Qualifications

Required:

Bachelor's Degree with 8 years’ experience; Master's Degree with 7 years’ experience; PhD with 3 years’ experience.

Must have experience with Neo4j & Elastic Search database technologies.

Must have experience with supporting AI/ML initiatives including LLM integration, Data Agents, Agentic Memory, and Graph RAG systems.

Must have experience with text mining and unstructured data processing.

Must have experience with Pharmaceutical R&D industry-centric datasets.

Preferred:

Background in life sciences or work experience in the pharmaceutical industry preferred

Master’s degree preferred

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 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
Principal
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 62 comparable Principal Biostatistics & Data Science roles across 16 biopharma companies.

62Comparable roles tracked
55Currently active
16Companies hiring similar roles
13Countries represented

Salary context

23 of 62 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 $124,500/yr – $236,500/yr
Lowest disclosed · Sr. Computational Statistician (R2 – R3) · Lilly $46,842/yr – $117,289/yr
Highest disclosed · Scientific Director, Clinical and Real World Evidence · AbbVie $211,000/yr – $400,500/yr
Peer group range $82,066 – $305,750 (median $183,250)

Where these roles are based

Top locations among the 62 comparable roles

United States36
India6
Japan4
United Kingdom4
Germany3
China2

+ 7 more countries

Seniority mix

62 of 62 peers have a known seniority level

Senior27
Principal24
Director11

Therapeutic area mix

4 of 62 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 Indianapolis, Indiana, United States of America Principal
Same function Same seniority Same country
60%similar
Merck Rahway, New Jersey, United States of America Principal
Same function Same seniority Same country
60%similar
Merck Rahway, New Jersey, United States of America Principal
Same function Same seniority Same country
60%similar
Merck North Wales, Pennsylvania, United States of America Principal
Same function Same seniority Same country
60%similar
Roche Santa Clara, California, United States of America Principal
Same function Same seniority Same country
60%similar
AbbVie North Chicago, IL Principal
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%
Principal Computational Statistician
Lilly · Indianapolis, Indiana, United States of America · Principal
Function Therapeutic area Seniority Country
60%
Associate Principal Scientist, Statistical Programming
Merck · Rahway, New Jersey, United States of America · Principal
Function Therapeutic area Seniority Country
60%
Principal Data Scientist, Data and AI Convergence
AbbVie · North Chicago, IL · Principal
Function Therapeutic area Seniority Country
60%
Sr. Principal Biostatistician
Biogen · Remote, United States · Principal
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.