AbbVie Posted June 10, 2026

Principal Research Scientist I - Bio CMC Developability Modeling

North Chicago, IL Full-time
Manufacturing & CMC 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

Overview

The Development Sciences Biologics Drug Product Development organization within AbbVie develops and characterizes drug product formulations and manufacturing processes to provide clinical dosage forms to enable the development of AbbVie’s pipeline. AbbVie is seeking a highly motivated person to join the Biologics CMC Developability Team. Our team utilizes start-of-the-art biophysical and analytical instrumentation to assess candidates coming out of the Discovery pipeline. We collaboratively influence protein design paradigms to yield biologic candidates that will be successful drug products. Key to our success is developing models of protein structure and function to augment decision making in protein design and development. We utilize high throughput instrumentation and digital data systems to capture ML-ready data on industry leading datasets of therapeutic proteins. To drive maximum benefit from this data, we are seeking an experienced scientist to lead modeling efforts within our team. The successful candidate will bring deep experience of modeling protein stability or related properties to solve foundational questions such as viscosity, chemical degradation, and aggregation. Applicable modeling techniques could range from first principles to statistical based approaches. This role includes the opportunity to design molecules and custom studies for data generation, so knowledge of biochemistry experimentation is useful. The candidate will be a member of a global team and will work closely with scientists from multiple functional areas, including Discovery, Development Science Digital Transformation, and Information Research.

Key Responsibilities:

Serve as a technical expert for modeling within Biologics CMC Developability Team

Represent BCD in modeling communities within AbbVie; collaborates with other modelers or teams to ensure business needs are met by the correct modeling framework

May perform in vitro laboratory experiments; works closely with teams for design of wet lab studies to build both models and fundamental knowledge of protein solution behavior

Identifies emerging scientific and technological trends from multiple internal and external sources, assesses relevance and integrates applicable trends into BCD plans and strategies as appropriate. Present data at internal and external professional conferences and prepare manuscripts for publication in peer reviewed journals or patent applications

May serve as BCD Lead, coordinate developability assessment activities for 1-2 Discovery Projects at a time

Qualifications

BS, MS, or PhD in Pharmaceutics, Pharmaceutical Sciences, Chemistry, Chemical Engineering, or related disciplines with 14+ (Bachelors), 12+ (Masters), or 6+ (PhD) years of relevant industry experience.

Proven ability to solve critical scientific problems.

Direct experience with applying modeling techniques (mechanistic or statistical) to protein long-term stability or formulation screening such as kinetic degradation modeling

Well versed in predictive machine learning and statistical modeling techniques

Familiar with complex ML architectures including deep learning and hierarchical or multi-task frameworks

Skilled with feature attribution, sensitivity analysis, and model interpretability

Key Competencies:

Build strong relationships with peers and cross functionally with partners outside of the team to enable higher performance.

Excellent oral communication skills in a scientific setting as well as sound technical writing and documentation competencies are required.

The candidate must be able to work independently, respond to changing priorities and short lead times for multiple tasks; able to identify problems and work toward solutions.

Raises the bar and is never satisfied with the status quo.

Creates a learning environment, open to suggestions and experimentation for improvement.

Embraces the ideas of others, nurtures innovation and manages innovation to reality.

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
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 393 comparable Principal Manufacturing & CMC roles across 56 biopharma companies.

393Comparable roles tracked
368Currently active
56Companies hiring similar roles
19Countries represented

Salary context

188 of 393 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 · Senior Scientist II – CMC Developmental Sciences · AbbVie $0/hr – $0/hr (≈ $0–$0/yr)
Highest disclosed · Director, Global Automation Engineering · AbbVie $182,000/yr – $346,000/yr
Peer group range $0 – $264,000 (median $150,600)

Where these roles are based

Top locations among the 393 comparable roles

United States282
India42
Singapore10
Ireland9
Netherlands7
Switzerland6

+ 13 more countries

Seniority mix

393 of 393 peers have a known seniority level

Senior251
Principal78
Director64

Therapeutic area mix

2 of 393 peers have a known therapeutic area; the rest are genuinely unlabeled, not hidden

Oncology1
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
Lilly Indianapolis, Indiana, United States of America Principal
Same function Same seniority Same country
60%similar
Lilly Louisville, Colorado, United States of America Principal
Same function Same seniority Same country
60%similar
Lilly Indianapolis, Indiana, United States of America Principal
Same function Same seniority Same country
60%similar
Lilly Watertown, Massachusetts, United States of America Principal
Same function Same seniority Same country
60%similar
Lilly Indianapolis, Indiana, United States of America Principal
Same function Same seniority Same country
60%similar
Lilly Indianapolis, Indiana, United States of America 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%
Senior/Principal Scientist, Bioprocess Purification Development
Lilly · Indianapolis, Indiana, United States of America · Principal
Function Therapeutic area Seniority Country
60%
Senior Principal Scientist, Analytical Sciences
Lilly · Watertown, Massachusetts, United States of America · Principal
Function Therapeutic area Seniority Country
60%
Sr. Principal or Engineering Advisor - Agentic Lab Automation Integration
Lilly · Indianapolis, Indiana, United States of America · Principal
Function Therapeutic area Seniority Country
60%
Principal Scientist, Downstream Process Development
Merck · Rahway, New Jersey, United States of America · 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.