AbbVie Posted August 6, 2026

Senior Medical Director/Scientific Director, US Medical Affairs-Rheumatology

Mettawa, IL Full-time
Medical Affairs 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 Senior Medical Director/Scientific Director, Medical Affairs provides specialist medical and scientific strategic and operational input into core medical affairs activities for AbbVie’s Rheumatology SpA Therapeutic Area.

Responsibilities include engaging with health-care professionals and providers; generating clinical and scientific data to enhance the therapeutic benefit and value of our SpA portfolio assets; educational initiatives (medical education, scientific communications, and value proposition) and safeguarding patient safety (risk minimization activities and safety surveillance activities).

Works closely with sales, marketing, and commercial teams to provide strategic medical input into core brand (product) strategies, and to support medical affairs, marketing activities (promotional material generation and product launches) and market access.

This position is based at the Mettawa, IL office or one of other locations and will follow a hybrid schedule of 3x/week onsite.

Responsibilities:

Initiates medical affairs activities, generation and dissemination of data supporting the overall scientific strategy.

Responsible from Medical Affairs for the design, analysis, interpretation, and reporting of scientific content of protocols, Investigator Brochures, Clinical Study Reports and regulatory submissions and responses.

Has overall responsibility for oversight of the Medical Affairs-led clinical studies, monitoring overall study integrity and review, interpretation and communication of accumulating data pertaining to safety and efficacy of the molecule. As the SD Study Lead, is responsible for oversight of study enrollment and overall timelines for key deliverables.

Provides in-house clinical expertise for the molecule and disease, coordinating appropriate scientific activities with internal stakeholders as they relate to ongoing clinical projects. May participate in due diligence or other business development activity. As required by program needs, contributes partnering with Discovery colleagues on the design and implementation of translational strategies.

Acts as a clinical interface and actively solicits opinion through leader interactions related to the molecule and disease area; partners with Medical Affairs, Commercial and other functions in these activities as required, consistent with corporate policies, to ensure that broad cross-functional perspectives are incorporated into Clinical Development Plans and protocols as appropriate.

May assist in the development of scientifically accurate marketing materials, medical education programs, advisories, and symposia. Assists with the scientific review, development, approval, execution, and communication of affiliate/area/global medical affairs sponsored or supported clinical research activities.

May interact with and coordinates appropriate scientific and medical activities with internal stakeholders (i.e., commercial, clinical operations, discovery, statistics, regulatory, etc.) as they relate to on-going medical affairs projects. Serves as the scientific team interface for key regulatory discussions.

Provide scientific/medical education to investigators, clinical monitors, and Global Project Team members related to therapeutic area or disease specific information. Keeps abreast of professional information and technology through conferences and/or medical literature and acts as a therapeutic area resource.

Ensures budgets, timelines, compliance requirements are factored into programs' scientific activities.

Qualifications

Advanced Degree PhD or PharmD. Additional post doctorate experience highly preferred.

7-10 years of experience in Medical Affairs with Global Medical Affairs experience highly preferred.

Typically, 10-15 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry or equivalent; substantial understanding of relevant therapeutic area required.

Minimum of 4 years of clinical trials direct management experience in the pharmaceutical industry or academia or equivalent. 4+ years of experience is preferred.

Knowledge of clinical trial methodology, data analysis and interpretation, regulatory requirements governing clinical trials and experience in development strategy and the design of protocols.

Ability to run a clinical study independently with little supervision.

Proven leadership skills in a cross-functional global team environment.

Must possess excellent oral and written English communication skills.

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
Director
Function
Medical Affairs
Therapeutic area
Not listed
Location
Mettawa, IL
Employment type
Full-time

How this role compares

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

We currently track 172 comparable Director Medical Affairs roles across 32 biopharma companies.

172Comparable roles tracked
157Currently active
32Companies hiring similar roles
16Countries represented

Salary context

93 of 172 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
Peer group range $174,000 – $392,100 (median $264,000)

Where these roles are based

Top locations among the 172 comparable roles

United States126
United Kingdom11
China's Mainland8
Switzerland6
Japan5
Canada2

+ 10 more countries

Seniority mix

172 of 172 peers have a known seniority level

Director147
Senior Director20
Principal5

Therapeutic area mix

87 of 172 peers have a known therapeutic area; the rest are genuinely unlabeled, not hidden

Oncology30
Neuroscience11
Respiratory11
Immunology11
Cardiovascular / CVRM6
Vaccines & Infectious Disease6
Dermatology & Aesthetics6
Rare Disease5
Ophthalmology1

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.

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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%
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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.