AbbVie Posted November 1, 2026

Associate Director, Third Party Manufacturing

North Chicago, IL Full-time
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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 External Business Relations role will be a strategic interface within PDST to drive technical interfaces, business strategy development, outsources services management, relationship management with business stakeholders. The EBR will

Serve as a primary advocate and the relationship linkage between PDST and outsourcing partners.

Provide consulting and drive for consistency PDST and external manufacturing partners

Provides highly-valued strategic consulting / support and guidance for major initiatives.

Evaluate, qualify and drive the expansion of technology capabilities needed to enable business continuity.

Advocate for the business’ technology needs and collaborates with internal and external teams to deliver value for the business

Advocate on behalf of business stakeholders to ensure outsources services meet their business priorities and needs

Partners with all levels of the organization to clarify objectives, estimate costs / benefits, decide on partnership options and resolve risks and issues

Represents PDST by promoting vision, value, services, and capabilities.

Responsibilities:

Works with internal and/or external stakeholders as a technical leader to align solutions with business needs.

Drives definition of technology objectives and recommends industry-leading solutions to support business needs.  Identifies technology solutions to support business growth and productivity.

Analyzes emerging technologies and work with business and PDST Leadership to translate implications of the new trends into an effective technology vision and strategy.

Establishes and maintains a strategic relationship with appropriate level key stakeholders.  Leads stakeholder (internal and, when appropriate, external) business planning and strategy meetings.

Participates in short- and long-term strategic planning sessions with stakeholders to improve business relationships.

Accountable for the maintenance and enhancement of relationships with external partners.

Ensures the business need is addressed by the technical challenges through collaboration with the project teams.

Promotes business knowledge of PDST process, roles, and procedures to ensure the best possible outcome.

Responsible for compliance with applicable Corporate, Divisional and PDST Policies and procedures.

Qualifications

Bachelor's Degree with 14+ years experience; Master's Degree with 12+ years experience; PhD with 6+ years experience in Science based discipline.

Related manufacturing experience within Parenteral/Aseptic processes.

Ability to develop effective and compelling visualizations of key business and technology concepts.

Project planning experience.

Ability to communicate effectively with both technical and business teams

Strong organizational capabilities with ability to manage multiple priorities

Strong technical, analytical and critical thinking skills

Preferred Qualifications:

Knowledge of pharmaceutical contract manufacturing

Knowledge of pharmaceutical contract Development

Leadership of cross-functional teams; experience working within global environment in multiple time zones. Knowledge of outsourcing methodologies and operating models and working with professional services firms.

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
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 857 comparable Associate Director Manufacturing & CMC roles across 113 biopharma companies.

857Comparable roles tracked
787Currently active
113Companies hiring similar roles
40Countries represented

Salary context

248 of 857 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 Technician Calibration - Maintenance · Mylan Technologies, Inc. $37,000/yr – $80,000/yr
Highest disclosed · Associate Director / Director - Biologics Drug Product Development · AbbVie $160,500/yr – $305,000/yr
Peer group range $58,500 – $232,750 (median $155,000)

Where these roles are based

Top locations among the 857 comparable roles

United States467
India81
Ireland42
China26
Japan24
Netherlands22

+ 34 more countries

Seniority mix

857 of 857 peers have a known seniority level

Senior403
Manager351
Associate Director103

Therapeutic area mix

6 of 857 peers have a known therapeutic area; the rest are genuinely unlabeled, not hidden

Rare Disease3
Dermatology & Aesthetics1
Immunology1
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
AbbVie North Chicago, IL 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
60%similar
Amgen Inc. Remote, United States Associate Director
Same function Same seniority Same country
60%similar
Lilly Lebanon, Indiana, United States of America Associate Director
Same function Same seniority Same country
60%similar
Merck Wilmington, Delaware, United States Associate Director
Same function Same seniority Same country
60%similar
AbbVie Associate Director
Same function Same seniority Same country

Open in 2 locations

North Chicago, United StatesWorcester, United States

Notify me about similar jobs

Get an email when we spot other openings like this one – same job function, comparable seniority, roles you'd actually want to see.

Or follow a whole field: get every new Manufacturing & CMC job in the United States, and choose locations and companies.

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 Portfolio Management
AbbVie · North Chicago, IL · Associate Director
Function Therapeutic area Seniority Country
60%
Associate Director – Biologics Process Engineering, Lilly Medicine Foundry
Lilly · Lebanon, Indiana, United States of America · Associate Director
Function Therapeutic area Seniority Country
60%
Associate Director, External Manufacturing - Small Molecule
AbbVie · Worcester, MA · Associate Director
Function Therapeutic area Seniority Country
60%
Associate Director, Supply Chain
AstraZeneca · Gaithersburg, Maryland, United States of America · 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.