AbbVie Posted October 25, 2026

Director, Immunology Public Affairs- Dermatology

Mettawa, 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

Overview:

The Director, Immunology Public Affairs leads the development and execution of integrated public affairs strategies across AbbVie’s most expansive immunology portfolio - dermatology. This role serves as a strategic counselor to senior business and cross-functional leaders, translating business priorities, stakeholder insights and the external environment into creative communications that strengthen competitive differentiation, corporate reputation and stakeholder trust. The Director brings strong business acumen, sound judgment, creative thinking and deep expertise in earned media and influencer relations while managing a broad range of internal and external stakeholders. This role reports to the Head, Immunology Public Affairs and will have one direct report.

Responsibilities include:

Drive high-impact public affairs programs to advance the growing dermatology portfolio’s business objectives with emphasis on competitive differentiation and corporate reputation.

Analyze the communications environment, identify trends, opportunities and risks, while translating those insights into strategic objectives, creative content and informed business decisions.

Provide strategic counsel to influence critical decisions through informed perspective on the external environment. Anticipate and mitigate external issues to protect reputation and business performance.

Participate in relevant dermatology integrated business teams, providing public affairs communications perspective, strategic counsel and influence.

Create intentional connections across the immunology dermatology and aesthetics dermatology businesses to find synergies, key learnings and optimizations to strengthen communications output with an enterprise mindset.

Partner closely with R&D communications and relevant pipeline commercialization strategy team to ensure sound, consistent and strategic messaging across on-market and pipeline dermatology assets that support a broader, enterprise narrative

Interface with media proactively and reactively as AbbVie corporate spokesperson on dermatology portfolio milestones, data and other relevant news.

Build and manage relationships with internal and third-party spokespeople and prepare them for compelling external speaking opportunities.

Develop and sustain trusted relationships on behalf of AbbVie with patient advocates, influencers and other external stakeholders.

Champion new ideas, emerging channels and best practices that elevate Corporate Affairs, strengthen audience engagement and improve the impact of public affairs programs.

Establish clear objectives and measures of success for public affairs strategies, use performance insights to optimize programs and communicate results and business impact to senior leaders.

Lead work with sound judgment and a strong commitment to AbbVie standards, ensuring communications are accurate, compliant and aligned across relevant business, medical, legal, regulatory and corporate stakeholders.

Support broader, pan-immunology leadership communications and programming that expands beyond the dermatology portfolio.

Manage agencies and associated program budgets that support communications programming.

Qualifications

Education and Experience:

A minimum of a bachelor’s degree is required – emphasis on communications, public relations, marketing, business, journalism or equivalent is preferred.

A minimum of 10 years of experience in public relations. Preferred experience at a public relations agency and/or pharmaceutical in-house communications position with increasing responsibility, or similar roles in regulated industries.

Expertise in developing and executing strategic communications programs that are creative, insight-driven and deliver measurable business impact.

Proven track record of working with traditional and emerging news media on a variety of topics from data and milestones to high-profile patient profile stories

Strong communication planning, execution and process management skills and strong interpersonal skills to quickly build rapport and credibility with AbbVie leaders as well as key internal and external stakeholders, including academic experts, patients and patient advocates, with confidence, empathy and ease.

Business acumen to appropriately frame the why and contextualize communications priorities that strategically align with business priorities

Scientific acumen to understand complex concepts and translate for target audiences and channels

Ability to work effectively in a cross-functional team and navigate a highly matrixed organization using influence/negotiation and relationship management skills

Proven experience in issues/crisis management, preferred.

Experience leading high-performing teams, 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
Director
Function
Communications & Public Affairs
Therapeutic area
Dermatology & Aesthetics
Location
Mettawa, IL
Employment type
Full-time

How this role compares

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

We currently track 48 comparable Director Communications & Public Affairs roles across 22 biopharma companies.

48Comparable roles tracked
45Currently active
22Companies hiring similar roles
8Countries represented

Salary context

19 of 48 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 $160,500/yr – $305,000/yr
Lowest disclosed · Director, GSINC Change Management & Communications · Johnson & Johnson $150,000/yr – $258,750/yr
Highest disclosed · Senior Director, U.S. Public Affairs (Boston, MA, US) · Servier $216/hr – $316/hr (≈ $449,280–$657,280/yr)
Peer group range $204,375 – $553,280 (median $225,450)

Where these roles are based

Top locations among the 48 comparable roles

United States37
China4
Japan2
Switzerland1
France1
Singapore1

+ 2 more countries

Seniority mix

48 of 48 peers have a known seniority level

Director30
Senior Director18

Therapeutic area mix

5 of 48 peers have a known therapeutic area; the rest are genuinely unlabeled, not hidden

Cardiovascular / CVRM2
Oncology2
Neuroscience1

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 Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States of America Director
Same function Same seniority Same country
60%similar
Ipsen Biopharmaceuticals Inc. Cambridge (US), United States Director
Same function Same seniority Same country
60%similar
E.R. Squibb & Sons,L.L.C. Princeton, United States Director
Same function Same seniority Same country
60%similar
Amgen USA Inc. Remote, United States Director
Same function Same seniority Same country
60%similar
AstraZeneca Wilmington, Delaware, United States of America Director
Same function Same seniority Same country
60%similar
H. Lundbeck Boston, United States Director
Same function Same seniority Same country

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 Communications & Public Affairs 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%
Director, CVRM Communications (Weight Management)
AstraZeneca · Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States of America · Director
Function Therapeutic area Seniority Country
60%
Director, Global Value & Access Business Development (Remote)
Amgen USA Inc. · Remote, United States · Director
Function Therapeutic area Seniority Country
60%
Director, Scientific Communications (CNS)
Otsuka Pharmaceutical Development and Commercialization, Inc. · Remote, United States · Director
Function Therapeutic area Seniority Country
60%
Director, Creative Strategy & Brand Stewardship
E.R. Squibb & Sons,L.L.C. · Princeton, United States · 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.