Head of Patient Advocacy and Professional Societies Engagement - Oncology (Medical Affairs)
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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 Head of Patient Advocacy and Professional Societies Engagement - Oncology leads the global strategy for building, managing, and sustaining authentic, high-impact relationships with cancer patient advocacy organizations (PAOs), professional oncology societies, and key policy stakeholders.
This leadership role will embed a patient-centric mindset across the Global Oncology Medical Affairs enterprise. will ensure the patient voice shapes clinical pathways across our robust portfolio of Antibody-Drug Conjugates (ADCs), T-Cell Engagers (TCEs), and targeted small molecules. Will manage, mentor, and develop a high-performing global team of 4 direct reports focused entirely on the hematology and solid tumor landscape.
Position will be based from an AbbVie major R&D site and follow a hybrid model of 3 days/week on-site. Locations include Mettawa, IL (headquarters), Florham Park, NJ, Waltham, MA, San Francisco, CA, and Irvine, CA.
Key Responsibilities
Global Strategy & Pipeline Integration: Design and execute the multi-year global engagement strategy for oncology PAOs aligned with AbbVie’s core therapeutic focus areas, spanning Hematologic Malignancies (CLL, AML, DLBCL, Multiple Myeloma) and Solid Tumors (NSCLC, SCLC, Ovarian Cancer, Colorectal Cancer).
Modality-Specific Advocacy: Develop specialized, tailored patient engagement frameworks for next-generation modalities, capturing patient and caregiver insights unique to Topoisomerase I inhibitor (Top1i)–based ADCs and immune-based pipelines.
Team Leadership & Development: Lead, mentor, and scale a team of 4 direct reports, fostering a culture of compliance, clinical fluency, and cross-functional collaboration in the complex global oncology space.
Clinical Trial Co-Creation: Partner with clinical development to leverage patient organization insights to optimize trial designs, decentralized trial models, and patient-reported outcomes (PROs) for late-stage and registrational pipeline assets.
Professional Oncology Alliances: Cultivate strategic partnerships with primary global professional organizations (such as ASCO, ESMO, ASH, WCLC, and SGO) to advance scientific exchange, consensus-building, and independent medical educational grants.
Launch Readiness & Access Advocacy: Work cross-functionally to bridge medical strategy with health equity, supporting access and addressing policy and reimbursement barriers ahead of major regulatory approvals and label expansions.
Compliance & Transparency: Ensure all team interactions adhere to regional legal/compliance codes (such as PhRMA, EFPIA, IFPMA) and navigate rigorous Fair Market Value (FMV) standards for multi-stakeholder healthcare collaborations.
Qualifications
Education: Advanced degree in a health science, life sciences, public health, or healthcare policy field (PharmD, PhD, MSN, or Master’s/MBA in Health Administration or Policy preferred).
Experience: 10+ years of progressive experience in pharmaceutical Global/US Medical Affairs, Patient Advocacy, Corporate Affairs, or External Relations, with a minimum of 5 years dedicated exclusively to the Oncology/Hematology ecosystem.
People Management: Proven experience managing, coaching, and developing direct reports (prior experience leading a team of 3–5+ matrix or direct reports is required).
Scientific & Pipeline Literacy: Solid comprehension of cancer biology markers (e.g., c-Met, BCMA, SEZ6) and the operational nuances of managing clinical expectations around breakthrough designations.
Competencies: Strong existing networks within international oncology advocacy coalitions and professional society executive teams.
Exceptional interpersonal, diplomacy, and executive communication skills.
Demonstrated commitment to driving health equity and reducing disease awareness gaps in underserved cancer patient populations.
Ability to navigate complex matrix organizations on a global scale.
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
How this role compares
Computed from every other active Medical Affairs role in our database, not just this employer's listings.
We currently track 1703 comparable Medical Affairs roles across 183 biopharma companies.
Salary context
387 of 1703 peers report a salary range (USD, annualized)
Peers share this role's job function. This posting doesn't list a seniority level, so peers aren't narrowed by seniority either -- the range below may span more levels than usual.
Where these roles are based
Top locations among the 1703 comparable roles
+ 59 more countries
Seniority mix
1051 of 1703 peers have a known seniority level
Therapeutic area mix
598 of 1703 peers have a known therapeutic area; the rest are genuinely unlabeled, not hidden
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.
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.