AbbVie Posted August 24, 2026

Senior Medical Director, Oncology Early Development

Waltham, MA Full-time
Medical Affairs Oncology Director
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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

Purpose:

The Senior Medical Director leads the direction, planning, execution, and interpretation of clinical trials or research activities of one or more early phase clinical development programs. Participates in and may lead cross-functional teams to generate, deliver, and disseminate high-quality clinical data supporting overall product scientific and business strategy.

Responsibilities:

Manages the design and implementation of one or more clinical development programs in support of an overall Product Development Plan, based on strong medical and scientific principles, knowledge of compliance and regulatory requirements, AbbVie’s customers, markets, business operations, and emerging issues. Oversees project-related education of investigators, study site personnel, and AbbVie study staff.

Has overall responsibility for oversight of clinical studies, monitoring overall study integrity, and review, interpretation, and communication of accumulating data pertaining to safety and efficacy of the molecule. Along with Clinical Operations, is responsible for oversight of study enrollment and overall timelines for key deliverables. Responsible for assessment and reporting of serious adverse events per corporate policy and regulations for those protocols on which assigned.

Responsible for design, analysis, interpretation, and reporting of scientific content of protocols, Investigator Brochures, Clinical Study Reports, regulatory submissions and responses, and other program documents.

May oversee the work of Associate Medical, Medical and/or Scientific Directors working on the same or related programs.

Provides in-house clinical expertise for the molecule and disease, coordinating appropriate scientific and medical 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 in partnership with Discovery colleagues to design and implementation of translational strategies.

May serve on or chair a Clinical Strategy Team (CST), with responsibility for development of a rigorous, cross-functionally-aligned, vetted Clinical Development Plan with full consideration of contingencies and alternative approaches. In the role of CST Chair, responsibilities may include supervision of matrix team members and serving as Clinical Research representative to lend clinical development and medical expertise to an Asset Development Team (ADT), ADT Leadership Board (ALB).

Acts as a clinical interface and actively solicits opinion 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.

Stays abreast of professional information and technology through conferences, medical literature, and other available training, to augment expertise in the therapeutic area.

Responsible for understanding the regulatory requirements related to the clinical studies and global drug development and accountable for complying with those requirements. Serves as a clinical representative for key regulatory discussions.

Ensures adherence to Good Clinical Practices, pharmacovigilance standards, standard operating procedures and to all other quality standards in conducting research.

Qualifications

Medical Doctor (M.D.), Doctor of Osteopathy (D.O.) or non-US equivalent of M.D. degree with relevant therapeutic specialty in an academic or hospital environment. Completion of a residency program strongly preferred. Completion of a subspecialty fellowship in an oncology relevant discipline is desirable.

At least 3 years of clinical trial experience in the pharmaceutical industry, academia, or equivalent with at least 2 years in pharmaceutical industry.

Ability to run  clinical research program(s) of moderate complexity with minimal supervision.

Ability to perform and bring out the best in others on a cross-functional global team.

Ability to interact externally and internally to support a global scientific and business strategy.

Experience in drug development in thoracic malignancies and/or T-cell engagers  strongly preferred.

Knowledge of clinical trial methodology, regulatory and compliance requirements governing clinical trials and experience in development of clinical strategy and the design of study protocols.

Experience with PK and PD modelling for dose optimization also valued.

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
Oncology
Location
Waltham, MA
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 265 comparable Director Medical Affairs roles across 47 biopharma companies.

265Comparable roles tracked
246Currently active
47Companies hiring similar roles
22Countries represented

Salary context

145 of 265 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 $211,000/yr – $400,500/yr
Lowest disclosed · Principal Strategic Medical Writer · AbbVie $109,500/yr – $208,500/yr
Highest disclosed · Sr Medical Director (Heme Oncology) (Boston, US) · Servier $298/hr – $350/hr (≈ $619,840–$728,000/yr)
Peer group range $159,000 – $673,920 (median $264,000)

Where these roles are based

Top locations among the 265 comparable roles

United States208
United Kingdom12
China's Mainland8
Switzerland7
Japan6
Spain3

+ 16 more countries

Seniority mix

265 of 265 peers have a known seniority level

Director233
Senior Director25
Principal7

Therapeutic area mix

127 of 265 peers have a known therapeutic area; the rest are genuinely unlabeled, not hidden

Oncology58
Immunology16
Neuroscience15
Respiratory10
Rare Disease7
Cardiovascular / CVRM7
Dermatology & Aesthetics6
Vaccines & Infectious Disease5
Ophthalmology2
Gastroenterology1

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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.

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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.