AbbVie Posted August 25, 2026

Senior Medical Director - Patient Safety

South San Francisco, CA Full-time
Notify me about similar jobs

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 Product Safety Team (PST) lead for late stage oncology products, under the direction of the Group Lead and TA Head will be actively and closely collaborating with the development medical lead, setting the strategy for the oncology programs. PST lead will be responsible to one or more products and will ensuring safety through the product lifecycle (e.g. surveillance, signal detection, validation and assessment, risks assessment and mitigations strategies, tox management, etc…) together with the other members of the  safety team (safety scientists, safety architects, safety PM, and other cross functional colleagues). The PST lead will also closely collaborate with a PK and toxicology leads, regulatory and clinical development leads as well as medical affairs colleagues to help guide dose selection and regimen, inclusion/exclusion criteria and safety monitoring for first for clinical trials as well as PMOS.PST lead will be interpreting regulations related to pharmacovigilance supporting all patient safety activities, and will be leading the safety components of pre-NDA and NDA/sNDA submissions, regulatory responses, label and label updates, RMPs.

Responsibilities:

Understanding and application of the pharmacology, chemistry and non-clinical toxicology to effectively conduct safety surveillance

Responsible for safety surveillance for pharmaceutical / biological / drug –device combined products

Lead and set the strategy for key pharmacovigilance documents, including but not limited to, medical safety assessments, regulatory responses and risk management plans, NDA/sNDA submission – safety component

Apply current regulatory guidance as appropriate for safety surveillance and authorship of PV documents

Analyze and interpret aggregate safety data and communicate these analysis and interpretation to cross-functional teams, executive leadership and externally, as needed

Effectively write, review and provide input on technical documents independently

Oversight and responsibility for leading the strategy for periodic reports (DSURs, PSURs, PADERs etc.)

Responsible for implementing risk management strategies for assigned products

Proactively engaging, inspiring, coaching and mentoring team and colleagues

Opportunities to co-author publications and participate in initiatives to continue developing and growing as a safety leader

Strong team player, able to adapt and work in a fast pace environment

Significant Work Activities -Continuous sitting for prolonged periods (more than 2 consecutive hours in an 8 hour day)

Qualifications

MD / DO with 2+ years of internal medicine residency with patient management experience required; PhD or Clinical Pharmacology fellowship is preferred in addition to MD / DO, not required

2-5 years of Pharmacovigilance / Clinical Development experience in the pharmaceutical industry.

Previous experience supporting regulatory submissions (IND/BLA submissions) is required

Oncology patient safety experience is required

Effectively analyze and guide analysis of clinical data and epidemiological information

Effectively present recommendations / opinions in group environment both internally and externally

Write, review and provide input on technical documents

Work collaboratively and lead cross-functional teams

Ability to lead cross-functional teams in a collaborative environment

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
Pharmacovigilance
Therapeutic area
Not listed
Location
South San Francisco, CA
Employment type
Full-time

How this role compares

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

We currently track 24 comparable Director Pharmacovigilance roles across 14 biopharma companies.

24Comparable roles tracked
24Currently active
14Companies hiring similar roles
5Countries represented

Salary context

14 of 24 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 $197,000 – $429,500 (median $264,000)

Where these roles are based

Top locations among the 24 comparable roles

United States19
United Kingdom2
India1
Canada1
Austria1

Seniority mix

24 of 24 peers have a known seniority level

Director18
Senior Director3
Principal3

Therapeutic area mix

6 of 24 peers have a known therapeutic area; the rest are genuinely unlabeled, not hidden

Immunology3
Neuroscience3

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 Director
Same function Same seniority Same country
60%similar
Gilead Sciences, Inc. Foster City, 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
GlaxoSmithKline LLC Durham Blackwell Street, United States Director
Same function Same seniority Same country
60%similar
Otsuka Pharmaceutical Development and Commercialization, Inc. Princeton, United States Director
Same function Same seniority Same country
60%similar
AbbVie North Chicago, IL 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.

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%
Medical Director, Neuroscience, Global Patient Safety
AbbVie · North Chicago, IL · Director
Function Therapeutic area Seniority Country
60%
SERM Scientific Director
GlaxoSmithKline LLC · Durham Blackwell Street, United States · Director
Function Therapeutic area Seniority Country
60%
Senior Medical Director - Patient Safety
AbbVie · North Chicago, IL · Director
Function Therapeutic area Seniority Country
60%
Exec Medical Director, Pharmacovigilance Risk Management (PVRM)
Exelixis Inc · Remote, 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.