AbbVie Posted November 9, 2026

Sr. Scientist II, Engineering

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

Purpose

Process Engineers in Product Development Science & Technology support API projects through all the phases of late-stage development, commercialization, product life cycle. This position will be responsible for ensuring processes can be run safely, addressing scale-up issues and developing and implementing robust API process steps from the lab to a manufacturing environment. Once commercialized, the Process Engineer is responsible for continuous improvement activities, technical transfer to manufacturing sites, and resolution of technical manufacturing issues in a commercial setting.  Effective cross functional interactions with quality and regulatory functions and on-site manufacturing personnel are key for successful job performance.

The Peptide Process Engineer will lead research and project activities within cross-functional teams contributing expertise while effectively collaborating with and/or mentoring scientific personnel. Independently conceive, develop, and execute novel scientific research or development leading to scalable and robust engineering processes for key modalities (e.g., small molecule APIs, antibody drug conjugates, peptides, and natural products). Lead initiatives, identify, develop, and optimize best practices for peptide asset development and new technologies for peptide manufacturing. Effectively communicate findings in a multidisciplinary team. Serve as a lead scientist on his/her own project and contribute scientific insights into multiple other projects.

Responsibilities: 

Leverage core chemical engineering principles (chemical kinetics, transport phenomena, thermodynamics, mathematical modeling) in experimental design, thought process in problem-solving, and data analysis.

Understand and adhere to corporate standards regarding code of conduct, safety, appropriate handling of materials, controlled drug and radioactive compounds, and GxP compliance.

Demonstrated ability to resolve key project hurdles by effectively utilizing available information, scientific creativity, and technical expertise.

Maintain autonomous and productive performance in laboratory experimentation, pilot plant, and/or manufacturing support space, requiring only minimal direction from or interaction with supervisor.

Author of publications, presentations, technical reports, regulatory documents, and/or patents.

Be a subject matter expert to other functions within the project team. Anticipate, recognize, and resolve problems while functioning as the technical expert on cross functional teams.

Demonstrate high proficiency across a wide range of relevant technologies.

Lead Engineering team initiatives that drive operational efficiency, strengthen technology platforms, and build capabilities to meet evolving program needs.

Mentor and guide junior scientific personnel, both within and outside direct reporting relationships, to support their technical and professional development.

Qualifications

BS, MS, or PhD in chemical engineering or a related field and 12+ (BS), 10+ (MS), or 3+ (PhD) years of relevant industrial experience.

Possesses excellent written and oral communication skills.

Possess thorough theoretical and practical understanding of own scientific discipline.

Key Leadership Competencies: 

Builds strong relationships with peers and cross-functionally with partners outside of team to enable higher performance.

Learns fast, understands key objectives, and can change course quickly where indicated.

Raises the bar and is never satisfied with the status quo.

Creates a learning environment, open to suggestions and experimentation for improvement, while establishing and maintaining project operation criteria and technical standards of excellence.

May mentor, supervise, guide, and evaluate team members holding everyone accountable for effective performance.

Embraces the ideas of others, nurtures innovation, and manages the transition from innovation to implementation.

Demonstrates excellent technical and personal mentorship of others.

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
Senior
Function
Drug Discovery & Preclinical Research
Therapeutic area
Not listed
Location
North Chicago, IL
Employment type
Full-time

How this role compares

Computed from every other active Drug Discovery & Preclinical Research role in our database, not just this employer's listings.

We currently track 390 comparable Senior Drug Discovery & Preclinical Research roles across 55 biopharma companies.

390Comparable roles tracked
364Currently active
55Companies hiring similar roles
21Countries represented

Salary context

176 of 390 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 $109,500/yr – $208,500/yr
Lowest disclosed · Senior Primate Behavior Specialist · Labcorp $70,000/yr – $80,000/yr
Highest disclosed · Toxicology Senior Research Fellow · Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc (US) $232,000/yr – $348,000/yr
Peer group range $75,000 – $290,000 (median $160,413)

Where these roles are based

Top locations among the 390 comparable roles

United States298
China14
India13
United Kingdom10
Switzerland8
Germany7

+ 15 more countries

Seniority mix

390 of 390 peers have a known seniority level

Senior213
Principal146
Associate Director31

Therapeutic area mix

37 of 390 peers have a known therapeutic area; the rest are genuinely unlabeled, not hidden

Oncology15
Immunology10
Neuroscience8
Cardiovascular / CVRM3
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
Pharmacia & Upjohn Company Groton, United States Senior
Same function Same seniority Same country
60%similar
Pharmacia & Upjohn Company Groton, United States Senior
Same function Same seniority Same country
60%similar
AbbVie North Chicago, IL Senior
Same function Same seniority Same country
60%similar
Gilead Sciences, Inc. Foster City, United States Senior
Same function Same seniority Same country
60%similar
Gilead Sciences, Inc. Foster City, United States Senior
Same function Same seniority Same country
60%similar
Amgen Inc. Thousand Oaks, United States Senior
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 Drug Discovery & Preclinical Research 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%
Senior Scientist Mass Spectrometrist
Pharmacia & Upjohn Company · Groton, United States · Senior
Function Therapeutic area Seniority Country
60%
Sr. Associate Scientist
Gilead Sciences, Inc. · Foster City, United States · Senior
Function Therapeutic area Seniority Country
60%
Senior Associate Scientist, RNA Therapeutics
Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Inc (USA) · Tarrytown, United States · Senior
Function Therapeutic area Seniority Country
60%
Senior Toxicologist
Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Inc (USA) · Cambridge, United States · Senior
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.