Director, Computational HitGen / LeadGen Team Lead
About The Position
This position brings an opportunity to make innovative contributions that will define how AbbVie leverages AI-native drug discovery across our small molecule portfolio. Reports to Head of Computational Drug Discovery (CDD) and will lead the computational HitGen/LeadGen (HGLG) team. Will implement and enable close collaboration between members of the HGLG team and Drug Discovery partners across the AbbVie community. Must possess a strong track record leveraging modern computational and property-based drug design tools to deliver programs across the phases of a small molecule drug discovery pipeline. The ideal candidate will bring strong experience from across the drug discovery lifecycle from having worked on a broad range of diverse campaigns, and an established external footprint and network. Past experience will have included mentorship of early/mid-career scientists in matrixed and/or direct reporting relationships, with demonstrated ability to lead and influence through cross-functional collaboration.
Requirements
- Bachelor’s Degree or equivalent education in science-related field with extensive (typically > 18 years) of related work; Master’s Degree or equivalent education with extensive (typically > 16 years) of related work; PhD in Science or related field with typically 10+ years of related work experience
- Demonstration of successful coaching/mentoring and people management
- Demonstration of setting and driving strategy, in the context of leading a global team
- Highly organized and self-directed, experience leading multiple complex simultaneous research programs or initiatives
- Knowledge and experience in modern computational approaches for drug discovery
- Excellent written and verbal communication, as well as critical evaluation and data-driven decision making
- Strong analytical and problem-solving skills with demonstrated ability to think critically and creatively, and provide solutions both individually and collaboratively with internal experts
- Proven team leadership and management abilities, including experience mentoring, guiding, supervising, and developing scientific personnel with various backgrounds and training levels
- Highly collaborative, team-oriented, and considerate of the needs of others
- Strong interpersonal skills and ability to collaborate with diverse groups within the organization and external partners
- Ability to create an inclusive environment where diverse ideas, viewpoints and backgrounds are valued; willingness and ability to lead inclusively and demonstrate a commitment to listen and consider all points of view
Responsibilities
- Provide strategic thought leadership to amplify CDD’s impact on the small molecule pipeline:
- Lead development of a cohesive collection of cutting-edge methods and workflows, to comprehensively address AbbVie’s small molecule portfolio needs (methods for predicting binding affinities of diverse chemotypes, for predicting pharmacological properties for diverse chemotypes (PK parameters, etc.), and for rapidly sampling both enumerated and AI-generated chemical spaces
- Work closely with the small-molecule leadership teams to identify and address gaps where computational predictions are needed
- Advance drug discovery expertise across CDD and collaborate with cross-disciplinary teams from R&D and Information Research to advance programs and ensure computational capabilities are best implemented across programs
- Direct activities of the HGLG Team to enable program-level decision making:
- Across AbbVie’s early-stage small molecule portfolio, provide leadership and guidance that will deliver computational tools and workflows to achieve desirable hit/lead criteria. Role will be integral for ensuring alignment across functions and with the longer-term organizational and broader AI-native drug discovery strategies
- Guide HGLG team members in benchmarking experiments to evaluate models’ performance and domain of applicability for AbbVie’s small molecule portfolio
- Establish processes for selecting specific approaches that best suit project needs
- Build CDD’s reputation for impact:
- Proactively demonstrate leadership by providing expert advice and shared knowledge with direct reports, peers, and senior management
- Present program updates and research strategies to functional and non-functional leaders as well as potential and existing partners
- Maintain awareness of emerging literature and science in the field and author scientific disclosures/publications
- Maintain scientific presence outside AbbVie with appropriate publication and conference abstract submission highlighting innovative learnings in AI-native drug discovery
Benefits
- paid time off (vacation, holidays, sick)
- medical/dental/vision insurance
- 401(k)
- long-term incentive programs
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What This Job Offers
Job Type
Full-time
Career Level
Director
