Senior Director Engineering Strategy, Front-End Planning, and Engineering Standards

AbbVie•North Chicago, IL

12h

About The Position

The Senior Director, Engineering Strategy, Front End Planning, and Standards Governance provides enterprise leadership for early-stage capital planning, engineering standards oversight, and long-range technical strategy. This role is responsible for shaping and governing the engineering framework that enables safe, compliant, cost-effective, and sustainable execution of AbbVie’s capital and operational priorities. The Senior Director leads cross-functional collaboration to ensure front end planning is rigorous, engineering standards and SOPs are current and effectively governed, and strategic long-range plans align with business growth, network needs, and operational excellence objectives.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in Engineering required; advanced degree preferred.
Typically requires 20+ years of progressive engineering experience, including substantial leadership responsibility in capital planning, engineering governance, and strategic planning.
Demonstrated experience leading front end planning, standards development, and long-range capital or infrastructure strategy in a regulated industry.
Strong knowledge of engineering systems, project lifecycle management, and cross-functional governance.
Strategic thinking and enterprise planning
Strong governance and policy development experience
Executive-level communication and influence
Ability to lead through ambiguity and complexity
Deep understanding of engineering design, capital project planning, and operational readiness
Change leadership and stakeholder management
Strong analytical and decision-making skills

Responsibilities

Lead front end planning activities for capital and strategic projects, ensuring scope definition, feasibility assessment, basis of design development, and risk identification are completed with rigor.
Partner with business, operations, quality, EHS, validation, supply chain, and finance stakeholders to translate business needs into executable engineering plans.
Ensure project concepts are evaluated for technical feasibility, cost, schedule, capacity, sustainability, and lifecycle performance.
Establish and maintain standard methods for front end loading, project definition, and investment justification.
Own governance for engineering standards, specifications, and SOPs across the assigned scope.
Ensure engineering standards and procedures are current, compliant with regulatory and corporate requirements, and consistently applied across sites and programs.
Lead periodic review, approval, revision, and retirement of standards and SOPs.
Promote standardization, operational consistency, and right-first-time execution through clear governance and stakeholder engagement.
Serve as a subject matter leader for engineering best practices, design standards, and procedural compliance.
Develop and maintain long-range engineering plans aligned with AbbVie’s business strategy, manufacturing network strategy, and capital priorities.
Identify infrastructure, capacity, technology, and utility needs over a multi-year horizon.
Lead scenario planning, gap analysis, and strategic recommendations to support future site and network requirements.
Partner with senior leaders to anticipate future investments and enable sustainable business growth.
Translate long-range planning outputs into actionable roadmaps, governance reviews, and capital planning inputs.
Provide strategic leadership to engineering teams and matrixed stakeholders across functions and sites.
Build strong partnerships with Operations, Quality, EHS, Technical Operations, Procurement, IT, and Finance.
Drive alignment on priorities, standards, and resource allocation across multiple initiatives.
Coach and develop team members and ensure strong succession and talent development within the engineering organization.
Ensure all activities are conducted in accordance with AbbVie policies, quality standards, safety expectations, and applicable regulatory requirements.
Champion a culture of compliance, risk-based decision-making, and proactive issue escalation.
Support audits, inspections, and internal reviews related to engineering governance and standards.