Technical Lead - Forward Deployed Engineering

AbbVie•North Chicago, IL

7d•$109,500 - $208,500

About The Position

The Technical Delivery Lead for Forward Deployed Engineering leads a small, high-velocity engineering team that embeds with frontline business partners across product development, manufacturing, Quality, and Finance. Working alongside scientists, operators, quality professionals, and finance teams at AbbVie sites, the lead identifies important business problems and uses data science, AI, and modern software engineering to design and deliver working prototypes in weeks. The role is accountable for the technical direction, quality, and delivery pace of FDE engagements. The lead develops engineers, sets the technical bar, and remains hands-on in building solutions. The position covers delivery leadership, close partnership with frontline teams, rapid solution development, and reuse and scaling of successful approaches across sites and functions.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Data Science, a physical or life science, or a related field with 7 years of relevant experience; master’s degree with 6 years of experience; or PhD with 2 years of experience.
Demonstrated experience delivering data, analytics, AI, or software solutions in pharmaceutical, biotech, or medical device settings across product development, manufacturing, Quality, or Finance.
Track record leading technical teams, setting direction, mentoring engineers, and being accountable for delivery of multiple concurrent projects.
Strong hands-on engineering skills in Python and SQL, with experience building and deploying ML/AI solutions, including generative AI/LLM applications.
Experience with cloud data and compute platforms such as AWS, Azure, Databricks, or Snowflake, and modern software practices such as Git, CI/CD, APIs, and containerization.
Experience in rapid, iterative delivery environments, taking ambiguous problems to working prototypes on short timelines.
Working knowledge of regulated environments, including GxP, data integrity, and computerized system validation, and how they shape solution design.
Excellent communication and stakeholder management skills, including comfort working directly with frontline staff and presenting to senior leaders.
Willingness and ability to travel to sites up to 20% of the time.

Nice To Haves

Prior experience in forward deployed engineering, solutions engineering, technical consulting, or an internal innovation “skunkworks” team.
Familiarity with manufacturing and quality systems and data, including MES, LIMS, QMS, and historians such as OSIsoft PI, and/or finance systems such as SAP and planning and close tools.
Experience with agentic AI frameworks, retrieval-augmented generation, computer vision, or optimization/simulation methods.
Experience with full-stack or low-code application development for rapid user-facing tools, such as React, Streamlit, or Power Apps.
Experience moving prototypes to scaled, supported production solutions in partnership with platform and product teams.

Responsibilities

Lead technical delivery for a portfolio of fast-paced FDE engagements, owning scope, architecture, technical risk, timelines, and outcomes from problem framing through prototype and handoff.
Lead, coach, and assign work to forward deployed engineers, data scientists, and partner resources; set engineering standards, review designs and code, and build team capability.
Run short, iterative delivery cycles, such as discovery sprints and weekly demos, to move from hypothesis to working solutions in users’ hands.
Make build, buy, and scale decisions and define the path from prototype to production with BTS platform, product, and support teams.
Travel to AbbVie sites and work directly with frontline employees in manufacturing, labs, Quality, and Finance to observe workflows, understand pain points, and co-design solutions.
Translate ambiguous operational and financial problems into well-defined technical problems with measurable success criteria.
Build trusted relationships with site leaders and business stakeholders, communicating progress, trade-offs, and results to technical and non-technical audiences, including senior leadership.
Develop prototypes using data science, machine learning, generative AI/LLM and agentic tools, analytics, and application development frameworks.
Integrate solutions with enterprise and operational data sources such as MES, LIMS, QMS, ERP, historians, and data lake or cloud platforms.
Apply AI-assisted development practices while maintaining code quality, security, and maintainability.
Ensure appropriate data integrity, privacy, cybersecurity, and responsible AI considerations; engage Quality/CSV partners early when GxP impact exists.
Capture reusable patterns, components, and playbooks to help replicate successful solutions across sites and functions.
Quantify and report business value delivered by FDE engagements and help shape the FDE engagement model and pipeline with BTS Operations and Finance leadership.