Purpose

Associate Director, Talent Acquisition - R&D serves as a strategic talent acquisition leader for AbbVie’s R&D organization, operating with significant autonomy to set direction, influence senior stakeholders and deliver high-impact recruiting solutions aligned to business priorities. This role partners directly with R&D Leadership Team (RDLT) members, Business HR, Global Talent Acquisition and functional leaders to anticipate talent needs, assess complex business challenges, and make sound, judgment-based recommendations in ambiguous and fast-moving situations. The leader is expected to create customized solutions in the moment, personally engage in priority or business-critical recruiting when needed, and advise clients on TA process, organizational structure, sourcing strategy, TA team assignments, technology adoption and continuous improvement. As part of the global HR team, this role supports enterprise and global initiatives, participates in collaboration across time zones including non-prime business hours, provides data-driven insights on talent trends, and ensures effective knowledge transfer, client success and process continuity across assigned R&D client groups.

Responsibilities

• Independently set the vision, strategy and priorities for talent acquisition across assigned R&D client groups, ensuring alignment to business strategy, workforce priorities, enterprise expectations and global TA direction.
• Serve as a trusted advisor to R&D Leadership Team members, Business HR, Global Talent Acquisition and senior functional leaders by anticipating hiring needs, assessing talent risks and influencing decisions that enable business outcomes.
• Develop customized recruiting and sourcing strategies in real time to address evolving client needs, critical talent gaps, emerging talent profiles and competitive market dynamics while balancing speed, quality, compliance and candidate experience.
• Recruit and manage requisitions, confidential or business-critical roles when needed, demonstrating the ability to roll up sleeves, lead through complexity and model excellence in sourcing, stakeholder management and end-to-end search execution.
• Lead advisory work with assigned clients related to TA process, client organizational structure, recruiting governance, resource planning and TA team assignments to ensure the right operating model and talent resources are in place to support client success.
• Hire, develop, coach and elevate very senior recruiters, TA professionals and TA Managers by strengthening consultative capability, executive presence, business acumen, data storytelling and consistent delivery of high-quality hiring outcomes.
• Lead and support global HR and TA initiatives in partnership with Global Talent Acquisition and Business HR, ensuring smooth knowledge transfer, service continuity, change adoption and successful execution across regions and client groups.
• Operate as an active member of the global HR team, remaining available for global calls and collaboration across time zones, including non-prime business hours when required by business need.
• Provide compelling data stories, insights and recommendations in response to inquiries related to talent trends, recruiting performance, market dynamics, workforce priorities and emerging business needs.
• Champion technology enhancements, AI-enabled tools and leading-edge recruiting resources that help clients and recruiting teams adopt new concepts, strengthen existing processes and improve overall TA efficiency and effectiveness.
• Audit TA processes for assigned clients to identify opportunities for continuous improvement, process continuity, compliance, stakeholder alignment and consistent execution of best practices.