Overview: 

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.

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