Senior Research Engineer - Human Factors

Company Description

Abb Vie's mission is to discover and deliver innovative medicines and solutions that solve serious health issues today and address the medical challenges of tomorrow. We strive to have a remarkable impact on people's lives across several key therapeutic areas – immunology, oncology, neuroscience, and eye care – and products and services in our Allergan Aesthetics portfolio. For more information about Abb Vie, please visit us at  Follow @abbvie on X, Facebook, Instagram, You Tube, Linked In and Tik Tok.

The Abb Vie Device & Combination Product Development (DCPD) function provides design and development expertise to enable drug delivery systems for Abb Vie biopharmaceuticals. The Human Factors Center of Excellence (HFCOE) within DCPD manages the drug delivery device and stand‑alone medical device user interface design process and executes usability assessments required to support the successful submission of Abb Vie products. A combination of an increase in the number of drugs that require a delivery device, stand‑alone medical devices, and increasing engagement of Human‑Centered Design and HF skills in early‑stage development drives the need for additional Human Factors expertise, including a specialist to identify, improve, and maintain processes that support the work of the HFCOE.

We are looking for an individual with training in human factors/usability engineering for a Human Factors role to support our Combination Product development efforts with a focus on Process Excellence.

This role is intended to support the DCPD HFCOE in optimizing the processes that the team follows in its day‑to‑day development work. This individual will work alongside existing Abb Vie HFCOE team members and key stakeholders to establish optimal processes that make best practices accessible and actionable for the team. In addition to serving as process owner for key HFCOE processes, and with the objective of developing and keeping up to date on skills as an HF practitioner, this individual will also spend some time supporting product development of device and combination products, working with Engineering, Medical, Compliance and Regulatory staff to design user interfaces and HF studies required to ensure ease‑of‑use, safety, user acceptance, and regulatory approval.

The individual will perform the following functions to support Process Excellence within the HFCOE:

• Use established methods to diagnose the current state of a process and identify pain points and improvement opportunities
• Use established process improvement tools to identify and implement countermeasures that improve process efficiency, quality, and/or compliance
• Establish process strategy, objectives and long‑range roadmap with input from key stakeholders (HFCOE team members, Scientific Compliance, other DCPD process owners, and Quality Assurance, as needed); identify, facilitate/implement process changes
• Create and maintain relevant documentation related to the processes, such as best practice guidelines, job aids, and/or SOPs
• Serve as resident expert within HFCOE for any information management tools that may support processes (e.g., SharePoint, Smart Sheet)

• Design and conduct user research
• Perform task and workflow analyses
• Work with System Engineers to develop user needs and user interface specifications
• Conduct and evaluate Use‑related Risk Analyses, recommend and evaluate design mitigations
• Design device and system user interfaces and associated instructional materials
• Design and conduct usability tests and other usability assessments
• Design, conduct and analyze interviews and surveys
• Prepare and compile thorough documentation for inclusion in regulatory submissions

• Bachelor’s Degree or equivalent education in Human Factors, Industrial Engineering, Human Computer Interaction, Psychology, or related discipline and typically 12+ years of experience, Master’s Degree or equivalent education and typically 10+ years of experience, PhD and typically 4+ years of experience
• Possess thorough theoretical and practical understanding of own scientific discipline
• Strong working knowledge of…