Senior Principal Research Scientist, Computational Drug Discovery Optimization Team Lead

About Abb Vie

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 including immunology, oncology and neuroscience, and also across our Allergan Aesthetics portfolio.

Purpose: This position brings an opportunity to make innovative contributions that will define how Abb Vie leverages AI‑enabled drug discovery across our small molecule portfolio. Reports to the Head of Computational Drug Discovery (CDD) and will lead the Computational Lead Optimization team. The role implements and enables collaborative design between members of the Optimization team and Global Medicinal Chemistry (GMEC) teams.

It requires strong expertise in modern medicinal chemistry, including a deep understanding of modern computational and experimental strategies, property‑based drug design, and pharmacology needed to develop low‑dose small molecule drug candidates. The ideal candidate will have a strong background in drug discovery from exploratory through candidate nomination, an established external footprint, and a proven track record of successfully leading diverse project teams to identify novel drug candidates, as well as mentorship experience with early/mid‑career scientists.

• Consult with project team and GMEC leadership to establish quantitative targets for driving optimization, and assign an Optimization team member to the project team that can execute these goals for accelerated identification of low‑dose drug candidates.
• Guide Optimization team members in benchmarking experiments to evaluate models’ performance and domain of applicability.
• Clearly communicate to project teams the rationale behind the selection of specific models and why they are best suited for the task at hand.
• Lead the development of a cohesive collection of internal models and workflows, comprehensively addressing Abb Vie’s small molecule portfolio needs (including models to predict small‑molecule binding affinities for protein targets and to predict pharmacological properties such as PK parameters).
• Partner closely with the GMEC leadership team to identify and address gaps where computational predictions are needed.
• Advance scientific expertise within the Optimization team and collaborate with cross‑disciplinary teams from CDD and Information Research to ensure computational capabilities are best implemented across programs.
• Proactively demonstrate leadership by providing expert advice and shared knowledge with direct reports, peers, and senior management.
• Identify and integrate emerging scientific trends from internal and external sources into functional objectives.
• 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 a scientific presence outside Abb Vie with appropriate publications and conference abstract submissions highlighting innovative learnings in computational medicinal chemistry.

• Bachelor’s Degree or equivalent education in a science‑related field with extensive experience (typically > 18 years);
  Master’s Degree or equivalent with extensive experience (typically > 16 years); or PhD with typically 10+ years of related work experience.
• Highly organized and self‑directed, with experience leading multiple complex research programs or initiatives simultaneously.
• Extensive knowledge and experience applying data science approaches for medicinal chemistry optimization.
• Extensive knowledge and experience in modern computational approaches for medicinal chemistry.
• Excellent written and verbal communication, critical evaluation, and data‑driven decision making, with the ability to explain complex ideas to non‑specialists.
• Strong analytical and problem‑solving skills, with demonstrated ability to think critically and creatively and to provide solutions individually and collaboratively.
• Proven team leadership…