Director, Automation & Digital Transformation, Biologics Drug Substance Development

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 products and services in our Allergan Aesthetics portfolio. For more information visit  Follow @abbvie on Linked In, Facebook, Instagram, X, and You Tube.

The Director, Automation & Digital Transformation will lead the Automation and Digital Transformation organization within Biologics Drug Substance Development and serve as the strategic leader for Abb Vie's Lab-in-a-Loop vision. This role is responsible for defining and executing the long‑term automation, data, AI, digital, and modeling strategy to accelerate process development, enhance scientific decision‑making, and transform the way biologics processes are developed.

• Develop and execute a comprehensive automation, data, AI, and digital transformation roadmap for Biologics Drug Substance Development.
• Define and advance the organizational vision for Lab‑in‑a‑Loop, integrating experimental automation, predictive modeling, digital twins, and AI‑enabled decision support.
• Establish a future‑state digital architecture that enables seamless connectivity of scientific workflows, instrumentation, laboratory systems, manufacturing systems, and knowledge repositories.
• Ensure alignment of automation and digital initiatives with biologics development priorities and enterprise digital strategies.
• Benchmark emerging technologies, industry best practices, and competitive capabilities to maintain Abb Vie's leadership position in digital biologics development.

• Lead and develop a high‑performing Automation & Digital Transformation team consisting of automation engineers, digital scientists, data scientists, software developers, and technology specialists.
• Establish talent and capability strategies to build critical future skills in AI, advanced analytics, process modeling, laboratory automation, and data engineering.
• Foster a culture of innovation, continuous improvement, collaboration, and data‑driven decision‑making.
• Mentor leaders and technical experts while ensuring sustainable organizational growth and succession planning.

• Drive implementation of closed‑loop experimental platforms integrating automation, high‑throughput experimentation, mechanistic modeling, machine learning, and process optimization.
• Champion adoption of digital twins, predictive analytics, advanced process control concepts, and AI‑enabled scientific workflows.
• Identify and prioritize high‑value use cases that accelerate development timelines and improve process robustness.
• Partner with scientific teams to translate emerging technologies into scalable business capabilities.

• Serve as the primary business leader representing Biologics Drug Substance Development in partnerships with BTS, Information Research, Data & Digital Science, Manufacturing, Quality, Operations, and external technology partners.
• Influence senior leadership investment decisions and develop business cases supporting strategic digital and automation initiatives.
• Drive governance processes for digital investments, technology prioritization, data standards, and capability deployment.
• Represent Abb Vie externally through industry consortia, conferences, collaborations, and strategic partnerships.

• Lead development of integrated data platforms supporting end‑to‑end data capture, contextualization, visualization, analytics, and knowledge management.
• Establish data governance, standards, and business processes that ensure high‑quality, reusable scientific data.
• Enable scalable deployment of AI and machine learning technologies across biologics development workflows.
• Partner with enterprise teams to ensure secure, compliant, and sustainable digital solutions.

• Establish prioritization frameworks…