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Company Description About AbbVie
AbbVie'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 about AbbVie, please visit us at www.abbvie.com. Follow @abbvie on LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, X and YouTube.
Job Description
Are you a passionate engineer who thrives at the intersection of science, innovation, and impact? AbbVie's Research and Development Process Engineering team is on the front lines of transforming cutting\-edge science into life\-changing medicines — and we're looking for a Principal Research Engineer I/II to help us push the boundaries of what's possible in drug product development. Join us at our North Chicago, IL hub and be part of something bigger.
This isn't just a role — it's an opportunity to shape the future of drug manufacturing. You'll bring your proven project leadership in drug product development to drive synthetic molecule candidates from concept to commercial\-ready processes, making real decisions that accelerate medicines to patients who need them most.
You'll be a master of drug product manufacturing platforms — direct compression, wet \& dry granulation, hot melt extrusion, tableting, encapsulation, and film coating — and you'll apply your deep understanding of powder material properties to unlock new levels of manufacturability and product performance. When challenges arise, you're the person who steps up to troubleshoot complex process and material issues with creativity and rigor. And when it's time to go big, you'll translate bench\-scale breakthroughs into pilot plant realities through expert scale\-up execution.
At AbbVie, we celebrate bold ideas, encourage experimentation, and give talented engineers the resources and autonomy to *actually innovate*. If you're ready to raise the bar, lead with influence, and leave your mark on some of the world's most important medicines — we want to hear from you.
Key responsibilities include:
- Lead drug product manufacturing process early phase development for synthetic molecule development candidates within the AbbVie pipeline.
- Collaborate with development CMC teams to ensure manufacturing processes are aligned with intended commercial manufacturing sites.
- Advance scientific expertise within the function — mentoring peers and influencing senior leadership with your expert insights.
- Drive the development of technologies and scientific innovations that expand AbbVie's small molecule formulation capabilities.
- Partner cross\-functionally to build strategies that directly power AbbVie's drug discovery and development programs.
- Champion compliance with AbbVie's safety, quality, and regulatory standards.
Qualifications
- BS (\+14 yr experience) MS (\+12 yr. experience) or PhD (\+6 yr experience) in Chemical Engineering, or equivalent scientific/engineering degrees
- Strong project leadership experience for drug product development.
- Advanced understanding drug product manufacturing platforms with direct compression, wet \& dry granulation, and hot melt extrusion which include tableting, encapsulation and film coating.
- Advanced understanding of powder material properties and their impact on drug product manufacturability and final product performance.
- Ability to apply/interpret models during drug product development to optimize development.
- Experience writing regulatory submissions and generating the data required to gain approval
- Demonstrated ability to troubleshoot process/material issues.
- Apply techniques to scale\-up the development process to pilot plant equipment.
- Displays technical awareness in various aspects of drug development, adherence to rigorous scientific methods, and commitment to the scientific process.
- Strong drive for learning new techniques and technologies.
- Excellent oral and written communication skills.
- Demonstrated ability to work collaboratively in a cross\-functional team setting.
Preferred:
- Drug Substance Crystallization development knowledge
Additional Information
Applicable only to applicants applying to a position in any location with pay disclosure requirements under state or local law:
- The compensation range described below is the range of possible base pay compensation that the Company believes in good faith it will pay for this role at the time of thisposting based on the job grade for this position. Individual compensation paid within this range will depend on many factors including geographic location,and we may ultimately pay more or less than the posted range. This range may be modified in the future.
- We offer a comprehensive package of benefits including paid time off (vacation, holidays, sick), medical/dental/vision insurance and 401(k) to eligible employees.
- This job is eligible to participate in our long\-term incentive programs.
Note: No amount of pay is considered to be wages or compensation until such amount is earned, vested, and determinable. The amount and availability of any bonus, commission,incentive, benefits, or any other form of compensation and benefits that are allocable to a particular employee remains in the Company's sole and absolute discretion unless anduntil paid and may be modified at the Company’s sole and absolute discretion, consistent with applicable law.
AbbVie is an equal opportunity employer and is committed to operating with integrity, driving innovation, transforming lives and serving our community. Equal Opportunity Employer/Veterans/Disabled.
US \& Puerto Rico only \- to learn more, visit https://www.abbvie.com/join\-us/equal\-employment\-opportunity\-employer.html
US \& Puerto Rico applicants seeking a reasonable accommodation, click here to learn more:
https://www.abbvie.com/join\-us/reasonable\-accommodations.html
Salary Context
This $124K-$236K range is below the median for Research Scientist roles in our dataset (median: $195K across 149 roles with salary data).
Role Details
About This Role
Research Scientists push the boundaries of what AI can do. They design experiments, develop novel architectures, publish papers, and translate research breakthroughs into production capabilities. This is where the fundamental advances happen, from attention mechanisms to diffusion models to reasoning chains.
The work is intellectually demanding and often ambiguous. You might spend months on an approach that doesn't pan out. The best research scientists combine deep mathematical intuition with engineering pragmatism. They know when to go deep on theory and when to run experiments. They read papers voraciously and can spot incremental contributions from genuine breakthroughs.
Across the 4,317 AI roles we're tracking, Research Scientist positions make up 4% of the market. At AbbVie, this role fits into their broader AI and engineering organization.
Research Scientist roles are concentrated at major AI labs (OpenAI, Anthropic, Google DeepMind, Meta FAIR) and well-funded AI startups. The competition is intense. PhD is effectively required for most positions, and publication track record matters. Compensation is among the highest in AI, reflecting both the scarcity of talent and the strategic importance of research breakthroughs.
What the Work Looks Like
A typical week includes: reading and discussing recent papers with your team, designing and running experiments on multi-GPU clusters, analyzing results and iterating on hypotheses, writing up findings for internal review or publication, and collaborating with engineering teams to productionize promising results. The ratio of thinking to coding is higher than in engineering roles.
Research Scientist roles are concentrated at major AI labs (OpenAI, Anthropic, Google DeepMind, Meta FAIR) and well-funded AI startups. The competition is intense. PhD is effectively required for most positions, and publication track record matters. Compensation is among the highest in AI, reflecting both the scarcity of talent and the strategic importance of research breakthroughs.
Skills in Demand for This Role
PhD strongly preferred for most roles. Deep expertise in a specific area (NLP, computer vision, reinforcement learning, multimodal) is expected. PyTorch is the standard. Publication track record matters. Strong mathematical foundations in linear algebra, probability, optimization, and information theory are assumed.
Beyond the fundamentals, companies value experience with large-scale distributed training, novel architecture design, and the ability to bridge theory and practice. Understanding of current frontier topics (reasoning, multimodal, long-context, alignment) is essential. Code quality matters more than many researchers expect. Labs want researchers who can implement their ideas cleanly.
Strong research postings specify the research area, mention the team you'd join, and describe the problems they're working on. They often list recent publications from the team. Vague 'AI research' postings without specifics usually mean the company wants to sound impressive but doesn't have a real research agenda.
Compensation Benchmarks
Research Scientist roles pay a median of $222,200 based on 378 positions with disclosed compensation. Senior-level AI roles across all categories have a median of $227,400. This role's midpoint ($180K) sits 19% below the category median. Disclosed range: $124K to $236K.
Across all AI roles, the market median is $215,000. Top-quartile compensation starts at $266,300. The 90th percentile reaches $320,790. For comparison, the highest-paying categories include AI Safety ($287,500) and Research Engineer ($272,100). By seniority level: Entry: $110,000; Mid: $194,400; Senior: $227,400; Director: $274,554; VP: $241,000.
AbbVie AI Hiring
AbbVie has 4 open AI roles right now. They're hiring across Data Scientist, Research Scientist, AI/ML Engineer. Positions span Florham Park, NJ, US, North Chicago, IL, US, Worcester, MA, US. Compensation range: $162K - $236K.
Location Context
AI roles in Chicago pay a median of $192,900 across 197 tracked positions. That's 10% below the national median.
Career Path
Common paths into Research Scientist roles include PhD Student, Research Engineer, Postdoc.
From here, career progression typically leads toward Research Lead, Distinguished Scientist, VP of Research.
The PhD is the entry point for most paths. Choose your advisor and research area carefully since they'll define your first industry position. Publish consistently, contribute to open-source projects in your area, and build relationships at conferences. Industry research offers better compensation and compute resources than academia, but the pressure to show product impact is real.
What to Expect in Interviews
Research interviews are multi-stage: a research talk (present your best paper), technical deep-dives on your methodology, and often a 'research proposal' exercise where you design an experiment to test a hypothesis. Coding rounds test implementation ability alongside theoretical knowledge. Be prepared to implement a paper from scratch and discuss the design choices the authors made. Strong candidates can critique papers constructively and identify gaps in experimental methodology.
When evaluating opportunities: Strong research postings specify the research area, mention the team you'd join, and describe the problems they're working on. They often list recent publications from the team. Vague 'AI research' postings without specifics usually mean the company wants to sound impressive but doesn't have a real research agenda.
AI Hiring Overview
The AI job market has 4,317 open positions tracked in our dataset. By seniority: 138 entry-level, 2,071 mid-level, 1,655 senior, and 453 leadership roles (Director, VP, C-Level). Remote roles make up 15% of the market (635 positions). The remaining 3,657 roles require on-site or hybrid attendance.
The market median for AI roles is $215,000. Top-quartile compensation starts at $266,300. The 90th percentile reaches $320,790. Highest-paying categories: AI Safety ($287,500 median, 34 roles); Research Engineer ($272,100 median, 227 roles); AI Engineering Manager ($244,000 median, 23 roles).
Research Scientist roles are concentrated at major AI labs (OpenAI, Anthropic, Google DeepMind, Meta FAIR) and well-funded AI startups. The competition is intense. PhD is effectively required for most positions, and publication track record matters. Compensation is among the highest in AI, reflecting both the scarcity of talent and the strategic importance of research breakthroughs.
The AI Job Market Today
The AI job market spans 4,317 open positions across 15 role categories. The largest categories by volume: AI/ML Engineer (3,004), Data Scientist (345), AI Software Engineer (309). These three account for the majority of open positions, though smaller categories often have higher per-role compensation because of specialized skill requirements.
The seniority mix tells a story about where AI teams are in their maturity. Entry-level roles (138) are outnumbered by mid-level (2,071) and senior (1,655) positions, reflecting that most companies are past the 'build a team from scratch' phase and need experienced engineers who can ship production systems. Leadership roles (Director, VP, C-Level) total 453 positions, representing the bottleneck between technical execution and organizational strategy.
Remote work availability sits at 15% of all AI roles (635 positions), with 3,657 requiring on-site or hybrid attendance. The remote share has stabilized after the post-pandemic correction. Senior and specialized roles (Research Scientist, ML Architect) are more likely to be remote-eligible than entry-level positions, partly because experienced hires have more negotiating power and partly because these roles require less hands-on mentorship.
AI compensation is structured in clear tiers. The market median sits at $215,000. Top-quartile roles start at $266,300, and the 90th percentile reaches $320,790. These figures include base salary with disclosed compensation. Total compensation (including equity, bonuses, and sign-on) runs 20-40% higher at companies that offer those components.
Category matters for compensation. AI Safety roles lead at $287,500 median, while Prompt Engineer roles sit at $145,000. The spread between highest and lowest-paying categories reflects the premium on specialized technical skills versus broader analytical roles.
The most in-demand skills across all AI postings: Python (2,249 postings), Aws (1,224 postings), Azure (938 postings), Rag (915 postings), Gcp (660 postings), Pytorch (640 postings), Prompt Engineering (624 postings), Kubernetes (559 postings). Python dominates, appearing in the vast majority of role descriptions regardless of category. Cloud platform experience (AWS, GCP, Azure) is the second most common requirement. The newer entrants to the top skills list (RAG, vector databases, LLM APIs) reflect the shift from traditional ML toward generative AI applications.
Frequently Asked Questions
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