Associate Director, Chief of Staff – People Experience

AbbVie Inc.; North Chicago (IL); On-site; USD 150,000 - 210,000; Full time

Job summary

AbbVie Inc. seeks an Associate Director, Chief of Staff – People Experience to partner with PE leadership, accelerate the PE vision, and optimize the organization’s operations.

The role focuses on how PE operates, prioritizes, plans, and delivers with excellence and strategic clarity. As a core member of the PE Leadership Team, you will define operating models, drive prioritized initiatives, and ensure alignment with AbbVie’s enterprise cycles.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree required; MBA preferred.
• Proven ability to manage complex, cross-functional initiatives in a fast-paced environment.
• Strong executive communication skills for senior audiences.

Responsibilities

• Partner with PE leadership to define and cascade the PE vision and multi-year strategy.
• Own the operating model, ensuring clarity on roles and interdependencies across PE sub-functions.
• Lead portfolio management of strategic initiatives and ensure alignment to top priorities.
• Design and improve rhythms of business, planning cycles, and leadership meetings.
• Represent PE in cross-functional forums and enterprise planning processes.

Skills

Strategic Thinking

Executive Presence

Influence & Stakeholder Management

Communication

Execution Discipline

Prioritization

Collaboration & Integration

Education

Bachelor's degree in Human Resources, Business Administration, Organizational Development, or related field

MBA or advanced degree (preferred)

Job 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.

Position Summary

The Associate Director, Chief of Staff – People Experience (PE) serves as a strategic partner and trusted advisor to the PE Leadership Team, driving the execution and acceleration of the People Experience vision. This role is a core member of the PE leadership team, responsible for optimizing the PE organization itself — how it operates, prioritizes, plans, and delivers against its agenda. The Chief of Staff acts as an integrator, communicator, and accelerator, translating PE's vision into tangible outcomes and ensuring the PE team functions at its highest potential.

Note: This role is focused on PE organizational optimization — not broad HR optimization, which is a shared accountability across the entire PE team. The Chief of Staff ensures PE as an organization runs with excellence, coherence, and strategic clarity.

Key Responsibilities

Strategic Leadership & Vision Acceleration

• Partner with the Head of People Experience and PE leadership to define, refine, and cascade the PE vision and multi-year strategy.
• Identify and resolve strategic gaps, dependencies, and opportunities that affect execution of the PE agenda.
• Serve as a thought partner to senior PE leaders, bringing an enterprise perspective and anticipating organizational needs before they arise.
• Synthesize complex information and distill it into clear, compelling narratives for leadership and stakeholders.

PE Organizational Optimization

• Own the continuous improvement of how the PE organization operates — including how the team is structured to deliver, how decisions get made, and how work gets done.
• Drive clarity on roles, accountabilities, and interdependencies across PE sub-functions to eliminate duplication and increase team effectiveness.
• Identify operational inefficiencies within PE and implement scalable solutions to improve team performance and output quality.
• Partner with PE leaders to assess and evolve the operating model as the team's scope and strategy evolve.

Note: Broad HR optimization (e.g., improving HR programs and services for the enterprise) is a shared responsibility across the entire PE team. This role is specifically accountable for optimizing the PE organization itself.

Prioritization & Portfolio Management

• Lead and manage the PE Leadership Team's portfolio of strategic initiatives, ensuring alignment to top priorities and business outcomes.
• Drive rigorous prioritization frameworks to focus PE resources on the highest-value work.
• Track progress against strategic goals and OKRs; escape risks and recommend course corrections as needed.
• Partner with Finance and HR Operations on PE resource planning and investment decisions.

Rhythms of Business & Operating Model

• Design, own, and continuously improve the rhythms of business for the PE organization, including leadership team meetings, planning cycles, business reviews, and all-hands communications.
• Prepare and curate agendas, pre-reads, and follow-up actions for PE Leadership Team meetings to ensure productive, outcome-oriented sessions.
• Coordinate and manage annual and quarterly planning processes, connecting PE plans to broader AbbVie enterprise cycles.
• Build and maintain a PE operating calendar that ensures key milestones, deliverables, and decisions are managed proactively.

Cross-Functional Collaboration & Stakeholder Engagement

• Serve as a connector across PE sub-functions, breaking down silos and ensuring integrated execution of the PE strategy.
• Represent the PE Leadership Team in cross-functional forums, working groups, and enterprise planning processes.
• Build strong relationships with key stakeholders across HR, Business HR, Finance, Communications, and other enabling functions.

Communications & Change Enablement

• Develop compelling internal communications for the PE organization, including leadership messages, town halls, strategy updates, and culture-building content.
• Champion change management best practices to support adoption of new PE programs, processes, and ways of working within the PE team.
• Elevate the PE team's visibility and brand across the enterprise through strategic storytelling and engagement.

Team Effectiveness & Culture

• Foster a high-performing, inclusive team culture within the PE Leadership Team and broader PE organization.
• Lead special projects and initiatives that strengthen PE organizational effectiveness, engagement, and capability building.
• Act as a culture carrier for the PE vision — modeling AbbVie's values and the behaviors the PE team aspires to enable.

Required

• Bachelor's degree in Human Resources, Business Administration, Organizational Development, or a related field.
• 7+ years of progressive experience in HR, strategy, operations, or a related discipline.
• Demonstrated experience operating at a senior level and influencing without direct authority.
• Proven ability to manage complex, cross-functional initiatives in a fast-paced, matrixed environment.
• Strong executive communication skills — both written and verbal — with the ability to synthesize complexity for senior audiences.
• High learning agility, intellectual curiosity, and comfort navigating ambiguity.

Preferred

• MBA or advanced degree.
• Prior Chief of Staff, HR Strategy, or HR Business Partner experience at a large, matrixed organization.
• Experience in the pharmaceutical, biotech, or life sciences industry.
• Familiarity with organizational design, change management, and workforce planning methodologies.

Competencies

• Strategic Thinking & Business Acumen
• Influence & Stakeholder Management
• Executive Presence & Communication
• Execution Discipline & Prioritization
• Collaboration & Integration
• Learning Agility & Innovation Mindset
• Inclusive Leadership

Why People Experience at AbbVie

The People Experience team is at the heart of how AbbVie attracts, develops, and retains the world‑class talent needed to deliver on its mission. As a member of the PE Leadership Team, the Associate Director, Chief of Staff will have a front‑row seat to enterprise‑wide transformation — with a unique opportunity to shape how the PE organization operates and delivers its vision for AbbVie's people now and into the future.

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 this posting 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 and until 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