Director, AI Partnerships for Clinical Development

ABBVIE; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 182,000 - 346,000; Full time

Job summary

AbbVie in San Francisco, CA, is seeking a Director, Clinical Development AI Partnerships to lead the external innovation program at the intersection of clinical development and artificial intelligence. You’ll shape strategy, govern pilot designs, and manage end-to-end deal processes with external partners to accelerate trials, improve data quality, and drive patient outcomes.

You’ll collaborate with Clinical Development leaders, AI Strategy, and Legal to build scalable playbooks, dashboards, and

Qualifications

• 10+ years of relevant experience in clinical development, clinical innovation, clinical operations, clinical data science, AI strategy, business development, search and evaluation, management consulting, venture, corporate strategy, or related life sciences technology roles.
• Bachelor’s degree in life sciences, medicine, pharmacy, engineering, computer science, data science, business, or a related discipline is required.
• Advanced degree such as MD, PharmD, PhD, MBA, or equivalent experience is preferred.
• Demonstrated ability to understand clinical development workflows and pain points, including trial design, study start-up, enrollment, clinical operations, evidence needs, or adjacent drug development processes.
• Working knowledge of AI/ML, generative AI, analytics, clinical technology, digital health, or data-enabled platforms, with the judgment to evaluate credibility, feasibility, implementation requirements, and potential business impact.
• Experience contributing to external opportunity assessments, technical or business diligence, pilots, collaborations, partnerships, licensing discussions, or other strategic initiatives involving cross-functional decision-making.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills. Able to synthesize complex clinical, technical, operational, and business information into concise recommendations for senior stakeholders.
• Demonstrated ability to thrive in a 0-to-1 environment. Capable of quickly building an internal network, developing trust with cross-functional partners, and collaborating effectively with external organizations.
• Highly organized and execution-oriented, with strong project management, meeting facilitation, stakeholder management, and follow-through. Able to work independently while staying tightly connected to broader team priorities.

Responsibilities

• Deal sourcing: Closely monitor the evolving landscape of AI and pharmaceutical innovation as it relates to clinical development. Proactively identify and evaluate potential partnering opportunities from AI startups, technology companies, frontier model labs, clinical technology platforms, digital health companies, academic groups, and life sciences investors.
• Opportunity evaluation and diligence: Lead or co-lead the structured assessment of external opportunities with Clinical Development, R&D, BTS, S&E, BD&A, legal, privacy, compliance, and functional subject matter experts. This includes managing partner interactions, organizing diligence workstreams, synthesizing scientific and technical input, and preparing clear recommendations for senior leaders and governance forums.
• Pilots, benchmarks, and technical evaluations: Design and coordinate pilots, benchmarks, proof-of-concept studies, and technical evaluations of AI models and platforms applied to clinical development. Ensure evaluations are scoped to answer decision-relevant questions, with clear success criteria, data needs, operational assumptions, risks, and next-step recommendations.
• Deal flow management: Track active assessments, partner interactions, diligence materials, pilot status, decision points, and open issues. Communicate progress and risks to key stakeholders in a timely and concise way, including through written updates, management presentations, governance materials, and working team discussions.
• Partnership and deal execution support: Contribute to the development of appropriate partnership structures, non-binding term sheets, statements of work, technical and operational inputs, risk mitigation strategies, and negotiation considerations in collaboration with BD&A, Transactions Legal, Procurement, BTS, and functional teams.
• Ecosystem development: Build and maintain relationships with external partners and ecosystem participants to improve awareness of AbbVie’s Clinical Development AI priorities and to source high-quality opportunities aligned with business needs.
• Internal alignment and stakeholder management: Help align Clinical Development leaders, functional SMEs, BTS, AI Strategy, and enterprise stakeholders on opportunity fit, value potential, implementation needs, and decision criteria. Facilitate meetings and working sessions that move the organization toward informed decisions.
• Operating model and playbook contribution: Develop reusable approaches for Clinical Development AI external innovation, including diligence templates, pilot design principles, stakeholder maps, decision criteria, ROI and success metric frameworks, and practical guidance on buy-build-partner tradeoffs.

Skills

AI strategy

Clinical development

Business development

Search & Evaluation

Education

Bachelor’s degree in life sciences, medicine, engineering, computer science, data science, business

Advanced degree (MD, PharmD, PhD, MBA or equivalent)

Job description

AbbVie in San Francisco, CA, is seeking a Director, Clinical Development AI Partnerships to lead the external innovation program at the intersection of clinical development and artificial intelligence. You’ll shape strategy, govern pilot designs, and manage end-to-end deal processes with external partners to accelerate trials, improve data quality, and drive patient outcomes.

You’ll collaborate with Clinical Development leaders, AI Strategy, and Legal to build scalable playbooks, dashboards, and