Director, IT Service Continuity

AbbVie; Illinois; On-site; USD 180,000 - 250,000; Full time

Job summary

AbbVie is seeking a Director of IT Service Continuity to provide enterprise-wide leadership for IT Service Continuity, IT Crisis Management, and IT Business Continuity. The role partners with senior leaders to mitigate risk and ensure resilience across global operations.

You will set strategy, govern standards, and oversee crisis response, incident command, and recovery planning to protect mission-critical services. Strong leadership and ITSM/ITIL expertise are essential.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Information Technology, Business, Engineering, or related field with at least 10 years of experience OR Master’s Degree with at least 9 years of experience.
• Extensive experience in IT service continuity, IT crisis management, or operational resilience.
• Strong understanding of IT Service Management (ITSM) and ITIL-based practices (or similar), including incident, major incident, problem, and change management, and their role in supporting service continuity and operational resilience.
• Demonstrated leadership experience managing complex, cross-functional teams.
• Strong knowledge of IT operations, risk-based frameworks, and enterprise technology environments.
• Excellent communication and stakeholder engagement skills.

Responsibilities

• Define, own, and govern AbbVie’s IT Service Continuity and IT Crisis Management strategy, policies, and standards.
• Establish enterprise-level frameworks, operating models, and accountability structures that integrate service continuity, business continuity, disaster recovery, risk management, and crisis response.
• Drive long-term capability maturity through roadmap development, investment prioritization, and performance measurement.
• Identify and champion opportunities to enhance Service Continuity, Crisis Management, and Recovery capabilities through process optimization, automation, and responsible use of AI-enabled solutions.

Skills

IT Service Continuity

IT Crisis Management

ITSM

ITIL

Leadership

Stakeholder Engagement

Education

Bachelor's degree in IT/Business/Engineering

Master's degree (preferred)

Tools

ServiceNow

Coupa

ProcessUnity

CL Digital

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,XandYouTube.

The Director, IT Service Continuity provides enterprise‑wide strategic leadership and governance for AbbVie’s IT Service Continuity, IT Crisis Management, and IT Business Continuity capabilities. This role is accountable for defining strategy, setting policy, and ensuring execution of continuity and crisis management practices that protect AbbVie’s business‑critical services and support uninterrupted operations globally.

The Director partners with senior technology and business leaders to anticipate and mitigate enterprise risk, ensure regulatory and audit defensibility, and continuously mature AbbVie’s resilience posture. This role balances strategic oversight and executive decision support with operational leadership, ensuring AbbVie can effectively withstand, respond to, and recover from major IT incidents and crisis events.

As the functional head of Service Continuity, the Director aligns people, processes, and enabling technologies to deliver a cohesive, risk‑based resilience framework across infrastructure, applications, suppliers, and business operations.

Responsibilities:

Enterprise Strategy & Governance

• Define, own, and govern AbbVie’s IT Service Continuity and IT Crisis Management strategy, policies, and standards.
• Establishenterprise‑levelframeworks, operating models, and accountability structures that integrate service continuity, business continuity, disaster recovery, risk management, and crisis response.
• Drivelong‑termcapability maturity through roadmap development, investment prioritization, and performance measurement.
• Identifyand champion opportunities to enhance Service Continuity, Crisis Management, and Recovery capabilities through process optimization, automation, and responsible use of AI‑enabled solutions, in alignment with AbbVie standards and enterprise technology strategy.

Executive Leadership & Crisis Decision Support

• Provideexecutive‑leveloversight, coordination, and decision support during IT crises and major incidents, including escalation guidance andrisk‑informedrecommendations.
• Serve as a trusted advisor to senior technology and business leadership on resilience, availability risk, and recoverytradeoffs.
• Represent IT Service Continuity in executive, risk, and compliance forums asrequired.

Incident Command & Major Incident Management Oversight

• Provide senior leadership oversight and strategic direction for AbbVie’s global Incident Command Center (ICC) supporting 24x7x365 Major Incident Management.
• Partner with the Associate Director (ICC Team Lead) to ensure operational excellence, workforce readiness, succession planning, and continual service improvement.
• Ensure the ICC operating model aligns with ITSM practices and enterprise resilienceobjectives.
• Provide governance and strategic oversight for IT Event Management practices, ensuring alignment with Major Incident Management, Crisis Management, and Service Continuityobjectives, including clear escalation thresholds, integration points, and performance expectations.

Business Criticality, Resilience & Disaster Recovery

• Oversee therisk‑basedassessment of applications and systems, including business criticality classification and resilience requirements.
• Provide executive oversight for disaster recovery strategy, testing, remediation, and risk acceptance decisions forbusiness‑criticaltechnologies.
• Ensure continuity and recovery strategies are aligned with business impact, regulatory expectations, and enterprise risk tolerance.

Third‑Party& Supplier Resilience Oversight

• Establish and oversee governance forthird‑partysupplier continuity and disaster recovery posture, in partnership with procurement, supplier risk, and legal teams.
• Ensurerisk‑basedcontinuity requirements are defined, assessed, and tracked for material suppliers.

Compliance, Audit & Risk Management

• Provide leadership oversight for IT Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery responses to internal, external, and regulatory audits.
• Ensure evidence, reporting, and controls are consistent, defensible, and aligned with enterprise risk management expectations.
• Proactivelyidentifyand elevate systemic continuity or recovery risks to senior leadership.

Organization Leadership & Capability Maturity

• Lead and develop the Service Continuity organization, setting vision, expectations, and performance outcomes.
• Build a culture of preparedness, accountability, and continuous improvement across global teams and partners.
• Develop talent, successors, and future leaders within the Service Continuity and incident response functions.

Required:

• Bachelor’s degree in Information Technology, Business, Engineering, or related fieldwith at least 10 years ofexperience ORMaster's Degree with at least 9 years ofexperience.
• Extensive experience in IT service continuity, IT crisis management, or operational resilience.
• Strong understanding of IT Service Management (ITSM) and ITIL‑based practices(or similar), including incident, major incident, problem, and change management, and their role in supporting service continuity and operational resilience.
• Demonstrated leadership experience managing complex, cross-functional teams.
• Strong knowledge of IT operations, risk-based frameworks, and enterprise technology environments.
• Excellent communication and stakeholder engagement skills.

Preferred:

• Experience in regulated environments such as life sciences or healthcare.
• Experience leading large‑scale ITincidentsor crisis response organizations.
• Familiarity with businessor application/systemimpact analysis, disaster recovery, and supplier risk management.
• CertifiedBusiness Continuity Planner Designation (CBCP, MBCP, or equivalent).
• Experience with ServiceNow, Coupa,ProcessUnity, CL Digital.

Applicable only to applicants applying to a position in any location with pay disclosure requirements under state orlocal law:

• The compensation range described below is the range of possible base pay compensation that the Companybelieves ingood faith it will pay for this role at the timeof this posting based on the job grade for this position.Individualcompensation paid within this range will depend on many factors including geographic location, andwemayultimatelypaymore or less than the posted range. This range may bemodifiedin thefuture.
• We offer a comprehensive package of benefits including paid time off (vacation, holidays, sick),medical/dental/visioninsurance and 401(k) to eligibleemployees.
• This job is eligible toparticipatein our long-term incentiveprograms.

Note: No amount of payis considered to bewages or compensation until such amount is earned, vested, anddeterminable.The amount and availability of any bonus,commission, incentive, benefits, or any other form ofcompensation and benefitsthat are allocable to a particular employeeremainsin the Company's sole andabsolutediscretion unless and until paid andmay bemodifiedat the Company’s sole and absolute discretion, consistent withapplicable 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

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