Senior Manager– AI Governance & Controls Engineering

AbbVie; North Chicago (IL); On-site; USD 125,000 - 237,000; Full time

Job summary

AbbVie is seeking a Senior Manager– AI Governance & Controls Engineering to elevate our AI risk management program. You will lead compliance with the EU AI Act, U.S.

state AI laws, and NIST AI RMF, and drive scalable governance across multiple platforms and use cases. You will build and mentor an AI Controls Engineering team, own OneTrust workflows, partner with Privacy, Security, Quality, Risk Management and Legal, and push continuous improvement through automation while aligning business goals

Qualifications

• 8+ years in SQA, CSV, investigations or auditing, including at least 2 years in people management.
• Experience in AI governance, regulatory assurance (EU AI Act, U.S. state AI law, NIST AI RMF).
• Develop policy frameworks, validation strategies, and process harmonization at enterprise level.
• Strong communication and influencing skills with executives, regulators, and internal stakeholders.
• Proven track record leading audit/inspection responses and CAPA for AI governance findings.

Responsibilities

• Provide strategic leadership in AI governance and controls-engineering across AbbVie and related platforms.
• Lead and develop the AI Controls Engineering team, supervising key roles.
• Design and implement AI governance controls and automation solutions, leveraging OneTrust.
• Architect AI governance strategy and policy frameworks across the enterprise.
• Drive audit and inspection support, CAPA deployment and closure for governance findings.
• Oversee vendor/documentation workflows (including OneTrust) and partner management.
• Utilize metrics and dashboards to monitor control effectiveness and AI risk exposure.
• Identify automation opportunities to increase efficiency without headcount growth.
• Engage cross-functional partners to align investments with regulatory objectives.
• Foster innovation and standardize best practices across the GOM function.
• Lead governance reviews for AI use cases submitted through intake and risk assessment.
• Own OneTrust workflow integration for AI risk assessment orchestration.
• Identify emerging AI risks and develop future-proof controls.
• Serve as technical liaison between GOM and Privacy, Security, Quality, Risk Management, and Legal.

Skills

Regulatory compliance

Leadership

Stakeholder management

AI governance

Auditing

Education

Bachelor’s Degree

Master’s Degree

PhD

Tools

OneTrust

Automation tooling

Cloud technologies

Job description

Senior Manager– AI Governance & Controls Engineering

• Full-time
• Salary Min: 124500
• Salary Max: 236500
• Workday Global Grade: 19
• Travel: Yes, 10% of the Time
• Compensation: USD 124,500 - USD 236,500 - yearly

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.

The Senior Manager, AI Governance & Controls Engineering is responsible for elevating AbbVie’s AI governance operations by ensuring full compliance with AI-specific regulatory requirements (EU AI Act, U.S. state AI law, NIST AI RMF) and AbbVie internal AI policy, while providing advanced strategic leadership across AI risk-control design, monitoring, and validation strategy. This role leads the development and implementation of AI governance control systems and processes, leveraging digital enablement, data-driven methodologies, and automation — including AI itself — to scale governance without proportional headcount growth. Collaborating directly with cross-functional teams (Privacy, Security, Quality, Risk Management, Legal), the Senior Manager provides audit and inspection support, drives Corrective Action and Preventive Action (CAPA) execution for AI governance findings, and oversees adoption of vendor/platform documentation (including the OneTrust risk-management platform), strengthening operations through proactive risk mitigation.

Additionally, the Senior Manager leads and develops a high-performing AI Controls Engineering team — including direct oversight of the Principal Quality Engineer, AI Controls Engineering role —, manages critical partnerships and contracts, and champions continuous process improvement, technology adoption, and innovation. This role acts as the primary liaison for AI governance initiatives, policy frameworks, and audit readiness driving high-impact results and aligning business and regulatory objectives across AbbVie’s AI landscape.

Responsibilities

• Provide advanced strategic leadership in the analysis, oversight, and execution of AI governance and controls-engineering activities, ensuring compliance with AI-specific regulatory requirements (EU AI Act, U.S. state AI law, NIST AI RMF) and corporate procedures across all AI use cases, platforms, and projects.
• Lead, mentor, and develop a high-performing AI Controls Engineering team, including direct supervision of the Principal Quality Engineer, AI Controls Engineering role; set clear expectations, provide coaching, and support professional growth.
• Lead the design and implementation of advanced AI governance control and automation solutions, applying expert solution-building skills to streamline ACTOR and OneTrust activities, reduce manual effort, and accelerate delivery of compliant AI governance reviews across the enterprise.
• Architect and oversee AI governance control strategy, policy framework development, and harmonization of AI risk-management processes enterprise-wide — including platform-level versus use-case-level control placement —, ensuring alignment with business and regulatory objectives.
• Drive enterprise-level audit and inspection support for AI governance, including leading audit defense, crafting responses to inspection findings, and managing the deployment and closure of CAPA solutions for AI governance findings across functional areas.
• Oversee and optimize the use of vendor/platform documentation (including OneTrust), partner management, and contract oversight to ensure partner performance, quality deliverables, and compliance with SLAs.
• Utilize advanced metrics, KPIs, and dashboards to monitor AI governance control effectiveness, assess AI risk exposure, and drive data-driven decisions for continuous improvement.
• Proactively identify and enable opportunities for AI governance process automation and technology adoption that increase efficiency, stakeholder satisfaction, and audit-readiness — while avoiding headcount growth proportional to AI adoption.
• Engage, influence, and align cross-functional partners, executive stakeholders, and AI Governance Office leadership to advance strategic technology investments and AI governance initiatives.
• Foster a culture of innovation, standardize best practices and templates, promote lessons learned, and champion continuous improvement throughout the AI Governance, Operations & Monitoring (GOM) function.
• Lead governance reviews for AI use cases submitted through AbbVie’s ACTOR intake, triage, and risk assessment process, applying EU AI Act and U.S. state-law risk classification and assigning proportionate controls.
• Own OneTrust (or successor risk-management platform) workflow integration for AI risk assessment orchestration, control tracking, documentation, and reporting.
• Identify emerging AI risks — including agentic workflows, autonomous decision-making, and new model architectures — and develop future-proof control frameworks ahead of regulatory change.
• Serve as the primary technical point of contact between GOM and Privacy, Security, Quality, Risk Management, and Legal on AI control design and implementation, and support the AI Legal pillar’s Functional Embedded Partners in ensuring risk recommendations are technically implementable and monitorable.

Required

• Bachelor’s Degree with minimum of 8 years of experience; Master’s Degree with 7 years of experience; PhD plus 3 years of experience.
• Respective years of demonstrated experience in SQA, CSV, investigations, and/or auditing, including at least 2 years in a formal people management and supervisory capacity leading quality professionals and managers.
• Demonstrated expertise in regulatory assurance, process improvement, enterprise risk management, automation, validation strategy, and leading audit/inspection responses — applied to an AI governance context (EU AI Act, U.S. state AI law, NIST AI RMF).
• Proven ability to develop and execute policy frameworks, validation strategies, and process harmonization initiatives at the enterprise level.
• Strong technology acumen, with advanced knowledge of cloud, automated testing, AI/ML applications (including generative and agentic AI), advanced quality analytics, and modern Computer Software Assurance (CSA) practices.
• Superior communication and influencing skills, with established success engaging executive sponsors, external partners, regulators, and internal stakeholders.
• Track record of leading team development, coaching, and driving high performance across diverse IT Quality functions.

Preferred

• Experience managing cross-functional teams, overseeing vendor/partner relationships, contract management, resource allocation, and budgeting; experience with GRC or risk-management platforms (e.g., OneTrust) strongly preferred.
• Preferred certifications: ASQ Certified Quality Auditor, PMP, Six Sigma, or equivalent.

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.