Strategic Collaborations Senior Manager

Abbott Laboratories; San Diego (CA); On-site; USD 113,000 - 227,000; Full time

Job summary

Abbott Laboratories, a global healthcare leader, seeks a Senior Manager of Strategic Collaborations in San Diego to drive cross‑functional clinical studies and partnerships. You will coordinate study engagement, approvals, and execution while aligning with contractual obligations and data delivery goals.

You will lead collaboration plans, monitor milestones, and surface risks to ensure timely decisions and productive partnerships across clinical, research, medical, and legal teams.

Qualifications

• 7+ years of experience in biotech, pharma, diagnostics, or academic translational studies.
• Ability to interpret complex clinical data and translate into actionable items.
• Strong project management skills with familiarity with Smartsheet, MS Project, and AI tools.
• Excellent verbal and written communication across functions and levels.
• Strong organizational skills to manage multiple high‑priority projects.
• Authorized to work in the U.S. without visa sponsorship; sponsorship not offered.
• Willingness to travel up to 25%.

Responsibilities

• Serve as cross‑functional partner for collaborative studies, providing visibility, structure, and momentum.
• Develop collaborative research plans and statements of work, monitor milestones and deliverables.
• Identify and evaluate new clinical research opportunities and coordinate review and due diligence.
• Act as connective tissue across business, clinical, research, medical, legal, and leadership stakeholders.
• Apply operational expertise to execute studies in a matrixed environment, managing timelines, risks, and dependencies.
• Maintain regular status updates and accountability for collaboration progress.
• Create decision‑ready materials—dashboards, reports, and presentations.

Skills

Project management

Excellent communication

Cross-functional collaboration

Analytical ability

Organizational skills

Problem solving

Education

Bachelor's Degree in STEM

PhD in STEM field

Tools

Smartsheet

MS Project

AI tools

CRM systems

Scheduling tools

Job description

Abbott is a global healthcare leader that helps people live more fully at all stages of life. Our portfolio of life-changing technologies spans the spectrum of healthcare, with leading businesses and products in diagnostics, medical devices, nutritionals and branded generic medicines. Our 122,000 colleagues serve people in more than 160 countries.

Position Overview

The Strategic Collaborations Senior Manager supports strategic clinical collaboration studies activities that enable the adoption of new and emerging technologies and the acquisition of biological samples for product development and clinical research including clinical validation and clinical utility This role coordinates collaboration efforts across internal teams and external partners, managing study engagement, approval and execution workflows and deliverables to ensure alignment with contractual obligations and relationship expectations. The Strategic Collaborations Senior Manager combines scientific understanding with operational rigor and a strong service mindset to help ensure collaborations run smoothly and effectively from concept to execution and data delivery.

Essential Duties

Include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Serve as a cross-functional partner for collaborative studies, providing visibility, structure, and momentum to advance prospective and active projects utilizing the engagement, study approval and execution processes.
• Support development of collaborative research plans and statements of work and monitor milestones and deliverables, surfacing risks and opportunities to enable timely decision‑making and productive partnerships.
• Identify and evaluate new and emerging clinical research opportunities, assessing potential impact to research and development and clinical validation and utility and coordinating review and due diligence activities.
• Act as a connective tissue across business, clinical, research, medical, legal, commercial, and leadership stakeholders to ensure clear communication and alignment on collaboration objectives.
• Apply operational expertise to support execution of collaborative studies in a highly matrixed environment, managing timelines, resources, risks, and interdependencies.
• Maintain a strong pulse on collaboration progress, facilitating the right discussions at the right time to sustain forward momentum and accountability.
• Develop clear, decision‑ready materials—including dashboards, reports, and presentations that synthesize collaboration status, insights, and next steps.
• Uphold company mission and values through accountability, innovation, integrity, quality, and teamwork.
• Support and comply with the company’s Quality Management System policies and procedures.
• Maintain regular and reliable attendance.
• Ability to act with an inclusion mindset and model these behaviors for the organization.
• Ability to travel up to 25% of working time away from work location (e.g., between Abbott Cancer Diagnostics locations, to collaborative institutions, to scientific medical conferences, etc.); may include overnight/weekend travel.

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelors Degree in STEM field
• 7+ years of combined experience in biotech, pharma, diagnostics, or academic setting working with clinicians and researchers from academic medical centers performing translational and clinical studies in peer review settings.
• Demonstrated ability to interpret complex clinical and scientific data and translate it into clear action items to help advance studies.
• Strong project management skills and familiarity with tools (i.e. Smartsheet, MS Project, relevant AI tools).
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills, including ability to interact with stakeholders across functions and levels.
• Strong organizational skills with the ability to manage multiple high‑priority projects concurrently.
• Demonstrated ability to perform the essential duties of the position with or without accommodation.
• Applicants must be currently authorized to work in country where work will be performed on a full or part‑time basis. We are unable to sponsor or take over sponsorship of employment visas at this time.

Preferred Qualifications

• Ph.D. in STEM field
• Experience in oncology diagnostics or precision medicine in industry or academic settings.
• 4+ years of experience with project management and related techniques.
• Working knowledge/familiarity with collaboration contracts including clinical service, confidentiality, material transfer, partnership contracts, and sponsored research.
• Experience coordinating with academic, clinical, or industry partners on collaborative programs.
• Hands‑on experience with contract workflows, negotiation support, and cross‑functional stakeholder engagement.
• Strong familiarity with Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems, scheduling tools, and collaboration platforms.
• Strong analytical ability to evaluate new technologies and trends, interpret scientific literature, and assess technology impact to cancer molecular diagnostic field.
• Ability to anticipate risks, navigate ambiguity, and drive clarity across matrixed environments.

The base pay for this position is $113,300.00 – $226,700.00. In specific locations, the pay range may vary from the range posted.