Director, Independent Medical Education

Role Summary

The Director, Independent Medical Education leads AbbVie’s comprehensive grants program to support independent medical education across AbbVie’s key disease areas. This role heads the Independent Medical Education team and drives strategic direction, stewardship of resources, and stakeholder engagement to address critical healthcare knowledge gaps.

Responsibilities

• Lead and Inspire a High-Performing Team: Manage and mentor a team of four IME professionals, driving performance and excellence while ensuring alignment with the company’s strategic goals and vision for independent medical education.
• Strategic Leadership and Oversight: Oversee a $25MM budget, ensuring efficient allocation of resources to support impactful educational programs that enhance clinical practice and patient outcomes; drive strategic direction for disease-specific educational programs.
• Transformation and Innovation: Oversee the IME team’s transformation, including evolution to a new technology platform for IME grant management and reporting; implement robust medical education outcomes, manage IME Preferred Provider Network, execute the call for grants approach, and develop high-impact IME strategies per disease area with strong external engagement.
• Collaborate with Key Stakeholders: Serve as a strategic partner within Medical Affairs + Health Impact (MHI), identifying disease-specific education gaps to enable targeted, high-impact educational strategies that resonate with healthcare providers.
• Data-Driven Impact: Oversee the medical education outcomes framework to collect feedback, evaluate program effectiveness, and report on outcomes to demonstrate value and inform future IME needs.
• Cross-Functional Collaboration: Work with cross-functional teams (MHI, Clinical Research, Regulatory, Legal, Compliance) to ensure educational initiatives align with objectives, standards, and regulatory requirements.
• Industry Leadership and Trendspotting: Stay ahead of trends in medical education by engaging with medical societies and thought leaders to drive innovation in IME.
• Team Development and Talent Building: Cultivate a culture of continuous learning to align the team’s capabilities with evolving company needs and the broader healthcare landscape.

Qualifications

• Minimum 10+ years in positions of relevant experience in medical affairs, medical education, patient education in the pharmaceutical and/or health care industry.
• Exceptional strategic leadership, critical thinking, and operational management skills.
• In-depth knowledge of the healthcare landscape, including disease-specific education gaps and trends in medical education.
• A self-starter with proactive approach to achieving operational and programmatic efficiencies and raising the bar to better serve the healthcare community.
• Excellent business acumen and analytical skills with ability to anticipate needs of patients, leadership, and teams.
• Excellent communications skills and ability to translate impact and opportunities to business leaders and other stakeholders to enable transparency and demonstrate value.
• Proven track record of managing large budgets, forecasting, horizon scanning, and using data to inform strategic and operational decisions.
• Highest ethics and integrity to ensure programs comply with company and governmental policies and guidance.
• Team-oriented, capable of collaborating with senior leaders and internal stakeholders across the enterprise in a demanding environment.