Application Architect

Company 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 . Follow @abbvie on LinkedIn, Facebook , Instagram , X and YouTube.

Job Description

As an Application Architect in the BTS IR GTP Architecture & Platforms team, you'll serve as the primary technology partner for two critical R&D domains. You'll own end-to-end solution architecture across these domains — translating complex business needs into scalable, compliant, and AI-ready technology solutions that directly impact financial stewardship, operational efficiency, and patient safety outcomes.

This is a domain-embedded role. You sit with the business, understand their priorities deeply, and serve as their trusted technology advisor — not a back-office support function.

Based onsite in Lake County, IL with flexibility to work from home 2 days/week.

Ideal Candidates Are:

• Domain-Embedded Architects: You earn the trust of business partners by understanding their world — their processes, pain points, compliance obligations, and strategic goals — as deeply as your technical domain.

• AI-Fluent Technologists: You don't build AI systems from scratch, but you deeply understand how GenAI, agentic workflows, and automation can be applied to deliver real business value — and you know where the risks are.

• Forward Thinkers: You evaluate emerging technologies with a critical eye — championing what's practical, compliant, and impactful, not just what's cutting-edge.

• Systems Thinkers: You see the full picture — architecture decisions, integration patterns, data flows, technical debt, and downstream compliance implications — before committing to a design.

• Stakeholder Champions: You earn trust at all levels — translating technical complexity into business value and navigating competing priorities with clarity and confidence.

• Highly Autonomous: You operate with minimal supervision, manage your own priorities, and keep leadership and domain partners informed proactively.

• Collaborative Multipliers: You elevate peers, share architectural knowledge across vertical and horizontal teams, and contribute to a culture of engineering excellence.

Responsibilities:

Domain Architecture & Solution Design

• Serve as the primary Application Architect for R&D Domains — owning solution architecture across the full application portfolio for both domains.

• Engage deeply with domain stakeholders to understand current-state processes, business requirements, compliance constraints, and success metrics — translating them into architecture designs that deliver measurable value.

• Lead end-to-end solution design: evaluating technology options, defining integration patterns, assessing build-vs-buy tradeoffs, and ensuring alignment with AbbVie architecture standards and review process.

• Identify and proactively address technical debt, application rationalization opportunities, and capability gaps within your domain portfolio.

Applied AI & Innovation

• Assess and guide the adoption of GenAI, agentic workflows, and automation technologies within your domains — ensuring solutions are secure, auditable, GxP-compliant, and aligned to GTP's agentic AI standards.

• Partner with the Applied AI & Technologies horizontal team to evaluate AI feasibility for domain-specific use cases, contribute to PoCs, and drive GenAI adoption in a standards-aligned manner.

• Serve as a domain-embedded AI advisor — helping business stakeholders understand what AI can and cannot do, and translating opportunity into actionable, fundable initiatives.

Technical Governance & Quality

• Participate in and support the IR Architecture Review (IR-DRB) process — ensuring domain projects meet architecture standards, leverage reusable patterns, and avoid introducing unnecessary complexity or technical debt.

• Maintain architecture documentation, application tiering, and capability mapping for your domain portfolio in alignment with GTP standards.

• Adhere to and enforce GxP compliance, data security requirements, SDLC standards, and applicable AbbVie corporate policies — with particular rigor given the Patient Safety domain context.

Stakeholder Engagement & Organizational Impact

• Build and maintain trusted relationships with R&D Finance, Operations, and Patient Safety domain leaders — acting as a strategic technology partner, not just a delivery resource.

• Communicate architecture decisions, technology tradeoffs, and AI opportunities clearly to both technical and non-technical audiences — securing buy-in through demonstrated business value.

• Contribute to GTP team knowledge sharing through the AI CoI, architecture forums, and cross-pod collaboration.

• Mentor peers and junior engineers in architecture best practices, AI application, and domain-specific compliance requirements.

Qualifications

Required:

• Education: Bachelor's + 7 years, Master's + 6 years, or PhD + 2 years of relevant experience.

• Enterprise Architecture: Proven experience designing and delivering scalable, production-grade application architecture in complex enterprise environments — including integration patterns, cloud platforms, and data architecture.

• AI Fluency: Strong working knowledge of GenAI, LLMs, agentic workflows, and automation technologies — with the ability to assess fit, evaluate risks, and guide adoption without necessarily building these systems from scratch.

• Cloud Platforms: Hands-on experience with at least one major cloud platform (AWS, Azure, or GCP) for enterprise application and AI/ML workloads.

• Integration & Data: Experience with enterprise integration platforms, API management, and data architecture — including connecting SaaS, cloud, and on-premise systems.

• Build-vs-Buy Judgment: Track record of making and defending sound technology decisions — balancing cost, scalability, compliance, and time-to-value.

• Communication & Influence: You translate architecture complexity into clear business value — securing buy-in from domain leaders, project teams, and senior stakeholders.

• Delivery & Impact: Proven track record delivering architecture solutions with measurable business outcomes — efficiency gains, cost reduction, or capability advancement.

Preferred:

• Experience in pharma or life sciences, with familiarity with Patient Safety, Pharmacovigilance, or R&D Finance business processes and supporting platforms.

• Regulated Environments: Demonstrated experience delivering architecture in GxP, HIPAA, or equivalent regulated environments — with strong understanding of compliance, validation, and audit requirements.

• Hands-on experience with agentic AI frameworks (LangChain, LangGraph, AutoGen) or AI safety and traceability patterns for regulated environments.

• Background in application portfolio management, business capability mapping, or the TIME rationalization model.

• Familiarity with enterprise integration platforms and API management.

• Background in Lean, Six Sigma, or design thinking.

Additional Information

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

• The compensation range described below is the range of possible base pay compensation that the Company believes in good faith it will pay for this role at the time of this posting based on the job grade for this position. Individual compensation paid within this range will depend on many factors including geographic location, and we may ultimately pay more or less than the posted range. This range may be modified in the future. ​

• We offer a comprehensive package of benefits including paid time off (vacation, holidays, sick), medical/dental/vision insurance and 401(k) to eligible employees.​

• This job is eligible to participate in our long-term incentive programs. ​

Note: No amount of pay is considered to be wages or compensation until such amount is earned, vested, and determinable. The amount and availability of any bonus, commission, incentive, benefits, or any other form of compensation and benefits that are allocable to a particular employee remains in the Company's sole and absolute discretion unless and until paid and may be modified at the Company’s sole and absolute discretion, consistent with applicable 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.

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