Lead AI Automation Engineer

As a Lead AI Automation Engineer, you will drive measurable business impact by designing and implementing AI-powered automation solutions that transform how our Corporate Services and HR business partners operate. You will serve as the critical bridge between complex business needs and technical execution—deeply understanding current-state processes, translating inefficiencies into innovative automation opportunities, and leveraging enterprise tools and AI agents to deliver rapid ROI. This role uniquely combines hands-on technical leadership with strategic thinking: you will architect end-to-end solutions, build working prototypes, mentor the team in design thinking and agentic development, and ensure every solution drives tangible efficiency gains and value for stakeholders.

This role reports to the Associate Director, BTS Corporate Services within the Business Technology Solutions department. We set the vision for how data, analytics and AI automation enhance our enterprise systems. We work closely with business partners and technical implementors to bring that vision to life. This is a hybrid role required to be on-site Tuesday through Thursday every week in Lake County, IL.

Responsibilities: 

• Engage deeply with Corporate Services and HR stakeholders to understand current-state processes, pain points, constraints, to-be business requirements, and success metrics; translate these into technical solution designs that deliver measurable efficiency gains.
• Engineer and implement scalable AI automation solutions; delivering clean, scalable, production-ready code that integrates with enterprise systems and optimizes business partner workflows.
• Prioritize rapid prototyping and iterative development, building working MVPs quickly to validate solutions with stakeholders, then refining based on feedback to accelerate time-to-value.
• Cultivate cross-team relationships while continuously expanding technical knowledge; identifying existing capabilities, shared platforms, and collaborative opportunities that maximize internal resources and drive productivity gains.

Required:

• Bachelor's Degree with 7 years of experience; Master's Degree with 6 years; or PhD with 2 years of relevant experience.
• Python proficiency required — expert-level ability to write production-quality code for automation, AI/ML implementations, and enterprise integrations.
• Familiarity with modern AI orchestration frameworks such as LangChain, LangGraph, or equivalent technologies.
• Proficiency in designing and deploying AI integrations using Model Context Protocol (MCP) and Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) concepts.
• Experience with AI/ML frameworks and tools and understanding of LLM orchestration, agentic workflows, and prompt engineering.
• Proven ability to deliver and maintain production-grade software in enterprise environments, including ongoing support, monitoring, and iterative improvements.
• Strong analytical, problem-solving, and diagnostic skills with ability to understand business processes and identify automation opportunities.
• Broad technical proficiency across software development, data integration, cloud platforms, and enterprise systems — with ability to rapidly learn and apply new technologies.
• Excellent written and oral communication skills, including ability to communicate technical concepts to non-technical stakeholders.
• Operate with high autonomy and minimal supervision—proactively managing stakeholder expectations and keeping leadership informed through clear, concise verbal and written communication.
• Experience in working with international development teams across multiple time zones.
• Demonstrated ability to mentor technical staff, lead cross-functional teams, and drive initiatives to completion.

Preferred:

• Experience in the pharmaceutical industry or other highly regulated environments is preferred.
• Understanding of SDLC methodologies, GxP compliance, and validation requirements is a plus.
• Exposure to graph databases and GraphQL a plus.

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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