Senior Manager– AI Governance & Controls Engineering

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 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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