Senior Specialist, R&D Procurement

AbbVie · North Chicago, IL, United States

  • Senior
  • Full-time
  • Posted 2026-09-18
  • Confirmed live on 25 September 2026

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Job description

Job Description
Purpose:
The Senior Specialist, R&D Procurement is responsible for executing source-to contract procurement processes in alignment with business goals, industry best practices, and applicable procurement policies. The role will support contracting activities for Real World Evidence (RWE), clinical research, and related evidence-generation work, partnering with internal stakeholders – including Clinical, Epidemiology, Health Economics and Outcomes Research, Medical Affairs, Legal, Finance, and other business functions – to source, contract with, and manage external suppliers and research partners. This role contributes to supplier selection, proposal and budget evaluation, contract development, negotiation, and execution. The position also supports supplier diversity and sustainability objectives, continuous improvement initiatives, risk mitigation, and day-to-day supplier excellence.
Responsibilities:

• Execute source-to-contract procurement activities for Real World Evidence, clinical research, and related evidence-generation services in alignment with category strategies, business requirements, and procurement policies.

• Support the end-to-end contracting process for RWE engagements, including development and issuance of requests for proposals, supplier identification and evaluation, scope and deliverable review, budget assessment, contract drafting and review, redlining, negotiation, approval routing, execution, and contract closeout.

• Partner with RWE, Clinical, Epidemiology, Health Economics and Outcomes Research, Medical Affairs, Legal, Finance, and other stakeholders to translate scientific and business requirements into clear statements of work, appropriate contracting structures, milestones, deliverables, payment terms, and budgets.

• Review and negotiate supplier proposals, budgets, work orders, amendments, and other contracting documents, ensuring alignment between scope, assumptions, timelines, deliverables, pricing, and payment schedules.

• Coordinate with Legal and business stakeholders on contractual terms applicable to RWE and clinical work, including confidentiality, data privacy and security, data ownership and access, publication rights, intellectual property, regulatory compliance, audit rights, indemnification, liability, and termination provisions.

• Support contracting for a range of RWE activities, such as retrospective and prospective observational studies, database and claims analyses, electronic health record studies, patient and provider research, chart reviews, registries, external comparator, and other health data or evidence-generation projects.

• Maintain excellence in contract execution across source-to-contract and requisition-to-pay processes, ensuring accurate documentation, and timely approvals.

• Identify and escalate procurement, contracting, supplier, budget, data, and operational risks, and provide tactical input to risk mitigation plans developed in collaboration with Category Managers and relevant business partners.

• Oversee or provide guidance on the execution of procurement activities by Specialists, sharing expertise in RWE and clinical contracting practices and supporting the development of team capabilities.

Qualifications
• Bachelor’s degree in business administration, Supply Chain Mgmt, Clinical Research, Life Sciences, Health Economics, Legal Studies, or related field.

• Minimum of 5 years of experience in procurement, strategic sourcing, clinical research operations, RWE, health economics and outcomes research, pharmaceutical operations, legal contracting and contractual terms, coordinating approvals, and executing contracts.

• Experience supporting end-to-end contracting activities, including drafting or reviewing statements of work, evaluating budgets, redlining agreements, negotiating commercial and contractual terms, coordinating approvals, and executing contracts.

• Demonstrated experience with contracts and budgets for clinical research, RWE, observational research, epidemiology, health data, medical affairs, or other pharmaceutical or healthcare-related services.

• Working knowledge of RWE and evidence-generation concepts, including observational studies, claims and electronic health record data, registries, chart reviews, database studies, patient research, and related data sources and methodologies.

• Clinical research or healthcare experience, with an understanding of clinical study operations, research deliverables, research timelines, data requirements, and interactions with external research organizations, data providers, or other suppliers.

• Legal or paralegal experience supporting commercial, clinical research, life sciences, healthcare, or procurement agreements, including contract drafting, redlining, issue identification, and negotiation.

• Ability to interpret and negotiate statements of work, budgets, payment schedules, milestones, deliverables, assumptions, change orders, and amendments.

• Strong

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