Associate Director, US Therapeutics Forecasting Center of Excellence

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 – immunology, oncology, neuroscience, and eye care – and products and services in our Allergan Aesthetics portfolio. For more information about AbbVie, please visit us at www.abbvie.com. Follow @abbvie on X, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, LinkedIn and Tik Tok.

Center of Excellence (COE) Overview

The US Forecasting Center of Excellence defines the standards, processes, and overall architecture (systems/models) for the US Therapeutics Sales Forecasting teams.  The team implements and deploys new technologies to enhance forecast effectiveness and efficiency.  In addition, the COE is responsible for building forecasting competencies across US Therapeutics Finance through development and delivery of training, establishment and communication of forecasting best practices, and partnering with forecasting teams to enhance their processes and approaches.

The US Therapeutics Forecasting COE is tasked with identifying and executing plans in support of the team’s mission.  The role also serves as a strategic advisor to forecasters and forecasting leadership across BUs.

Core job responsibilities

1) Build tools / capability in support of US Therapeutics Forecasting:

• Direct large, cross-functional teams in the identification, selection, development, and implementation of new forecasting capabilities.  Cross-functional teams may include COE team members (this role’s direct and indirect reports), BTS, stakeholders including forecasters, commercial/marketing partners, external vendors, etc.
• Develop system / technology vision and manage key decision-making/governance processes throughout the development of new capabilities.
• New capabilities may include but are not limited to:
  • Data systems such as the Finance Commercial Data Lake (CDLF) including links to forecast models and downstream systems / visualization tools
  • Visualization tools such as SPARtA that streamline the preparation of review content for forecasters during LBE, Plan, and LRP
  • Commercial forecasting tools such as ForecastPro or IQVIA Forecast Horizon
• Direct the COE team in the development of smaller / proof-of-concept tools for use by specific BU teams / forecasters.  Examples of such tools are Excel-based LBE/Plan graph files (“VGSAM”) and the patient flow calculator.
• Identify and implement appropriate supplemental analytical tools to elevate the quality of US Therapeutics Forecasting.  Examples of supplemental tools include ForecastPro, FlexiCast, and @Risk/Crystal Ball

2) Establish and implement forecasting guiding principles / best practices:

• Direct the team in identifying, developing, and implementing forecasting guiding principles across all BU teams.
• Continuously monitor AbbVie forecasting processes and identify best practices / challenge areas and help teams maintain best-in-class delivery
• Conduct external research to monitor industry forecasting best practices, and work to incorporate into AbbVie processes.

3) Conduct / lead forecast analytics: Identify Cross-TA analytical needs, and direct the COE team/vendors in projects to meet those needs.  Examples may include:

• Analog research: Establish and maintain analog libraries for modeling various market events including product / indication launch, LOE, label change (expansion / safety), market access changes
• Pan-Industry events: Coordination of volume forecast impact of pan-industry events such as IRA, Covid, etc.

4) Provide consultation / strategic guidance to forecast leadership: Act as a consultant/advisor for brand forecasting teams.

• Leverage his/her and the COE’s collective expertise to advise forecasters across BU teams on how to address challenging questions that are not addressed through training or existing guiding principles.
• Establish a network of internal and external (vendor) resources to address particularly challenging forecasting questions, and work to bring novel best practices from outside the organization.

5) Drive Forecaster Training/Upskilling: Partner with BU forecasting leadership to identify and define the skills required for effective forecasters.  Direct the COE team in the development and delivery of training content to address core areas and elevate forecasting skills.  Key areas of education include:

• Onboarding: Develop, maintain, and execute onboarding curriculum for all individuals entering forecasting roles.
• Data/analytical approaches: Ensure forecaster knowledge of data sources and analytical approaches available and to be utilized in forecasting including the strengths and limitations of different data sources and analytical approaches such as:
  • Data: Syndicated national data (e.g. IQVIA NPA, NSP, NBRx); Wholesaler/pharmacy data (852/867, sellouts, inventory levels, etc.); Claims (indication splits, rejections/reversals, etc.); epidemiology (incidence, prevalence, diagnosis/testing rates); Pricing (WAC, GTN)
  • Analytical techniques: Primary market research (Conjoint, ATU); Analog identification, selection, and application; Competitive intelligence
• Forecast modeling techniques / methodologies
  • Trending: Selecting appropriate historical data, trending methodologies / tools, managing seasonality, adjusting for working days, etc.
  • Event modeling: Predicting and quantifying the impact of market events such as Product launches, LOEs, Label changes, Market access wins/losses, Changes to clinical guidelines, Changes in promotional investment, etc.
  • Forecasting approaches: Demand (TRx), Patient flow (New patient starts), Epidemiology
  • Risk assessment: Measuring and communicating forecasts risks, e.g. through tornado diagrams or Monte Carlo simulation
• Communication training: Develop COE team and BU forecasters in strong analytical storytelling, slide/presentation development, appropriate representation of data, and adapting content depending on audience
• Facilitation of external training: Maintain / cultivate a list of external training resources that forecasters can attend to grow their skills.  Examples may include ZS and Kantar forecasting seminars, Webinars offered by various organizations with forecasting expertise (IQIVA, ZS, Evaluate, ForecastPro), Presenting With Confidence, etc.

6) COE Operations: Oversee the team delivering key operational processes in support of organizational forecasting / finance reporting:

• Regular meetings with forecasters and forecast leadership to provide guidance on timelines and required deliverables for corporate processes, provide necessary training at key points
• Content in support of S&OP including JDA loads and ADS packages
• Regular reports such as Weekly Sales (WSR) and DoH
• PPD for close, LBEs, plan, etc.
• Deliverables for partner functions including LBEs to MABI for tracking purposes, LBEs and Actuals to the Incentive Compensation team for goal setting, quarterly financial summaries to Investor relations in support of quarterly investor calls, summary analyses for AbbVie ELT meetings
• Drive the team in streamlining / automating deliverables to improve efficiency

Team / people leadership:

• Manage 3-5+ direct reports, depending on organizational / project needs.
• Actively assign work across team members to ensure balanced workload and align with skills and development priorities of team members.
• Provide regular feedback and coaching to team members.
• Recommend structure changes when required to support team mission and organizational needs.
• Lead by example, exemplifying our Ways of Working and fostering a culture of inclusivity, openness, and respectfulness across all interactions.

• Bachelor’s degree in in a quantitative field (Science / Engineering, Finance, Data Science, Business, or related); advanced degree preferred.
• 8+ years of relevant experience within the pharmaceutical, biotech, or life sciences industries in quantitative / analytical roles (marketing/sales analytics, sales operations, pricing, finance, etc).
• 4+ years forecasting experience including experience building and updating forecasting or related analytical models to assess products across multiple therapeutic areas.
• Familiarity with common commercial analytics data sources and approaches (primary and secondary analysis), and experience incorporating these data and insights into forecast models to support strategic decision making.
• Strong financial acumen and portfolio mindset.  Understand and clearly articulate the impact of changes / events across TAs.
• Strong communication skills including dynamic presence, analytical storytelling, excellent slide/presentation development, and ability to adapt content and style depending on audience.
• Excellent partner / stakeholder management (e.g. comfort/ability to appropriately challenge business partners and forecasting / finance leadership.
• Demonstrated ability to influence decision making in cross-functional and cross-cultural environments.
• Excellent people leadership for both team and partner functions with track record of helping to grow team members.

Preferred:

• Experience with other analytical / visualization tools and techniques (e.g. SQL, SAS, PowerBI)
• Experience with purpose-built forecasting tools

Key Leadership Competencies:

• Ability to drive influence across multiple teams without direct reporting structure / authority.
• Building strong relationships with partners in multiple functions at various organizational levels including BU forecasters, BU controllers, key commercial partners, MABI, BTS, key US Finance functions.
• Willingness to have Clear & Courageous conversations with senior commercial/finance leaders to help ensure established best practices are implemented across forecasting.
• Ability to remain Agile & Accountable while operating in a rapidly-changing environment.
• Comfort with ambiguity, and ability to Decide Smart & Sure even when information is limited or incomplete.

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

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• 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 short-term incentive programs. ​

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

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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, serving our community and embracing diversity and inclusion.  It is AbbVie’s policy to employ qualified persons of the greatest ability without discrimination against any employee or applicant for employment because of race, color, religion, national origin, age, sex (including pregnancy), physical or mental disability, medical condition, genetic information, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, marital status, status as a protected veteran, or any other legally protected group status.

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