Scientist I, Immunology Biorepository Project Specialist

The Biorepository for Immunology (BRIM) group within Transformational and Translational Immunology Discovery is seeking an enthusiastic, skilled, and dedicated team member to support  disease area projects.  The primary function carried out for the BRIM is to support procurement, inventory, and management of patient biospecimens from suppliers, collaborators and Abbvie clinical trials to researchers for scientific interrogation, with an overall goal to support the advancements in treatment of Immunological disease. The biorepository scientist will work closely with stakeholders to deliver biospecimens essential to pipeline projects related to Immunological diseases.  Key activities will include the procurement and coordination of healthy and diseased patient biospecimen collections; development and management of study related documents; management of inventory and associated patient data; and leading communications with both internal and external partners. The Scientist I will be an essential part of the BRIM team.

Key Responsibilities:

• Advise on sourcing for specific project needs requiring understanding of scientific questions for the individual projects and general knowledge of assigned disease areas.
• Management of sample acquisition and communications with internal stakeholders and AbbVie’s external academic collaborators and vendors.
• Manage vendor and collaboration project processes, including budget, contracting, study documentation and deliverables. Responsible for identifying and resolving issues.
• Responsible for the setup, in-process, and closeout activities for collaborative research studies and vendor purchases, including generation of laboratory manuals, purchasing supplies, ordering collection kits, training of study site / vendor staff, and shipment coordination.
• Provides active, prompt and effective communication of information both internally and externally with vendors, collaborators and science teams
• Collect the metrics/requirements from both internal and external sources and analyze for stakeholder satisfaction, value and pricing to ensure internal quality standards are met
• Ensure patient/sample information is correct, accurate and reported with the appropriate metrics.
• Responsible for specimen receipt, registration, inventory , general tracking and maintaining accurate information using the biorepository database.
• Processing biospecimen orders including the receipt / handling of human specimens, querying the database through to final delivery of samples to customers.

• Whole blood processing, isolation of peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs), plasma separation and serum isolation and other sample processing activities as needed

Qualifications: 

• Bachelor's Degree, Master's Degree or equivalent education in Biology related field with typically 5+ (BS) or 2+ (MS) years of experience. Immunology, Cell Biology, Pharmacology experience is preferred
• Strong understanding of outsourcing processes, corporate purchasing policies, Legal, OEC, QA and finance policies and procedures
• Good understanding of pharmaceutical R&D processes, general finance practices and demonstrated ability in data management and analysis
• Advanced working knowledge of relational databases, pivot tables
• Strong computer application skills in major MS Office applications such as Excel, Word, Access, PowerPoint, Smartsheet and Outlook; expertise in excel is a plus.
• Effective communication skills
• Experience in preparing/presenting key information to senior level management
• Relationship management and influencing skills required
• Proven experience with handling and processing of biological material in a laboratory environment
• Ability to work within a team environment to achieve desired objectives
• Ability to be self-reliant and self-motivated
• Ability to troubleshoot regarding laboratory equipment and to facilitate efficiencies in biospecimen processing

Key Abbvie Competences:

• Builds strong relationships with peers and cross functionally with partners outside of the immediate team to enable higher performance
• Learns quickly, grasps the 'essence' and can change the course quickly where indicated
• Raises the bar and is never satisfied with the status quo
• Creates a learning environment, open to suggestions and experimentation to drive the science in the field of interest
• Embraces a learning environment, open to suggestions and experimentation for continuous improvement

This role will be located out of Worcester, MA and move to Cambridge, MA in December 2023.

AbbVie is an equal opportunity employer including disability/vets. 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 disabled veteran, recently separated veteran, Armed Forces service medal veteran or active duty wartime or campaign badge veteran or a person’s relationship or association with a protected veteran, including spouses and other family members, or any other protected group status. We will take affirmative action to employ and advance in employment qualified minorities, women, individuals with a disability, disabled veterans, recently separated veterans, Armed Forces service medal veterans or active-duty wartime or campaign badge veterans. The Affirmative Action Plan is available for viewing in the Human Resources office during regular business hours.