Director, Data Engineering

Location: United States > Madison : 5505 Endeavor Ln

Category: Research & Development

Employment Type: Full time

Abbott is a global healthcare leader that helps people live more fully at all stages of life. Our portfolio of life-changing technologies spans the spectrum of healthcare, with leading businesses and products in diagnostics, medical devices, nutritionals and branded generic medicines. Our 115,000 colleagues serve people in more than 160 countries.

Working at Abbott

At Abbott, you can do work that matters, grow, and learn, care for yourself and your family, be your true self, and live a full life. You'll also have access to:

• Career development with an international company where you can grow the career you dream of.
• Employees can qualify for free medical coverage in our Health Investment Plan (HIP) PPO medical plan in the next calendar year.
• An excellent retirement savings plan with a high employer contribution.
• Tuition reimbursement, the Freedom 2 Save student debt program, and FreeU education benefit – an affordable and convenient path to getting a bachelor’s degree.
• A company recognized as a great place to work in dozens of countries worldwide and named one of the most admired companies in the world by Fortune.
• A company that is recognized as one of the best big companies to work for as well as the best place to work for diversity, working mothers, female executives, and scientists.

The Opportunity

This position works out of our Madison, WI location in the Cancer Diagnostics division.

Cancer Diagnostics is Abbott’s newest growth platform, formed through the 2026 acquisition of Exact Sciences, bringing together market-leading cancer screening tests with an emerging pipeline of next-generation, early-detection diagnostics.

As the Director, Data Engineering, you’ll serve as Cancer Diagnostics’ senior data executive – setting the enterprise data strategy, governance model, and analytics roadmap that shape how the division generates insight, deploys AI, manages compliance, and competes in the market.

What You’ll Work On

• Establish and own Cancer Diagnostics’ enterprise data strategy, defining the vision, roadmap, and investment priorities that maximize the value of the company’s data assets across all functions and business units.
• Work with executives across all functions to establish the vision for managing data as a business asset for Cancer Diagnostics; using research, analysis, and data sciences techniques to maximize the return on data assets.
• Ensure that use cases for data are articulated, understood, and communicated to all stakeholders such that opportunities are addressed.
• Execute data strategy; including, but not limited to, the definition of data and analytics strategy practices and implementation of data related capabilities and competencies required to execute the strategy.
• Establish the governance of data and algorithms used for analysis, analytical applications, and automated decision making.
• Lead the creation and assure the ongoing relevance of division data and analytics strategy in collaboration with business stakeholders.
• Identify new kinds, types, and sources of data to enable business innovation throughout the organization; define processes for the effective integrated introduction of new data.
• Lead regulatory and compliance programs related to data and analytics assets.
• Ensure that appropriate audit controls exist for data that serve as the source material for regulatory reports.
• Develop and maintain controls on data quality, interoperability, and sources to effectively manage the corporate risk associated with the use of data and analytics.
• Participate in governance domains; including, but not limited to, business strategy and planning, management and financial reporting, enterprise architecture, IT strategy and planning, risk and compliance, and marketing strategy and planning.
• Define, manage, and advance enterprise information management principles, policies, and programs for stewardship, advocacy, and custodianship of data.
• Oversee the integration and staging of data and the development and maintenance of the data lakes, data warehouse, and data marts, for use by teams throughout the division.
• Uphold company mission and values through accountability, innovation, integrity, quality, and teamwork.
• Support and comply with the company’s Quality Management System policies and procedures.
• Regular and reliable attendance.
• Ability to travel 25% of working time away from work location, may include overnight/weekend travel.

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor’s Degree in a field related to essential duties; or Associate’s Degree and 2 years of relevant experience; or High School Diploma/GED and 4 years of relevant experience.
• 18 years of progressive experience in data and software engineering, digital platforms, or enterprise technology leadership.
• 10 years of progressive leadership experience leading cross-functional and enterprise teams.
• Proven track record delivering large-scale digital and data transformation initiatives in complex, regulated, or global environments.

Preferred Qualifications

• Expertise in modern cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, or GCP), distributed data systems, and contemporary data engineering frameworks.
• Strong knowledge of AI/ML data pipelines, metadata management, and MLOps best practices.
• Exceptional leadership, communication, and collaboration skills, with experience influencing senior executives and boards.
• Experience managing multi-functional engineering teams and vendor/partner ecosystems.

Learn more about our health and wellness benefits, which provide the security to help you and your family live full lives: abbottbenefits.com

Follow your career aspirations to Abbott for diverse opportunities with a company that can help you build your future and live your best life. Abbott is an Equal Opportunity Employer, committed to employee diversity.

Connect with us at abbott.com, on LinkedIn at linkedin.com/company/abbott-, and on Facebook at facebook.com/AbbottCareers.

The base pay for this position is $171,300.00 – $342,700.00. In specific locations, the pay range may vary from the range posted.