Life Sciences Engagement Lead / Program DirectorWork model: Onsite / Hybrid - 3-4 days per week in office required
Relocation: Candidates in the Chicago area preferred; relocation assistance may be considered for strong profiles
Role OverviewCognizant is seeking a seasoned
Life Sciences Engagement Lead / Program Director to lead client stakeholder management and end-to-end delivery of critical
AI & Analytics (AIA)-led programs supporting our strategic partnership with
a Client in Chicago.In this highly visible, onsite leadership role, you will partner closely with AbbVie IT and business stakeholders, Cognizant AIA teams, and MCU/MDU leadership to ensure delivery excellence, drive innovation, and enable account growth. This role blends
hands-on program leadership,
client relationship management, and
delivery-led growth within a complex life sciences environment.
ResponsibilitiesDelivery Management & Governance- Lead onsite execution of digital transformation and niche AIA engagements across AbbVie portfolios
- Establish and maintain robust delivery governance in partnership with EDPs, EPLs, and AIA delivery teams
- Provide strong client context and leadership based on prior life sciences delivery experience
- Review delivery performance, operational metrics, risks, and mitigation plans
- Oversee Statements of Work (SoWs) and work orders, ensuring scope, quality, and financial adherence
- Monitor and report delivery commitments, financial performance, and operating margins to Cognizant leadership
- Lead monthly and quarterly governance reviews with AbbVie IT stakeholders and internal leadership
- Mentor and coach Program Leads and onsite teams to drive high performance and accountability
- Deliver best-in-class outcomes resulting in high client satisfaction (CSAT / NPS)
Innovation, Process Improvement & Thought Leadership- Identify and drive transformational opportunities across client programs
- Assess, design, and deploy innovations leveraging Cognizant accelerators and AI-led solutions
- Discover, propose, and implement continuous improvement ideas (including Bluebolts initiatives)
- Drive AI-led business and technical use cases aligned to AbbVie priorities
- Provide thought leadership and engage Cognizant practice and offering SMEs as needed
Revenue Acceleration & Margin Management- Act as a catalyst for delivery-led growth within the AbbVie account
- Partner with MCU, MDU, Sales, and Engagement Leads to identify and realize organic growth opportunities
- Support account expansion while maintaining delivery quality and margin targets
Account Delivery Operations- Ensure timely fulfillment of onsite and offshore resource needs
- Drive improved utilization and billability across delivery teams
- Partner with Talent Acquisition Group (TAG) and external vendors for talent sourcing, including contingent workforce intake
QualificationsRequired- Extensive experience leading complex programs for life sciences / pharmaceutical clients
- Strong background in commercial and/or R&D functional domains within pharma
- Proven success in client-facing delivery leadership roles with onsite presence
- Experience managing large, multi-workstream engagements with financial accountability
- Demonstrated ability to lead senior client stakeholders and executive governance forums
- Strong understanding of digital transformation, analytics, and AI-enabled delivery
Preferred- Prior experience supporting AbbVie or similar large pharma enterprises
- Familiarity with Cognizant AIA offerings, accelerators, or AI-led delivery models
- Experience driving innovation programs and continuous improvement initiatives
Salary and Other Compensation:
Applications will be accepted until June 30, 2026.
The annual base salary for this position is between $185,000 - $210,000 depending on the experience and other qualifications of the successful candidate.
This position is also eligible for Cognizant's discretionary annual incentive program and stock awards, based on performance and subject to the terms of Cognizant's applicable plans.
Benefits: Cognizant offers the following benefits for this position, subject to applicable eligibility requirements:
- Medical/Dental/Vision/Life Insurance
- Paid holidays plus Paid Time Off
- 401(k) plan and contributions
- Long-term/Short-term Disability
- Paid Parental Leave
- Employee Stock Purchase Plan
Disclaimer: The salary, other compensation, and benefits information is accurate as of the date of this posting. Cognizant reserves the right to modify this information at any time, subject to applicable law.
Benefits Cognizant offers a competitive benefits package that includes:
- Medical, dental, and vision insurance
- Paid time off and holidays
- 401(k) plan with employer contributions
- Life insurance, disability coverage, and wellness programs
- Learning and development opportunities
- Employee assistance programs
Job SummaryServe as the chief architect for enterprise scale data integration and cloud analytics solutions driving end to end design and governance of Informatica Cloud ETL workflows and cloud data warehouse platforms. Enable secure reliable and high quality data flows that power critical sales and marketing insights support strategic decision making and advance the company mission in a flexible hybrid work model.
Responsibilities- Design and own the enterprise wide target architecture for Informatica Cloud ETL workflows and cloud data warehouse platforms to enable scalable and governed data integration solutions that meet complex business needs in a hybrid environment.
- Define and maintain reference architectures patterns and standards for data ingestion transformation orchestration and consumption using Informatica Cloud CLI and related components to ensure consistency and long term maintainability.
- Collaborate with business and technology stakeholders to translate strategic objectives from domains such as sales and marketing into actionable architecture roadmaps that can be delivered incrementally and measured for tangible value.
- Review and guide detailed solution designs produced by project teams to ensure alignment with target architecture data integration best practices and non functional requirements such as performance security and resiliency.
- Provide expert direction on organizing cloud data warehouse layers including staging integration semantic and analytics zones so that downstream reporting and advanced analytics are accurate timely and reusable across functions.
- Evaluate and select appropriate patterns for batch and real time data integration using Informatica Cloud and complementary services to optimize cost reliability and operational simplicity for each use case.
- Oversee the definition of canonical data models data contracts and integration interfaces to reduce redundancy improve interoperability and support transparent data sharing across business units.
- Guide teams on the effective use of Informatica Cloud CLI for automation of deployments configuration management and repeatable environment provisioning in line with enterprise governance practices.
- Establish clear guidelines for monitoring logging and observability of ETL and data integration pipelines so that issues are detected early investigated efficiently and resolved with minimal business impact.
- Partner with data governance and security teams to ensure that architecture decisions reinforce data quality lineage privacy and compliant access to sensitive customer and sales information across all layers of the platform.
- Mentor architects and senior engineers by reviewing technical approaches sharing patterns and encouraging thoughtful experimentation so that the overall architecture capability of the organization continues to mature.
- Communicate complex architectural options trade offs and recommendations in concise and accessible language to executive stakeholders to support informed technology investment decisions.
- Align data integration and cloud warehouse strategies with sustainability and social impact goals by enabling analytics that improve operational efficiency customer experience and ethical use of data.
Qualifications- Combine a minimum of twenty one years of progressive experience in enterprise data architecture integration and analytics with a proven track record of delivering complex platform transformations at scale.
- Demonstrate deep hands on expertise with Informatica Cloud including design of mappings tasks and advanced configuration as well as strong proficiency in using Informatica Cloud CLI for automation and operational efficiency.
- Exhibit extensive experience designing and implementing robust ETL solutions that handle large volumes of structured and semi structured data while meeting demanding performance and reliability expectations.
- Bring strong practical knowledge of major cloud data warehouse technologies and architectures enabling the design of cost efficient secure and elastic analytic platforms for diverse business functions.
- Apply advanced data integration concepts including change data capture data virtualization and metadata driven design to simplify maintenance and accelerate delivery of new data products.
- Leverage familiarity with sales and marketing data domains such as customer journeys campaign performance and revenue pipelines to shape architectures that directly support growth initiatives and customer centric strategies.
- Operate effectively in a hybrid work model by using modern collaboration tools clear documentation and structured communication practices to coordinate architecture outcomes across distributed teams.
Certifications RequiredInformatica Certified Professional Data Integration Architect or equivalent senior level Informatica Cloud certification preferred.
