Associate Director, Digital Accessibility

"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.

About the Team
Join our dynamic Digital Experience and Innovation Team within AbbVie's IT division, where we focus on enhancing digital accessibility throughout our global organization. Our mission is to ensure an inclusive digital environment that eliminates barriers to information and functionality, enriching the user experience for all employees.

About the Role
As Associate Director of Digital Accessibility, you will spearhead efforts to advance AbbVie's digital accessibility maturity and compliance initiatives. In this role, you will assemble and lead a team dedicated to optimizing accessibility across AbbVie’s internal and external digital properties, including custom web/mobile applications, low-code solutions, third-party platforms, emails, documents, and intranet sites. This position requires an accomplished digital accessibility leader that will drive collaboration, transparency, and clarity between multiple teams and functions. You will appropriately pair the right approaches with project size to achieve high quality outcomes at reasonable cost. Lastly, you will utilize your strong business insight, intuition, and presentation skills to keep key partners and division leadership well-informed of progress and impact.

This position reports to the Director of Digital Experience & Innovation at AbbVie's global headquarters in Lake County, IL.

Responsibilities:

Strategic Leadership
Define, build and lead a Digital Accessibility practice within AbbVie's enterprise IT function.
Collaborate with Digital Accessibility Council stakeholders and sponsors to develop and execute a comprehensive digital accessibility strategy that is aligned with company-wide accessibility goals and priorities.
Establish short- and long-term program objectives to drive organizational change.
Advocate for accessibility initiatives at the executive level and across the organization.
Lead change initiatives and advocate for accessibility at all levels.
Champion digital accessibility standards and ensure legal and regulatory compliance.
Leverage data insights to drive strategic decision-making and accessibility improvements.
Utilize your strong business insight, intuition, and presentation skills to keep key partners and leadership well-informed of progress and impact.
Evangelize and champion digital accessibility throughout the company focused on creating inclusive and usable experiences for everyone.

Team Building and Management
Build and develop a digital accessibility consulting practice and services to support external & internal digital accessibility compliance efforts across AbbVie.
Recruit, train, and lead a team of accessibility specialists, testers, and consultants
Manage relationships and licensing agreements with external digital accessibility partners that provide accessibility consulting services, tools, and role-based training.
Drive initiatives to enhance accessibility maturity and align with governance council priorities.
Collaborate with cross-functional solution teams to integrate accessibility into digital solution design and development.
Manage resource capacity, assignments, timelines and project commitments.
Provide ongoing mentorship and professional development opportunities for the team.

Accessibility Testing and Assessment
Establish a digital accessibility testing framework and methods to identify and address accessibility issues in software, websites, and other digital solutions.
Ensure compliance with relevant accessibility standards (e.g., WCAG, ADA, Section 508).
Conduct regular accessibility assessments and audits to identify areas for improvement.
Develop and implement remediation plans to address accessibility issues while balancing client, contractual, commercial, and regulatory requirements and concerns
Oversee tracking and reporting of accessibility-related efforts and progress across the portfolio.
Produce accessibility compliance reports following industry standard formats.

Continuous Improvement
Drive continuous improvement efforts to enhance the accessibility of digital products and services
Monitor and report on key performance indicators related to accessibility efforts
Scale accessibility learning initiatives and curriculum across the organization
Stay current with emerging trends and industry research and implement new technologies and approaches to improve digital accessibility
Collaborate with our engineering teams to integrate accessibility into our CI/CD and general development practices

Qualifications
Bachelor's or Master's degree in Design, Computer Science, Information Systems, or a related field, or equivalent certification.
9+ years’ experience in digital accessibility, with at least 5 years in a leadership role.
Strong understanding of accessibility standards and best practices (e.g., WCAG, ADA, Section 508).
Proven ability to lead accessibility projects and improve compliance across digital platforms.
Excellent communication and collaboration skills, with the ability to engage stakeholders at all levels.
Experience managing vendor relationships and implementing accessibility tools and training.
Strong problem-solving and strategic thinking skills, with a user-focused mindset.
Familiarity with design and development collaboration tools.
Proven track record of leading and growing a successful accessibility program
Expert understanding of accessibility standards and regulations
Expert understanding of usability principles and heuristics
Expert understanding of assistive technologies and usage patterns
Familiarity with Agile development processes and working in cross-functional teams
Experienced with leading digital accessibility tools to ensure our digital products meet WCAG standards and deliver inclusive, accessible experiences for all users.
Familiarity with Agile development processes and working in cross-functional teams
Demonstrated experience creating and delivering digital accessibility training and workshops"