Schaebsdau studied medicine at the University of Gießen and during his specialist training performed longer periods of residency in the urological departments at the University of Chicago, the Medical University of Hannover and the University of Freiburg. He is also licensed to practice medicine in the United States and Germany. While at the Medical University of Hannover, he conducted laboratory research projects funded by the German Research Foundation, earning his doctorate. In the year 1993, Schaebsdau earned his MBA from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.
He began his career at Eli Lilly Medical Devices Division (later Guidant) Cardiac Rhythm Management as Head of Sales & Marketing in Germany. Afterwards, he worked as Manager at The Mac Group (later Gemini Consulting), a strategy consultancy in Munich. Schaebsdau subsequently switched to Booz Allen Hamilton and led the global strategy projects in the pharmaceutical, medical technology and health-care industry.
For a group of investors, he established the BioScience Ventures Group, a venture capital company with a focus on “early stage” investments in the German biotechnology industry, and became its Managing Director. In the year 2004, Schaebsdau joined Abbott Diagnostics, where he held an executive position with increasing responsibility, both in the EMEA region and later in the global organisation of Abbott Diabetes Care. From 2009 to August 2015, Schaebsdau was Head of Global Strategy and Business Development at Roche Diabetes Care.