Sr. Director - Strategic Alliances (SMDD)

Company: Eli Lilly and Company
Location: Indianapolis
Posted on: January 1, 2026

Job Description:

At Lilly, we unite caring with discovery to make life better for people around the world. We are a global healthcare leader headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana. Our employees around the world work to discover and bring life-changing medicines to those who need them, improve the understanding and management of disease, and give back to our communities through philanthropy and volunteerism. We give our best effort to our work, and we put people first. We’re looking for people who are determined to make life better for people around the world. At Lilly, we serve an extraordinary purpose. For nearly 150 years we have worked tirelessly to discover medicines that make life better. These discoveries start in Lilly Research Laboratories, where our scientists work to create new medicines that will help solve our world’s greatest health challenges. In Product Research and Development (PRD), we transform molecules into medicines. Our portfolio of medicines is growing and is one of the most diverse and promising pipelines in the industry. PRD has aggressive goals to transition novel therapies from ideas into medicines that provide fundamental health outcomes using novel technologies, innovative business relationships, and world class systems. The Senior Director, Strategic Alliances position seeks a collaborative, inclusive, energetic leader who will define and lead activities with external synthetic CMC collaborations. This role will require significant CMC knowledge, creativity, resilience, and business acumen. The position will work cross-functionally within PRD and across our external network to ensure appropriate capabilities, adequate capacity, and agility that adapt to an ever-evolving global landscape. This position will provide leadership with strategic external partners to advance Lilly’s Synthetic Molecule Design and Development (SMDD) need for drug substance and drug product development, characterization, and supply of material for toxicology and clinical trials. The Senior Director role will be critical to enable SMDD’s strategic goals related to speed, value, and world class execution on a multifaceted portfolio in a dynamic world landscape. The position will accomplish this through a collaborative approach across external partners to enable novel business constructs, solid operational execution, and robust governance processes. The role will be a member of strategic governance with CDMOs. The relationships with these partners will be instrumental to ensure reliable, high-quality supply of information and material for small molecule, peptide, and oligonucleotide assets. Responsibilities include: Implement and maintain strategic partnerships : Lilly’s mission to bring novel therapeutics to patients begins in SMDD. This role will be instrumental to foster collaboration at external partners for the rapid design and development of drug substance and drug product for pre-clinical/clinical phase assets. These relationships are crucial to afford product (supply chain) along with process knowledge needed for global submissions. This role will liaise with Discovery and Manufacturing organizations to enable seamless transition of assets throughout their lifecycle. Ensure Alignment : Work closely with cross-functional leaders across Lilly CMC, Quality, Procurement, and Safety to translate PRD/SMDD strategic requirements into actionable results with external collaboration partners to ensure delivery of Lilly’s growing portfolio. Drive implementation of novel technology : Integrate with leadership and technical staff at CDMOs to successfully transfer novel SMDD technology for GMP production. Enable collaborative business relationships to achieve speed and flawless execution to transform molecules into medicines. Champion Operational Excellence: Monitor capacity, quality, and performance in alignment with business contracts and perform trend analysis. Develop and drive governance of external operations with CDMOs. Manage and facilitate efficient and effective business processes across supply chain, R&D, compliance, and contractual obligations. Identify and champion best practices. Relationship Management: Serve as an advocate for partnerships and their objectives. Mitigate business risk, legal uncertainties, and human relationship risks. Work to reduce inefficiencies out of operations and monitor resources devoted to the alliances. Engage in frequent communication to seek 360? feedback from external partners and internal stakeholders on alliance performance/issues. Coach Lilly team members on development of relationship with partners. Laboratory Informatics: Partner with Tech@Lilly on lab design and data/knowledge capture while assuring alignment with SMDD strategic goals and compliance requirements. Leverage technical laboratory experience and knowledge to advance SMDD practices into state-of-the-art capabilities. Ensure alignment between CDMOs and SMDD. Oversee activities related to business operations, including cross-functional issue management, audit support, contract adherence, and ensure alignment with alliance goals. Milestone tracking and awareness. Partner with internal Lilly stakeholders to address issues/gaps and ensure alliances are meeting intended goals. Help identify and resolve conflicts. Drive “Voice of the Alliance/Customer” to diagnose relationship health. Bridge cultural gaps between Lilly and partner. Coach Lilly team members on development of relationship with partners and vice versa. Basic Requirements: Minimum B.S. (Chemistry / Engineering / Biosciences). Minimum 15 years’ CMC experience in pharma with minimum of 5 years’ experience of enabling novel CMC technologies/supply chain via contract manufacturing organizations. Additional Skills/Preferences: Demonstrated ability to think strategically and solve problems Excellent communication and project management skills, ability to lead and influence others with or without authority Curious, high capacity of absorbing information and demonstrated learning agility Ability to operate effectively in ambiguity Demonstrated ability in operational excellence Candidate must be able to work cross-functionally, cross-culturally, and with individuals at all levels of the organization Strong business acumen Additional Information: Travel: Up to 25% Location: Indianapolis and onsite Lilly is dedicated to helping individuals with disabilities to actively engage in the workforce, ensuring equal opportunities when vying for positions. If you require accommodation to submit a resume for a position at Lilly, please complete the accommodation request form ( https://careers.lilly.com/us/en/workplace-accommodation ) for further assistance. Please note this is for individuals to request an accommodation as part of the application process and any other correspondence will not receive a response. Lilly is proud to be an EEO Employer and does not discriminate on the basis of age, race, color, religion, gender identity, sex, gender expression, sexual orientation, genetic information, ancestry, national origin, protected veteran status, disability, or any other legally protected status. Our employee resource groups (ERGs) offer strong support networks for their members and are open to all employees. Our current groups include: Africa, Middle East, Central Asia Network, Black Employees at Lilly, Chinese Culture Network, Japanese International Leadership Network (JILN), Lilly India Network, Organization of Latinx at Lilly (OLA), PRIDE (LGBTQ Allies), Veterans Leadership Network (VLN), Women’s Initiative for Leading at Lilly (WILL), enAble (for people with disabilities). Learn more about all of our groups. Actual compensation will depend on a candidate’s education, experience, skills, and geographic location. The anticipated wage for this position is $151,500 - $222,200 Full-time equivalent employees also will be eligible for a company bonus (depending, in part, on company and individual performance). In addition, Lilly offers a comprehensive benefit program to eligible employees, including eligibility to participate in a company-sponsored 401(k); pension; vacation benefits; eligibility for medical, dental, vision and prescription drug benefits; flexible benefits (e.g., healthcare and/or dependent day care flexible spending accounts); life insurance and death benefits; certain time off and leave of absence benefits; and well-being benefits (e.g., employee assistance program, fitness benefits, and employee clubs and activities).Lilly reserves the right to amend, modify, or terminate its compensation and benefit programs in its sole discretion and Lilly’s compensation practices and guidelines will apply regarding the details of any promotion or transfer of Lilly employees. WeAreLilly

Keywords: Eli Lilly and Company, Covington , Sr. Director - Strategic Alliances (SMDD), Science, Research & Development , Indianapolis, Kentucky