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 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.
Eli Lilly and Company is committed to using its innovation-based strategy to discover, develop and deliver innovative medicines that help improve the lives of people.**
Position Summary
The DMPK/ADME organization is seeking an expert **Senior Director Operational Leader **with strong project management, portfolio operations, and budget governance experience to transform how we plan, forecast, track, and deliver our book of work. This leader would manage a diverse group of individuals to complete this strategy.
The ideal candidate is a systems‑focused operational expert with hands‑on experience in Smartsheet, Prism, and other enterprise project management tools. This role ensures accurate forecasting, consistent results tracking, transparent KPI reporting, optimized resource management, and operational excellence across the portfolio.
Key Responsibilities
Portfolio Operations & Work Management
- Lead, mentor, and develop a high-performing team of scientists.
- Lead transformation of operational workflows to create a consistent and transparent system for tracking project plans, results, and risks.
- Maintain high‑quality project timelines, achievement links, and status updates to ensure real‑time visibility and alignment across functions.
- Coordinate monthly and quarterly operational reviews based on standardized baseline and variance reporting.
Forecasting & Resource Planning
- Develop and maintain accurate short‑ and long‑range forecasts using Prism’s integrated project data.
- Partner with functional planners and scientific leaders to ensure forecast accuracy and alignment with sanctioned scope, resource demands, and business planning cycles.
- Analyze forecast vs. actual performance and identify corrective actions tied to project, modality, or vendor-driven changes.
Deliverable Tracking & KPI Management
- Build and maintain enterprise-standard KPIs measuring on‑time delivery, study throughput, financial accuracy, and vendor performance.
- Use Smartsheet, Prism, and dashboarding tools (e.g., Power BI) to create automated, reliable portfolio visualizations.
- Provide leadership with clear operational insights, executive summaries, and risk assessments.
Budget Governance & Financial Oversight
- Own operational budget tracking, ensuring ongoing alignment between forecasted spend and actuals.
- Accountable for monthly reconciliation activities and support quarterly and annual planning cycles.
- Elevate budget consistency and accuracy by implementing standardized processes and improving data robustness within operational systems.
Cross‑Functional & External Collaboration
- Partner with project teams, finance partners, ADME planners, BioA, Tox, and external collaborators to ensure unified operational excellence.
- Drive alignment in how project plans, financial models, and timelines are maintained across systems and functions.
- Serve as the operational subject‑matter expert for DMPK/ADME, ensuring clear communication and punctual decision‑making.
Required Qualifications
- Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in operations management, project management, business, life sciences, or related field.
- 10+ years of industry experience in R&D operations, PMO, or scientific project management.
- Experience with project management tools including timeline management, forecasting, dashboarding, and cross‑functional reporting workflows.
- Experience in operational leadership roles requiring forecasting, budgeting, KPI development, and portfolio management.
- Excellent communication, organizational, and stakeholder‑management skills.
Preferred Qualifications
- Experience driving operational transformation initiatives.
- Experience with Smartsheet and/or Prism
- Familiarity with Power BI, Polaris, Spotfire, or other enterprise analytical tools.
- Experience working across modality‑diverse R&D portfolios (e.g., small molecules, biologics, emerging modalities).
Why Join Us
As Lilly evolves to support an increasingly complex and innovative pipeline, this role ensures the operational rigor and transparency needed to implement flawlessly. This leader will shape how our department plans, tracks, and delivers work—unlocking capacity, strengthening decision‑making, and helping scientific teams focus more on innovation and less on operational friction.
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
$169,500 - $248,600
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.
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