Eli Lilly and Company · 22 hours ago
Sr. Director - Strategic Alliances (SMDD)
Indianapolis, IN
Full-time
Onsite
Director/Executive
$152K/yr - $222K/yr
15+ years expEli Lilly and Company is a global healthcare leader headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana, dedicated to improving lives through innovative medicines. The Senior Director of Strategic Alliances will lead collaborations with external partners to advance the development of drug substances and products, ensuring alignment with Lilly’s strategic goals and operational excellence.
BiotechnologyHealth CareMedicalPharmaceutical
Responsibilities
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 360⁰ 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
Qualification
Required
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
Preferred
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
Benefits
Company bonus
401(k)
Pension
Vacation benefits
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
Well-being benefits (e.g., employee assistance program, fitness benefits, and employee clubs and activities)
Company
Eli Lilly and Company
We're a medicine company turning science into healing to make life better for people around the world.
10001+ employees
H1B Sponsorship
Eli Lilly and Company has a track record of offering H1B sponsorships. Please note that this does not
guarantee sponsorship for this specific role. Below presents additional info for your
reference. (Data Powered by US Department of Labor)
Distribution of Different Job Fields Receiving Sponsorship
Represents job field similar to this job
Trends of Total Sponsorships
2025 (514)
2024 (236)
2023 (167)
2022 (133)
2021 (57)
2020 (52)
Funding
Current Stage
Public CompanyTotal Funding
$6.5M2024-02-12Post Ipo Debt· $6.5M
1978-01-13IPO
Leadership Team
David Ricks
Chair, CEO
Lucas Montarce
Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
Recent News
Longevity.Technology - Latest News, Opinions, Analysis and Research
2026-01-03
2026-01-03
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