Sr. Director – Strategy and Growth

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.

External innovation is a key component of our strategy, enabling us to access breaking science. In support of this, our team collaborates with partners in Corporate Business Development, Catalyze360, Search & Evaluation and others to develop strategic focus for our external innovation activities.

The Senior Director – Strategy and Growth will have accountability for 1) Articulating our overarching external innovation strategy, 2) Identifying and evaluating potentially transformative BD opportunities, 3) Examining the external environment and industry dealmaking activity, and defining potential implications for Lilly.

Responsibilities:


Articulating our overarching external innovation strategy

• Work across executive, commercial, scientific, finance, and BD leadership to define our overarching external innovation strategy and goals
• Create materials that succinctly articulate this strategy
• Prepare updates on external innovation strategy and highlights for Lilly’s executive leadership and board of directors

Identifying and evaluating potentially transformative business development opportunities

• Identify potentially transformational opportunities
• Evaluate potential BD opportunities, leveraging scientific, commercial, and finance experts across Lilly and build thoughtful narratives for the most promising opportunities
• Where necessary, build forecasts, drive market research, consider relevant go-to-market models for emerging science
• Partner closely with transactions and finance teams for opportunities with organizational interest in pursuing

Examining the external environment and industry dealmaking activity, and defining potential implications for Lilly

• Conduct external landscaping (e.g., data on fundraising, deal-making, trial activity, patents, data disclosures)
• Synthesize key trends across external innovation
• Identify implications to Lilly’s BD strategy and approach

Skills / Preferences:
Leadership

• Able to establish credibility and trust across Lilly scientific functions, commercial teams, finance leadership, and executive management
• Strong collaborative spirit with instinct for relationship building

Communication

• Strong communication and presentation skills with colleagues at all levels
• Written / verbal presentation skills with the ability to make the sophisticated simple
• Inclusive approach, with bias towards bringing others in and communicating transparently

Bias towards action

• A strong sense of pride in work and attention to detail
• Self-starter attitude with bias to action
• Excellent self-management and organizational skills

Business Insight and Expertise

• Strong learning agility
• Strong conceptual and quantitative problem solving, analytics, and ability to translate into implications
• Ability to problem-solve dynamically, with flexibility to dive deep into details where needed and take an 80/20 approach when sufficient
• Deep knowledge of industry pipelines, commercial portfolios, trends, and transactions

Basic Qualifications: 
 

• Bachelor's Degree
• 4+ years of experience in the pharmaceutical or related industry
• Qualified candidates must be legally authorized to be employed in the United States. Lilly does not anticipate providing sponsorship for employment visa status (e.g., H-1B or TN status).

Additional Skills and Preferences

• Graduate degree (MBA, PhD, PharmD)
• Previous business development experience

Additional Information

• Domestic travel is required (~15%)