Sr. Director - External Innovation Cardiometabolic Health

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.

Actual compensation will depend on a candidate’s education, experience, skills, and geographic location.  The anticipated wage for this position is

$162,000 - $237,600

Organization Overview

At Lilly, we have a history of addressing the needs of individuals living with Diabetes by providing breakthrough therapies that result in meaningful improvements in patients’ lives. We continue to build on this history through research and development efforts that aim at next generation insulins and incretins, novel non-insulin injectable and oral antidiabetic therapies, as well as break-through therapies for obesity and key diabetic complications, such as cardiovascular disease, diabetic kidney disease and MASH. Our goal is to offer patients a broad set of solutions that address the needs to individuals living with Metabolic disease. We have one of the largest pipelines in Cardiometabolic Health in the industry and are committed to continuing to build our leadership in it.

Position Description

As Director/Sr. Director of External Innovation Cardiometabolic Health, this role will shape and implement Eli Lilly's External Innovation (EI) and Search & Evaluation strategy to drive pipeline impact in Diabetes and Complications. The scope includes Diabetes, Obesity, Heart Failure, Kidney Disease, and emerging innovative areas. Working closely with the Cardiometabolic Health TA (DOCTA) team, this role involves exploring, identifying, and evaluating new opportunities. Responsibilities include preparing in-depth scientific and business assessments, aligning with leadership and scientific partners, and collaborating with business development, legal, and due diligence teams. The role requires strong communication skills to interact with DOCTA and Business Unit leadership, as well as key collaborators across LRL and Corporate Business Development, ensuring seamless progression from initial exploration to deal closure.

Do you have broad experience and exposure to diverse endocrinological conditions with a search and evaluation background? Apply today to join the Lilly Team!

Responsibilities

• Liaise with DOCTA senior leadership and internal experts to prioritize and facilitate review of external opportunities.
• Identify and map new innovative areas of interest with bold understanding of disease biology.
• Rigorously assess programs from biotech, small and large pharma companies for potential in-licensing/partnering opportunities that have been assigned for review by leadership or identified proactively.
• Manage all stages of partner interactions and evaluations, including initial contact, securing internal interest, meeting execution, coordinating internal debriefs, and providing partner feedback; support DOCTA Search & Evaluation leadership as needed.
• Ensure prompt evaluation by functional experts (Biology, Chemistry, CMC, ADME, TOX, PK, legal etc.) for opportunity evaluation and pre-diligence and provide partners with crucial feedback/guidance.
• Identify gaps and key issues, and use appropriate expertise to drive solutions.
• Collaborate with internal scientific teams to identify, design, and implement the scientific experimentation necessary to validate external opportunities.
• Support consolidation of scientific feedback leading to internal recommendations and provision of partner responses.
• Maintain awareness of external competitive landscapes for key target areas and assets by actively monitoring all external preclinical- and clinical-stage assets within therapeutic areas
• Attend partnering and scientific conferences as directed by DOCTA Search & Evaluation leadership to identify new assets and technologies aligned with R&D priorities.
• Provide regular updates at the EI deals review sessions.

Basic Qualifications:

• PhD in Life Sciences related field, with track record in pre-clinical research, deep understanding of R&D processes and new modalities in the cardiometabolic area.
• Minimum of 10 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry
• Minimum of 5 years of experience in external research collaborations and S&E

Additional Preferences:

• Broad experien