Senior Director, Media Portfolio Ad Operations

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.

Lilly is staffing for a Senior Director of Media Portfolio Operations that will work across the portfolio of brands. This position reports to the Associate Vice-President for Media and Partnerships. An ideal candidate is data driven with end-to-end knowledge of media strategy, execution, and measurement. They can quickly build trust and rapport within the organization by partnering across cross-functional teams as they establish processes and build new capabilities to support the constantly evolving landscape. They are proactive, agile, and energized by the opportunity to work in a fast-paced environment with a broad responsibility.

Key Responsibilities

Influence & Strategic Leadership

Lead and influence cross-functional decision-making to drive positive customer experiences. Act as a key lead during annual and ongoing business planning processes. Effectively communicate and present to senior leadership (2–3 levels up), including CMO and other C-suite customers, providing clear strategic direction and recommendations.

Marketing Transformation & Capability Building

Work closely with Consumer and HCP media teams to maintain standards, evolve capabilities, and establish new and scalable processes. Lead initiatives that eliminate customer struggles and advance best-in-class media experiences across audiences.

Cross-Functional & External Collaboration

Collaborate closely with external agency partners and internal cross-functional teams—including Privacy, IT, Analytics, Legal, and Regulatory—on operational and governance topics such as privacy compliance, data partnerships, third-party agreements, media guidelines, tagging, trafficking, and taxonomy.

Data-Driven Decision Making

Partner with Advanced Analytics and Market Research teams to develop frameworks, define success metrics, shape learning agendas, and operationalize insights across Consumer and HCP media to inform optimization and future strategy.

Ad Tech & Data Management

Manage and continuously evaluate relationships with marketing and media technology partners and tools, including ad servers, data connectivity partners, measurement solutions, and brand safety platforms, ensuring effectiveness, compliance, and alignment with business needs.

Agency Management & Partnership Excellence

Manage media agency relationships by establishing clear, two-way expectations for client–agency partnerships. Build strong relationships with agency leadership to deliver customer-focused strategies and tactics and develop action plans based on regular performance and partnership evaluations.

Risk & Compliance Management

Ensure adherence to all consumer marketing guidelines, good promotional practices, privacy and regulatory policies, and internal procedures, to proactively managing risk across media operations.

Upskilling & Knowledge Sharing

Shape and lead internal connects, conferences, and marketing transformation forums. Upskill marketers by bringing together internal and external thought leaders to share perspectives, innovations, and procedures across the organization.

Financial & Operational Excellence

Instill flawless fundamentals in budget management for the team and the media portfolio, agile forecasting, and windows-of-change processes. Develop cases and financial justifications to support funding requests during annual and long-range business planning.

Basic Qualifications

• Minimum of a bachelor’s degree

• 10+ years’ experience

• Lilly does not anticipate providing sponsorship for employment visa status (e.g., H-1B or TN status) for this employment position

Preferred Qualifications

• 5 +years’ media experience

• Understanding of marketing technology, tools, platforms and emerging media industry changes

• Requires knowledge emerging media platforms and technologies

• Strong learning agility and be able to solve complex problems and recommend enterprise solutions

• Broad expertise across multiple media ch