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Senior Director, Public Affairs

Eli Lilly and Company
Washington, United Statesfull_timeVerifiedPosted 19 Sept 2025
💰 $242,000/yr($165,000/yr$242,000/yr)

About the role

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.

Senior Director, Public Affairs

About the job

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.

About The Job
The Sr. Director, Public Affairs is a critical member of the Global Corporate Communications team and will work in a cross-functional environment with Global Public Policy (GPP), Legal, Federal Government Affairs (FGA), Value and Access (LVA) and therapeutics area leads. The focus of this role is to deploy communications strategies to craft a policy environment at the federal level that promotes Lilly policy objectives. The ideal candidate will have experience crafting and launching public affairs campaigns that include media strategy, partner engagement, external mobilization, paid media and digital/social amplification. Outstanding writing skills and pharmaceutical industry knowledge are a must. This position will report into the Associate Vice President, Public Affairs with dotted lines to the Senior Vice President and Head of Global Public Policy and the Vice President and Head of U.S. Public Policy.

Have you had success developing and driving public affairs communication campaigns that required media strategy, digital/social savvy, paid targeting, partner outreach and coalition building? Your skills and experiences would be appreciated and valued here. Apply today and join Team Lilly!

Primary Responsibilities

  • Drive high-stakes public affairs campaigns in coordination with Policy, Legal, Government Affairs, Regulatory Affairs and other corporate affairs teams. 
  • Develop rapid response and amplification systems that can be leveraged across issues.
  •  Build relationships with relevant third parties (patient advocacy, consumer groups, think tanks) who are engaged in debates relevant to Lilly, in coordination with the Advocacy team.
  • Deploy bold communications strategies to shape environment favorable to achieving policy and regulatory goals.
  • Partner with Corporate Communications Issues Management team to inform them on policy issues and objectives.
  • Provide strategic communications counsel to business partners.
  • Coordinate with industry associations’ public affairs teams (e.g., PhRMA, BIO) as needed. 
  • Engage with the different corporate functions on communication strategies and tactics, which may encompass earned and paid media, digital and social media amplification, internal communications, advocacy groups, speaking engagements for Lilly executives, and events or briefings. 
  • Stay on top of the evolving policy landscape in terms of drug pricing, intellectual property, patient affordability, reimbursement and innovation. 
  • Develop proactive and reactive message documents, including talking points, standby statements, press release and FAQs. 
  • Develop advocacy communications materials, including issue backgrounders, fact sheets, op-eds and partner letters.
  • Drive media strategy and build relationships with key policy media. 
  • Work jointly with business partners to lead media inquiries and partner with extended communications team on story prospects.
  •   Evaluate and recommend fresh perspectives to drive Lilly’s voice externally.
  • Partner with and provide direction to external agencies and vendors, as needed.
  • Flex to support other areas of the team, as needed. 

Requirements

  • Brings a strong policy mindset with ability to understand complex regulatory and legislative issues.
  •  Proven creative and strategic communications skill.
  • Understanding of biopharmaceutical industry, supply chain dynamics, public policies impacting industry and partner/advocacy landscape. 
  • Corporate external communications, public affairs and partner engagement experience. 
  • Understanding of if/when/how to u

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Company

Eli Lilly and Company

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