Senior Director, Early Development Portfolio and Platform Lead

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.

Organization Overview:
Delivery, Devices, and Connected Solutions (DDCS) sits within Eli Lilly's Product Research & Development organization. We are a diverse team of scientists and engineers responsible for discovering, designing, and developing patient-centric drug delivery solutions across a broad range of modalities — from injection devices to novel routes of administration and nanomedicines. DDCS drives the drug delivery innovation agenda across early and late development to meet the needs of an expanding portfolio that spans small molecules, biologics, and nucleic acid therapeutics. DDCS is organized around a matrix model with strong disciplinary and functional horizontals supporting innovation and commercialization verticals. Our vision is to get our medicines to more patients faster by accelerating reach and scale, guided by three strategic pillars: Delivery Systems, Robust & Sustainable, and Patient Experience + Outcomes.

Position Overview:
The Senior Director, Early Development Portfolio and Platform Lead sets the strategic direction for delivery system innovation across DDCS, integrating external ecosystems with internal development capabilities to build and advance a differentiated, patient-centric delivery system pipeline. This senior leadership role includes defining and driving the DDCS early-phase innovation strategy with a strong emphasis on external innovation sourcing and partnerships, providing strategic oversight of the full early development portfolio and serving as an interface with Lilly enterprise functions and external innovation communities.

Key responsibilities:

• External Innovation Leadership:  Define and drive the DDCS delivery system innovation strategy, establishing the vision, priorities, and sourcing mix (internal and external) for the early-phase pipeline in alignment with Lilly’s therapeutic and commercial objectives.
• Build and lead Lilly’s external delivery system innovation ecosystem—forging strategic relationships with academic institutions, venture-backed startups, technology accelerators, CDMOs, and device partners to access and in-license best-in-class delivery technologies ahead of the industry.
• Establish and own the governance framework, stage-gate criteria, and investment decision process for the DDCS early innovation portfolio, ensuring disciplined, data-driven advancement from ideation through proof-of-concept and into formalized development.
• Provide strategic counsel to DDCS senior leadership and the broader Device organization on external innovation trends, competitive landscape, emerging technologies, and portfolio gaps; translate insights into actionable investment theses.
• Champion a culture of innovation and external curiosity across DDCS, building organizational capability in technology scouting, opportunity assessment, and cross-sector collaboration.
• Early Development Portfolio Oversight: Accountable for the overall health, prioritization, and performance of the DDCS early-phase development portfolio—setting direction for program leads and ensuring alignment between portfolio investments and strategic priorities.
• Integrate portfolio intelligence across internal programs and external partnerships into a unified, leadership-ready view of pipeline status, resource requirements, risks, and investment opportunities for annual business planning and capital allocation.
• Drive DDCS-wide adoption of standardized early development processes, governance frameworks, and innovation metrics, institutionalizing best practices across internal and externally sourced programs.
• Cross-Functional & Enterprise Leadership;  Serve as an interface with Lilly enterprise functions—Global Business Development, Corporate Strategy, Research, and Therapeutic Business Units—to ensure alignment between delivery system innovation and drug development priorities.
• Represent DDCS at external conferences, industry consortia, and partner forums; build Lilly’s reputation as a preferred innovation partner in the delivery system and drug-device combination space.
• Influence resource allocation, organizational design, and capability investment decisions within DDCS in support of early-phase innovation strategy.

Basic Requirements:

• Advanced degree