Senior Director - Lilly Gateway Labs

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 Lilly

Lilly Catalyze360 is a comprehensive approach to enabling the early-stage biotech ecosystem by democratizing access to infrastructure, expertise, and resources. Through its interconnected pillars—Lilly Ventures, Lilly Gateway Labs, Lilly ExploR&D, and Lilly TuneLab—Catalyze360 strategically removes barriers that traditionally block bold science from becoming life-changing medicines, providing biotechs with flexible combinations of capital, physical lab space, R&D capabilities, AI/ML tools, and decades of enterprise learning. Lilly Gateway Labs is an integral part linking Lilly to an entrepreneurial community fostering innovation. In addition to shared innovation lab space, Lilly Gateway Labs provides biotech companies direct access to Lilly scientists and expertise. Companies who work in Lilly Gateway Labs have the opportunity to collaborate with Lilly on projects of mutual interest, participate in shared learning forums with Lilly experts and partners, and have the potential for financial investment from Lilly, venture funds, or both.

Role Overview

The Senior Director will co-build and co-lead a Lilly Gateway Labs (LGL) program, executing external search and evaluation efforts across assigned geographies to identify biotech partners in areas of interest with innovative assets, targets, and platforms. The role serves as a key bridge between Lilly and the entrepreneurial life sciences ecosystem, forging relationships that enable portfolio advancement. Key focus areas include strategic oversight of Gateway Labs initiatives, hands-on support and guidance to portfolio companies through drug development, and alignment with internal stakeholders (e.g., LRL, portfolio management, Venture Sciences/ExploR&D/Catalyze360).

Key Responsibilities

• Co-develop and continuously evolve LGL programs by defining the partnership model, operating cadence, and success metrics for resident biotechs.
• Lead external search, validation, and selection of high-synergy biotechs across assigned geographies, and connect companies to Catalyze360 services and Lilly SMEs to address scientific and technical needs from discovery through development.

Functional and Technical Expertise

• Demonstrate drug development leadership and apply deep mechanism-to-disease translation capability through hypothesis generation, study design, and rigorous data interpretation.
• Integrate multiple scientific disciplines and translate across functions by mobilising internal and external experts and an established industry network to progress biotech scientific plans.
• Apply strong understanding of the investment and VC ecosystem and portfolio and project management.

Drug Development expertise

• Provide end-to-end development guidance spanning preclinical through proof-of-concept, informed by experience advancing an asset into or toward the clinic in a biotech setting.
• Build development scenarios across therapeutic areas by anticipating funding, timelines, and value inflection points shaped by VC/biotech dynamics.

Strategic & Operational Leadership

• Position and advocate Lilly Gateway Labs externally to attract and recruit top resident companies.
• Provide strategic oversight to the LGL portfolio to accelerate company progress, ensuring clear objectives, milestones, and decision-ready updates.

Influence

• Influence and build relationships across diverse internal and external stakeholders in a largely virtual model, demonstrating strong cultural sensitivity across countries and company cultures.
• Drive a unified Lilly face to external partners by maintaining a working view of regional efforts across Europe and beyond and aligning across geographies and LGL peers.
• Shape new partner projects by connecting companies to Lilly internal teams as relevant.

Leadership

• Model Lilly values through high standards in science and people leadership by setting priorities, coaching and aligning teams, constructively managing conflict, and exercising sound business judgment to represent the enterprise portfolio view.

Minimum Requirements

• Education: Advanced degree (PhD, MS, MBA)
• Experience: 10+ years of experience in the pharmaceutical or related drug development industry

Additional Skills/Preferences

• Strong preference for direct biotech experience, in particular taking assets through pre-clinical to clinical stage.
• Experience with search and evaluate and business development.
• Ability to make sound decisions on critical issues with minimum supervision.
• Demonstrated ability to think and work creatively, exhibiting sound judgment and risk management practices to effectively make decisions.
• Strong business acumen with an ability to apply internal and external business knowledge to execute the strategy.
• Proven ability to capture support and influence of senior leadership on a consistent basis.
• Ability to work across cultures—people, company and geographic.
• Significant mediation skills across both group and individual interactions.
• Legal acumen to understand contractual terms and proactively identify issues.
• Advanced analytical skills and the ability to communicate complex information and analyses to a variety of scientific and non-scientific audiences.

Additional Information

• Up to 40% international travel (dependent on location) and the ability to work in different time zones.

Embracing Diversity

Embracing diversity is at the core of our long-held value of respect for people. It is the lens through which we understand and respond to the unique needs of the millions of individuals who depend on our medicines. For us, embracing diversity means understanding, respecting, and valuing differences, including but not limited to race, colour, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, protected veteran status, disability, or any other legally protected status. The greatest measure of our diversity efforts is our ability to attract and retain exceptional employees who feel comfortable in a culture that supports them being themselves. Lilly is dedicated to helping individuals with disabilities to actively engage in the workforce, ensuring equal opportunities when vying for positions.