Director Preclinical Development Jobs (NOW HIRING)

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.

Position: Senior Director - Osteoporosis, Women's Health

Location: Boston, MA or Indianapolis, IN

About Lilly

At Lilly, we unite caring with discovery to make life better for people worldwide. As a global healthcare leader headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana, we are committed to advancing innovation in areas of high unmet medical need. With a proven track record in obesity research and a growing focus on women's health, we seek an experienced discovery leader to help build a portfolio of transformative therapies to improve outcomes for women everywhere and arrest age-related functional decline across genders. This role offers the opportunity to shape strategy, drive impactful drug discovery and development programs, and contribute to Lilly's mission of scientific excellence and patient-centered care.

Position Summary

The Director / Senior Director will serve as the scientific and strategic leader for osteoporosis preclinical discovery, responsible for defining, implementing, and continuously evolving Lilly's preclinical discovery strategy in osteoporosis. This leader will drive the integration of human biology, translational science, and preclinical models to establish a differentiated and execution-focused discovery framework. The role includes advancing programs from target identification through preclinical development toward early clinical translation, ensuring decisions are guided by robust, decision-enabling data.

The successful candidate will play a central role in shaping the osteoporosis pipeline, building critical capabilities, and establishing best-in-class approaches to target prioritization and validation within the Women's Health portfolio.

Key Responsibilities

Strategy Leadership

• Build and lead an innovative lab focused on novel approaches to identify and validate targets/pathways for osteoporosis. Bring novel, high potential targets into the pipeline for therapeutic approaches for the treatment of osteoporosis.
• Define and implement the preclinical discovery strategy for osteoporosis, including target discovery, validation and prioritization frameworks, experimental approaches, and decision criteria
• Drive portfolio prioritization, articulating differentiation, risk, and alignment with clinical and regulatory expectations
• Build and evolve preclinical and translational capabilities (internal and external) to support execution of the strategy
• Identify and shape external opportunities, including academic collaborations, CRO partnerships, and business development opportunities
• Ensure alignment of osteoporosis strategy with broader Women's Health and musculoskeletal portfolio objectives

Scientific & Project Leadership

• Lead osteoporosis discovery programs, driving target identification, validation, and progression of therapeutic candidates
• Design and implement end-to-end experimental strategies across in vitro, ex vivo, and in vivo systems
• Generate decision-enabling data to support program advancement and portfolio decisions

Translational Strategy

• Define and implement translational approaches linking mechanisms to clinical outcomes, including biomarker strategies and PK/PD relationships
• Ensure preclinical programs are designed to enable clear clinical differentiation, incorporating relevant endpoints such as bone density, bone strength, and microarchitecture

Cross-functional Leadership

• Serve as biology lead on cross-functional teams, partnering closely with colleagues across function
• Influence decision-making and problem-solving to accelerate program progression

External Engagement

• Lead and manage strategic collaborations with CROs and academic partners
• Maintain scientific leadership through publications, presentations, and external engagement in osteoporosis and skeletal biology

People Leadership

• Directly recruit and supervise scientists and provide mentoring, performance management and career development.

Basic Qualifications

• Ph.D. in a relevant subject area
• Minimum of 10 years of relevant experience in academia, industry or related field

Additional Preferences

• Deep expertise in osteoporosis and skeletal biology, including bone remodeling
• 10 years' experience after post doc training
• Demonstrated success in drug discovery, from target identification through preclinical development
• Proven track record of shaping discovery strategy and influencing portfolio decisions
• Strong experience with preclinical in vitro, ex vivo, and in vivo models for osteoporosis
• Experience building new capabilities, platforms, or external collaborations
• Strong cross-functional leadership and scientific communication skills
• Passion for advancing innovative therapies addressing unmet needs in women's health

Lilly is dedicated to helping individuals with disabilities to actively engage in the workforce, ensuring equal opportunities when vying for positions. If you require accommodation to submit a resume for a position at Lilly, please complete the accommodation request form (https://careers.lilly.com/us/en/workplace-accommodation) for further assistance. Please note this is for individuals to request an accommodation as part of the application process and any other correspondence will not receive a response.

Lilly is proud to be an EEO Employer and does not discriminate on the basis of age, race, color, religion, gender identity, sex, gender expression, sexual orientation, genetic information, ancestry, national origin, protected veteran status, disability, or any other legally protected status.

Our employee resource groups (ERGs) offer strong support networks for their members and are open to all employees. Our current groups include: Africa, Middle East, Central Asia Network, Black Employees at Lilly, Chinese Culture Network, Japanese International Leadership Network (JILN), Lilly India Network, Organization of Latinx at Lilly (OLA), PRIDE (LGBTQ+ Allies), Veterans Leadership Network (VLN), Women's Initiative for Leading at Lilly (WILL), enAble (for people with disabilities). Learn more about all of our groups.

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

Full-time equivalent employees also will be eligible for a company bonus (depending, in part, on company and individual performance). In addition, Lilly offers a comprehensive benefit program to eligible employees, including eligibility to participate in a company-sponsored 401(k); pension; vacation benefits; eligibility for medical, dental, vision and prescription drug benefits; flexible benefits (e.g., healthcare and/or dependent day care flexible spending accounts); life insurance and death benefits; certain time off and leave of absence benefits; and well-being benefits (e.g., employee assistance program, fitness benefits, and employee clubs and activities).Lilly reserves the right to amend, modify, or terminate its compensation and benefit programs in its sole discretion and Lilly's compensation practices and guidelines will apply regarding the details of any promotion or transfer of Lilly employees.

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