Sr. Director, Medical Affairs - Neuroscience

Eli Lilly and Company; Toronto; Hybrid; CAD 243,000 - 356,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Lilly Bonus Program

Car allowance

Job summary

Lilly is seeking a Sr. Director – Medical Affairs Neuroscience in Toronto to lead medical strategy for the Neuroscience TA, partnering with Brand, Regulatory, and Health Canada to shape evidence generation and launch plans.

The role focuses on building leadership capabilities, guiding cross‑functional teams, and delivering high‑impact medical plans across Alzheimer's and neurodegenerative assets in a hybrid work setting.

Qualifications

• PhD, MD, or PharmD degree (or equivalent) required.
• 10+ years in pharmaceutical industry with 8+ years in medical affairs.
• Successful people leadership experience and coaching ability.
• Strong communication, interpersonal and negotiation skills.
• Ability to influence across functions and drive launches.

Responsibilities

• Provide independent medical and scientific input to formulate overall product strategy.
• Lead regulatory submissions and Health Canada interactions.
• Oversee local medical plans, lifecycle plans, and portfolio discussions.
• Lead external scientific engagement with clinicians, advisory boards, and patient advocacy.
• Drive health-system readiness and HEOR/payer evidence needs with Market Access.

Skills

Strategic leadership

Cross-functional collaboration

Medical/scientific leadership

Communication

Negotiation

People leadership

Education

PhD/MD/PharmD

Job description

At Lilly, the work is demanding because patients are waiting. We unite caring with discovery to help make life better for people around the world, knowing that every decision, every detail, and every day matters. Headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana, our over 50,000 employees around the globe take on complex challenges to discover and deliver life‑changing medicines, strengthen how health is understood and managed, and support the communities we serve. This is hard, urgent, selfless work—but it’s work worth doing. If you’re driven by purpose and ready to bring your best to work that truly matters for patients, we invite you to join us.

The Sr. Director – Medical Affairs Neuroscience (NS) role is responsible for medical and scientific leadership for the Therapeutic Area (TA) Strategy. The core function of the Sr. Director is to set the medical vision and direction for the TA and to partner with cross‑functional groups to provide independent medical and scientific input to the peri‑launch, launch, and lifecycle management of NS assets – including novel, disease‑modifying and advanced therapies in neurodegenerative diseases – while leading the execution and delivery of TA strategic initiatives. Key partners include Brand/Commercial, Market Access, Regulatory, Patient Safety, Medical Information, and Patient Advocacy, as well as external stakeholders including Health Canada.

Location

This is a hybrid role – onsite presence at our Toronto office will be 10 days or more per month (or at least 50% of the time), determined in collaboration with your manager and based on business needs.

This role is eligible for additional forms of compensation, such as participation in the Lilly Bonus Program and car allowance.

This posting is for an existing vacancy.

The Neuroscience Sr. Director

• Defines and executes strategic integration and implementation of TA capabilities across brands within the assigned business unit.
• Partners with leadership to enable strategic and efficient delivery of business plans through coordination of appropriate resources, active management of cross‑functional partnerships, and investment in TA and/or brand team health.
• Drives continuous evolution of medical capabilities and ensures ample opportunity for the team to hone leadership skills, deeper medical affairs expertise, and increase scientific depth and agility within and across TAs and/or brands.
• Is accountable for the planning, implementation, and results of local TA medical strategies and plans, in alignment with global and affiliate priorities.

Primary Responsibilities

This job description is intended to provide a general overview of the job requirements at the time it was prepared. The job requirements of any position may change over time and may include additional responsibilities not specifically described in the job description.

Medical Affairs lead activities

Provide independent medical and scientific input to the formulation of overall product strategy working closely with business unit colleagues and actively support activities of marketed products – including pre‑launch activities for Alzheimer’s disease and pipeline assets, as well as subspecialty areas such as pain and addiction disorders – from the medical/scientific viewpoint. Act as medical lead to ensure alignment across all brands in the responsible TA to maximize scientific contribution/presence of Lilly in the area. Accountable as medical content owner for all local medical plan, life cycle plan, and portfolio discussion in the area.

Play a critical role in regulatory submissions and negotiations with Health Canada, providing medical and scientific leadership in partnership with Regulatory Affairs.

Provide review to external donation, sponsorship, and grant requests in collaboration with medical affairs leadership team.

External Scientific Leadership and Health‑System Readiness

Lead the external scientific engagement strategy for the TA, including engagement with leading clinicians and experts, advisory boards, congress and publication planning, patient advocacy partnerships, and support for investigator‑initiated research.

For Alzheimer’s disease and pipeline assets, partner with internal and external stakeholders to advance health‑system readiness, including diagnostic and biomarker pathways, treatment‑site capacity, and safety monitoring, and ensure medical and HTA/payer evidence needs are addressed in collaboration with Market Access.

Performance Management

Lead the performance management process for reporting staff members. Provide input into salary administration, talent assessment, and succession planning discussions for reporting staff members. Ensure rigorous development plan is in place for each employee that builds on strengths and grows their skills, including on‑the‑job opportunities, mentors, and broadening assignments. Model appropriate and expected leadership behaviors.

Team culture

• Foster a diverse and inclusive leadership mindset where each team member is empowered to be authentic. Create an environment that encourages innovation and risk taking, and manage risk at the team and portfolio level. Ensure there is a team‑based reward and recognition mechanism in place. Ensure that appropriate shared learning opportunities are established. Identify, attract, and evaluate talent through internal and external networks.
• Remove barriers to delivering exceptional business partner and customer experiences
• Enable execution and delivery of results
• Actively measure and balance team capacity to ensure that TA teams are optimally staffed to deliver launch and lifecycle medical objectives across the business unit. Partner with leadership to ensure MA teams have integrated capabilities that leverage individual talents and expertise to deliver on business unit medical objectives and strategic initiatives
• Partner with the broader medical affairs operations organization (medical information, medical education, MSLs, MSL management, regulatory) to meet requests to support the delivery of holistic and comprehensive MA business objectives

Real‑World Evidence (RWE) and Local Data Generation

Lead the generation of local real‑world evidence using diverse data sources (e.g., EMRs, claims, registries) to address evidence gaps, support HTA and payer evidence needs (e.g., CDA‑AMC, INESSS, provincial formularies), and inform TA strategy. Establish and oversee research collaborations and scientific partnerships with clinicians, investigators, and academic centers to enable high‑quality RWE.

Direct external partnerships with third‑party vendors or data‑analytics providers to ensure rigorous study design, execution, and integration of insights into medical plans.

Training and compliance

Ensure all staff adheres to current policies and procedures and are qualified and trained to perform their responsibilities. Communicate with staff regarding expectations of required training courses and ensure that they understand their accountability.

Support and provide guidance to staff in working through compliance and quality related issues by involvement of appropriate resources.

Minimum Education And Qualification Requirements

• A minimum of a PhD, MD, or PharmD degree (or equivalent) is required
• 10+ years of pharmaceutical industry experience, including 8+ years in medical affairs
• Success leading in prior people‑leadership role(s), including leading managers or leading through others, and achieving results through others in a manner that demonstrates strong interpersonal and teambuilding skills, ability to develop effective teams with diverse interpersonal styles and ability to deliver effective coaching and feedback
• Demonstrated evidence of strong communication, interpersonal and negotiation skills
• Demonstrated ability to influence at all levels in order to create and drive initiatives yielding value and competitive advantage
• Strong business acumen and ability to leverage business principles within the team while maintaining a corporate view of the portfolio
• Able to partner cross functionally and network across broad business partners at all levels of the organization
• Strong problem‑solving skills and ability to exercise sound judgement and take and defend well‑reasoned scientific positions; able to anticipate and recognize problems, diagnose root causes and take corrective action to prevent recurrence
• Practical experience and demonstrated ability to lead and manage significant organizational change
• Demonstrated experience contributing to or leading pharmaceutical launches, including peri‑launch medical planning
• Experience with real‑world evidence generation, health economics and outcomes research (HEOR), and/or HTA and payer evidence requirements in Canada (e.g., CDA‑AMC, INESSS, provincial formularies)
• Working knowledge of the Canadian regulatory and compliance environment (e.g., Health Canada, Innovative Medicines Canada Code of Ethical Practices), and experience supporting regulatory submissions and Health Canada interactions

Other Information/additional Preferences

• Experience in neuroscience strongly preferred; experience with disease‑modifying therapies or neurodegenerative diseases, as well as subspecialty areas such as pain and addiction disorders, is a significant asset
• Fluency in French is an asset
• Ability to travel away from office, both domestic and international to the degree appropriate to support the business

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 does not discriminate on the basis of age, race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, national origin, protected veteran status, disability or any other legally protected status.

Actual compensation will depend on a candidate’s education, experience, skills, and geographic location. The anticipated wage for this position is $170,250 - $249,700. Full‑time equivalent employees may also 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 pension plan; vacation benefits; eligibility for healthcare benefits; flexible benefits (if applicable) 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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