Associate Director - Technology at Lilly Procurement

100 Eli Lilly and Company; Indianapolis (IN); On-site; USD 132,000 - 194,000; Full time

Job summary

Lilly, headquartered in Indianapolis, is seeking a senior procurement professional to lead strategic sourcing and category leadership for technology agreements. You will manage multi-million-dollar SaaS, cloud, and professional services contracts, develop enterprise-wide supplier strategies, and drive cost savings while ensuring compliance.

You will partner with Legal, IT, Security, Finance and Quality to deliver technology initiatives, negotiate favorable terms, and mentor procurement teams.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree and 5+ years in Procurement, IT, or both.
• MBA, CPM, CPSM, or equivalent certification is preferred.
• Experience negotiating with enterprise vendors and leading large SaaS/ cloud contracts.

Responsibilities

• Develop and execute strategic sourcing and category strategies for technology and services.
• Lead negotiations of multi‑million-dollar SaaS, cloud, and professional services agreements.
• Align with Legal, Security, Finance, and IT to deliver technology initiatives.
• Drive cost savings, risk management, and supplier performance across business units.
• Mentor procurement professionals and contribute to process improvements.

Skills

Strategic sourcing

Category leadership

Negotiation

Stakeholder management

Executive communication

AI governance

Cybersecurity

Data protection

Vendor management

Education

Bachelor's degree

MBA or equivalent certification

Tools

Microsoft

ServiceNow

Salesforce

SAP

Workday

Oracle

AWS

Veeva

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.

Key Responsibilities

• Strategic Sourcing and Category Leadership Develop and execute sourcing and category strategies that balance cost, value, risk, innovation, and supplier performance.
• Lead competitive sourcing events (RFIs, RFPs, RFQs) and strategic initiatives, including market and alternatives assessment.
• Build enterprise-level views of supplier relationships, consolidating spend, contracts, usage, and renewal data across business units to create a unified "one Lilly" commercial position.
• Negotiation and Contracting Lead negotiation of multi-million-dollar SaaS, software, cloud, and professional services agreements, including master agreements, order forms, SOWs, amendments, and renewals.
• Negotiate pricing and licensing models, service levels, liability, indemnification, data protection, AI terms, and cybersecurity requirements.
• Drive contract standardization and harmonized terms across suppliers and product lines.
• Renewal and Supplier Management Own renewal planning, co-terming strategy, and leverage development well ahead of key dates.
• Manage executive-level supplier relationships and governance, including performance reviews and escalation paths.
• Monitor usage against entitlement and partner with IT on demand management, true-down, and rationalization opportunities.
• Stakeholder Partnership and Executive Influence Partner with Technology at Lilly leaders, business executives, Legal, Security, Privacy, Finance, and Quality to deliver strategic technology initiatives.
• Prepare executive-ready recommendations, business cases, and negotiation strategies, including for CIO-level review.
• Align competing stakeholder priorities and influence senior leaders without direct authority.
• Risk, Compliance, and Governance Assess and mitigate commercial, operational, regulatory, privacy, and cybersecurity risks in technology agreements, including third-party data flows and AI governance.
• Ensure compliance with procurement policies, governance requirements, and contracting standards, including requirements specific to regulated (GxP) environments.
• Value Delivery Identify and deliver cost savings, cost avoidance, and commercial optimization, with rigorous, finance-validated tracking.
• Support digital transformation by enabling efficient procurement of emerging technologies and strategic platforms.
• Leadership and Development Mentor and coach procurement professionals and contribute to continuous improvement across the Procurement organization.

Basic Requirements

• Bachelor's degree 5+ years of experience in Procurement, IT, or a combination of the two.

Additional Preferences

• Proven ability to manage complex stakeholder environments across IT, Legal, Finance, Information Security, and the business.
• Track record of delivering measurable savings, cost avoidance, and business value.
• Strong executive communication and supplier relationship management skills.
• Demonstrated success in leading negotiations with large suppliers and leading large projects.
• MBA, CPM, CPSM, or equivalent professional certification.
• 5+ years of experience in procurement, strategic sourcing, vendor management, or contract negotiation, including significant experience in technology categories.
• Demonstrated success leading large, complex SaaS, software, cloud, or technology services negotiations with major enterprise providers, including multi-million-dollar agreements.
• Strong knowledge of SaaS licensing models, cloud consumption agreements, subscription pricing, and software asset management concepts.
• Experience negotiating cybersecurity, privacy, data protection, AI, and regulatory contract provisions.
• Experience negotiating with enterprise vendors such as Microsoft, ServiceNow, Salesforce, SAP, Workday, Oracle, AWS, Veeva, etc.
• Understanding of software licensing, cloud economics, FinOps, and emerging AI commercial models.
• Experience in a highly regulated industry such as pharmaceutical, healthcare, financial services, or manufacturing.
• Experience supporting enterprise-scale technology transformation programs.
• Experience managing cross functional teams.
• Comfortable using AI tools such as Claude, ChatGPT, Copilot, etc.

Leadership Competencies

• Executive presence and business acumen
• Strategic thinking and structured problem-solving
• Influencing without direct authority
• Negotiation discipline and a results-oriented mindset
• Data-driven decision making
• Collaboration and relationship building
• Comfort operating in ambiguous, fast-changing environments
• High ownership and accountability

Other Information

Travel: <10% Lilly may provide support for or sponsor work authorization or visas for this role for internal applicants only.

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 (AMECA), Black Employees at Lilly (BE@Lilly), Chinese Culture Network (CCN), EnAble, Evolve, Lilly Indian Network (LIN), Organization of Latinx at Lilly (OLA), Pride (LGBTQ+ Allies), Veterans Leadership Network (VLN) and Women’s Initiative for Leading at Lilly (WILL).

Actual compensation will depend on a candidate’s education, experience, skills, and geographic location. The anticipated wage for this position is $132,000 - $193,600 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.

#WeAreLilly At Lilly we strive to ensure our employees are part of a team that cares about them and our shared purpose of making life better for those around the world. How do we do this? We continue to look for ways to include, innovate, accelerate and deliver while maintaining integrity, excellence and respect for people. We hope that you seek to join us on our journey as we create medicine and deliver improved outcomes for patients across the globe!