Senior Director, Employer Program Management (P5), Lilly Employer

705 Lilly USA, LLC; Indianapolis (IN); On-site; USD 167,000 - 244,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

401(k) plan

Medical/dental/vision benefits

Performance bonus

Job summary

Lilly is seeking a Senior Director of Employer Program Management in Indianapolis to lead the PMO across the Lilly Employer organization. You will align strategy with execution, drive capacity planning, and coordinate cross-functional programs spanning CRM, data products, field enablement, and platform launches.

You will manage external partners and lead a high‑visibility team to deliver launch readiness, adoption, and business results while using AI tools to streamline reporting and decision

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree required; 8+ years in program management, commercial operations or technology delivery, incl. 5+ years leading cross-functional programs.
• Experience leading programme or project managers (3+ years) and building or rebuilding a PMO is highly desirable.
• Proven ability to align stakeholders, drive KPIs/OKRs, and deliver complex initiatives with measurable business impact.

Responsibilities

• Stand up and run the Employer PMO; map and report work; establish a single system of record and transparent portfolio views.
• Lead capacity planning, prioritization, and trade-off decisions; manage dependencies and release readiness.
• Direct programs across field, strategy, marketing, operations, and platforms; partner with PBMs, vendors and platforms to meet launches and adoption targets.
• Drive change management to ensure adoption and value realization; embed compliance reviews early in planning.

Skills

Program management

PMO leadership

Cross-functional leadership

Agile/Kanban

Executive communication

Vendor management

Change management

AI tooling awareness

Education

Bachelor's degree

Job description

Organization Overview

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. Organization Overview Lilly is a medicine company turning science into healing to make life better for people around the world, with a vision to get our medicines to more patients faster. Lilly Employer is a new organization focused on accelerating obesity access through both traditional and new models to drive increased opt-in and utilization. We are focused on delivering an improved employer and employee experience and outcomes, accelerating evidence generation, and helping to shape a more transparent healthcare ecosystem. We work to eliminate barriers to access and affordability and to improve lives through Lilly medicines. We are committed to understanding customer needs and the healthcare ecosystem, proactively identifying and removing obstacles to ensure a seamless consumer experience. This new team embodies a collaborative spirit, strategic thinking, and a readiness to adopt change and technology for better outcomes.

Position Overview

The Senior Director, Employer Program Management will report to the AVP, Lilly Employer Business Operations and serve as the delivery leader across the full Lilly Employer organization. This role builds and leads the PMO that translates Employer strategy into an integrated portfolio, sequencing platform and CRM builds, data products, field enablement, employer launches across the PBM, Lilly Employer Connect, and Lilly Employer Direct pathways, and product launches against capacity, shared business outcomes, and the employer benefits decision cycle. The role gives leaders one clear view of what is in flight, what is at risk, and what decisions are needed, personally leads the highest-stakes programs, and leads a team of contract program and project managers. Candidates should be hands‑on program leaders who have built or rebuilt a PMO and still want to personally run the most complex programs. They should bring structure without bureaucracy, designing lean operating models, proving them in practice, and using modern tools and AI to reduce manual work. They should move quickly with sound judgment, know which decisions are reversible and which are not, and drive cross‑functional alignment and adoption without positional authority. This is a high‑visibility role: the person who does this well will shape how a new Lilly business operates and scales.

Key Outcomes

High‑performing program team: a team of contract program and project managers, built and led to consistent standards, deployed to the highest‑priority work, and scaled as automation and demand change. Operating model: a lean model for planning, intake, prioritization, escalation, and decision rights, where every routine changes a decision or unblocks a team. Single system of record: one platform for scope, milestones, dependencies and capacity, replacing duplicate trackers, status decks and manual reports. Automated portfolio reporting: leadership updates generated from the system of record using Lilly‑approved AI tools, with risks flagged before dates slip. Business results: every priority program tied to Employer goals such as opt‑in, utilisation and launch adoption, with value tracked after delivery. Launch readiness: a readiness review before every employer launch and major platform release, covering field enablement, MLR‑approved content, data and reporting, system configuration, partner readiness and compliance. Integrated delivery calendar: one calendar that ties marketing, data, CRM, field training, platform, business development and launch milestones to the employer benefits decision cycle. Program management team: clear criteria for when work becomes a program, a standard toolkit and a high‑performing team of contract program and project managers on the highest‑priority work.

Key Responsibilities

Stand Up and Run the Employer PMO Map how Employer work is planned and reported today, and remove the meetings, trackers and reports teams do not need. Establish one system of record and the portfolio views leadership uses, solving problems in existing approved tools first and using Lilly‑approved AI tools to automate reporting and flag risk early. Plan and Prioritise the Portfolio Lead annual and quarterly planning that translates Employer strategy into a prioritised portfolio with owners, milestones and success measures and anticipate the capacity needed to scale. Run capacity, dependency and release readiness reviews with Employer Platforms, Tech@Lilly, BI&A and functional leads and drive explicit trade‑off decisions when demand exceeds capacity. Give the Lilly Employer Leadership Team one live view of in‑flight work, risks, decisions and results against business goals, rolling up agile and calendar‑driven teams without forcing one method. Lead Programs and Partners Personally lead the highest‑stakes programs across Field, Strategy and Marketing, Business Operations, Employer Platforms and Business Development, including employer launches, CRM and platform go‑lives and product launch sequencing. Manage delivery with external partners, including PBMs, platform partners and implementation vendors, aligning scope, timelines, contractual go‑live dates and success metrics. Drive change management so launched work is adopted by the field, partners and customers and confirm it delivered its intended value. Build Legal, Medical, Regulatory, Privacy and Ethics and Compliance review into plans from the start. Build the Team and Capability Lead a team of contract program and project managers: onboard through vendors, set standards, assign work to priorities, coach for quality and scale the team as automation and demand change. Raise program management capability across Lilly Employer through standards, templates and coaching and serve as an active member of the Lilly Employer Leadership Team. Operate within company policy, the Red Book, Customer Information Quality procedures and tools and all applicable compliance procedures.

Basic Requirements

Bachelor’s degree 8+ years of experience in program management, commercial operations or technology delivery, including 5+ years leading complex cross‑functional programmes or a PMO 3+ years of experience leading programme or project managers including hiring performance management and development

Additional Skills/Preferences

PMO build experience: has stood up a PMO or rebuilt one to run with fewer meetings and tools and better leadership visibility. This is the defining qualification for the role. Outcome orientation: experience defining and tracking programme KPIs and OKRs and connecting delivery to business results. Modern tooling and AI: fluency with a modern delivery platform as a system of record and demonstrated use of AI to automate reporting and coordination. Change leadership: a track record of driving adoption of new processes platforms or launches across teams that do not report to them. Partner and vendor management: experience managing external partners and contract resources, including scope onboarding and performance. Methodology range: working knowledge of agile Kanban and stage‑gate approaches reconcilied with fixed external dates. Executive communication and judgement: turns a complex portfolio into a one‑page update a senior leader can act on and knows which decisions to own and which to not mandate. Industry knowledge: experience in employer benefits PBMs digital health or pharmaceutical commercial operations; obesity or GLP‑1 experience a plus. Preferred MBA or advanced degree PMP PgMP or equivalent certification.

Additional Information

Lilly may provide support for or sponsor work authorisation 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 base of age race colour 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 $166,500 - $244,200 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 programme 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 programme, fitness benefits and employee clubs and activities). Lilly reserves the right to amend, modify or terminate its compensation and benefit programmes 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!