Senior Director, Generative & Answer Engine Optimization (GEO/AEO)

100 Eli Lilly and Company; Indianapolis (IN); On-site; USD 167,000 - 244,000; Full time

Job summary

Lilly in Indianapolis is seeking a senior leader to define enterprise GEO/AI-visibility strategy across US and international markets. You will set the operating model, governance, and roadmap to scale the function.

Build dashboards and dashboards that report AI-surface performance; audit content for AI access; lead pilots globally while managing vendors and cross-functional partners.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree required.
• 7+ years leading search or digital marketing.
• Hands-on experience building AI/LLM visibility, GEO, or AEO programs.
• Direct execution experience in GEO is expected.
• Authorized to work in the United States on a full-time basis.
• Lilly will not sponsor work authorization or visas for this role.

Responsibilities

• Define and lead the enterprise GEO/AI-visibility strategy. Set operating model and governance; translate vision into a concrete roadmap.
• Build and evolve dashboards to monitor AI-surface performance and set content standards to improve visibility.
• Audit gated content to ensure high-value material is accessible to AI engines; run pilots across international markets.
• Build and manage a team of GEO practitioners; own vendor relationships and cross-functional alignment across Commercial, Medical, and International teams.

Skills

Leading search

AI visibility programs

GEO/AEO programs

Cross-functional collaboration

Vendor management

Education

Bachelor's degree

Tools

Semrush

Bluefish AI

Profound

Athena

Schema markup

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. Build the function that determines how the enterprise is represented across AI-driven search. Generative AI platforms — ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, Google AI Overviews — are becoming a primary channel through which patients, caregivers, and healthcare professionals find information. Most companies, including most competitors in this space, do not yet have a defined strategy for how their brands are surfaced, cited, or recommended inside these tools. This role builds that capability from the ground up. This is a newly created role inheriting an existing team of GEO practitioners. The mandate is to define the strategy, evolve the operating model, and scale the team and tools for one of the largest and most complex organizations in the industry. This role sets the standard for an emerging discipline, building on an established team rather than starting from zero. This role owns: Enterprise strategy and execution for AI/LLM visibility across commercial, medical, and communications functions, in the US and international markets The measurement layer — evaluating and selecting the tools and platforms that track AI-surface performance, and building the dashboards that report performance to the business Hiring, budget, and vendor decisions for the function Cross-functional alignment across Search Capabilities, Medical Affairs Strategy, Evidence Intelligence, and Site teams — driving one unified enterprise approach rather than fragmented efforts The team is built, not inherited. This role carries explicit mandate and budget to hire and develop a group of GEO practitioners as the function scales.

Core Responsibilities

• Strategy & Enterprise Leadership: Define and lead the enterprise GEO/AI-visibility strategy. Set the operating model and governance for how this work is prioritized and resourced. Translate a broader search vision into a concrete roadmap. Track a fast-moving landscape and resolve implications for the business, in partnership with brand, medical, and communications leadership.
• AI Visibility Insights & Measurement: Build and evolve the dashboards and reporting that give teams a real-time view of AI-surface performance. Set technical content standards that improve how content is surfaced and cited. Audit gated content to confirm high-value material is accessible to AI engines. Run pilots and scaled rollouts across international markets.
• Cross-Functional Partnership & Vendor Management: Align with peer leads across Commercial, Medical, and International teams on a unified strategy. Partner with Technology and Site teams on structured data, schema markup, and site architecture that support AI crawlability. Own vendor relationships and tool evaluation in the AI-visibility space — platforms such as Semrush, Bluefish AI, Profound, or Athena. Represent this work in cross-functional AI strategy forums.
• Team Leadership: Build a team of GEO practitioners. Set goals, provide direction, and establish clear development paths as the field matures.

Basic Requirements

• Bachelors degree
• 7+ years leading search or digital marketing.
• Hands-on experience building AI/LLM visibility, GEO, or AEO programs.
• Extensive tenure specifically in GEO is not expected, given the discipline’s recency; direct execution experience is required.
• Qualified applicants must be authorized to work in the United States on a full-time basis.
• Lilly will not provide support for or sponsor work authorization or visas for this role, including but not limited to F-1 CPT, F-1 OPT, F-1 STEM OPT, J-1, H-1B, TN, O-1, E-3, H-1B1, or L-1.

Additional Preferences

• Experience leading and developing people, including running specialists through ambiguity in a fast-changing space.
• Strong analytical skills — experience building and interpreting visibility dashboards and performance data to drive decisions.
• Ability to communicate a new, technical topic clearly to senior leaders and align cross-functional teams without formal authority over them.
• Experience in pharma, healthcare, or another regulated industry. Deep pharmaceutical experience is not required at the outset; onboarding includes direct partnership with Medical, Legal, and Regulatory teams, and the ability to learn a regulated environment quickly is expected.
• Direct experience with AI-visibility platforms (Semrush, Bluefish AI, Profound, Athena, Otterly) or major AI surfaces (ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, Google AI Overviews, Open Evidence).
• Experience implementing structured data, schema markup, or technical SEO at scale.
• Experience scaling a marketing capability across global or international markets.
• A clearly articulated point of view on Agentic Search and how brands should prepare for it.
• Demonstrated ability to operate effectively in ambiguity, as the discipline will continue to evolve.

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 $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 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.

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.