Sr. Advisor - AI/ML Product Owner

100 Eli Lilly and Company; Indianapolis (IN); On-site; USD 144,000 - 231,000; Full time

Job summary

Lilly in Indianapolis seeks a Sr. Advisor - AI/ML Product Owner to lead AI/ML driven solutions transforming pharmaceutical processes and accelerating drug discovery. You will bridge business needs and technical execution, owning product strategy, roadmap, and delivery of high-impact AI products.

Lead data product ownership end-to-end, define data contracts, KPIs, and governance, and collaborate with IT to scale from MVP to enterprise-grade solutions while ensuring regulatory compliance.

Qualifications

• Ph.D./Masters/Bachelor with substantial AI/ML and data-architecture experience.
• Proven track record launching AI/ML-powered products from conception to adoption.
• Strong communication of complex concepts to diverse stakeholders.

Responsibilities

• Own the CMC Operational Data Product end-to-end — definitions, data contracts, quality standards, lifecycle.
• Design and build AI/ML architecture, governance, and validation frameworks for enterprise scale.
• Architect core components: pipelines, semantic-model extensions, AI/agent interfaces.
• Engage with IT and business leaders to align on roadmap and governance.

Skills

AI/ML Product Ownership

Data Product Ownership

Cross-functional Leadership

Stakeholder Communication

Education

PhD with 6+ years

Master’s with 9+ years

Bachelor’s with 12+ years

Tools

AWS SageMaker

Power BI

Data Governance

MLOps

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.

Organization Summary

The CMC Portfolio Analytics & Insights (PAI) team is an integral part of CMC Project Management within Lilly Research Laboratories’ Product Research and Development organization. The CMC Project Management team is responsible for leading the design and execution of integrated CMC strategies from portfolio entry through global submissions and approvals. The PAI is a newly established, strategic team dedicated to leveraging data analytics to transform CMC project management. This team will transform CMC portfolio data into a strategic asset for decision-making—tracking PRD portfolio metrics, driving PM tool development, and setting data standards. As a key enabler for data-driven decision making, this team has significant opportunities to create substantial impact by providing actionable insights, optimizing portfolio performance, and supporting strategic initiatives across our CMC operations. Join us at this pivotal moment and play a key role in shaping the future of CMC project management.

Position Summary

We are seeking a highly motivated and skilled AI/ML Product Owner to join our CMC Portfolio Analytics & Insights Team. As a Sr. Advisor - AI/ML Product Owner, you will lead the product strategy, roadmap, and delivery of innovative AI/ML-driven solutions that transform our pharmaceutical processes and accelerate drug discovery and development. You will bridge the gap between business needs and technical execution, ensuring the successful realization of high-impact AI/ML products.

Responsibilities

Data Product Ownership Own the CMC Operational Data Product end-to-end — definitions, data contracts, quality standards, and lifecycle. Partner with the Data Foundation workstream to enforce naming and field standards, automate pipelines, and eliminate manual reconciliation across PRD. Define and track data-product health KPIs (freshness, completeness, lineage, adoption) and report on them. Make and document the governance decisions that keep the product trustworthy — which source becomes the authoritative record, which duplicate reports and trackers are retired, and how changes are communicated to users.

AI/ML Architecture Design and build the AI interactive layer on top of the governed Data Hub and Power BI semantic model, engineering it so agent queries execute under the requesting user's authenticated identity. Build the AI accuracy/validation framework needed to move capability from today's “AI mindset” (data prep, summarization, pattern-spotting, always human-owned) to tomorrow's core capability (predictive risk models, early-warning signals, ask-the-portfolio). Prototype and iterate AI capability against real use cases already in flight, and report accuracy against validated outcomes.

Hands‑On Technical Build Independently architect and build core components — pipelines, semantic-model extensions, AI/agent interfaces — this is a working architect role, not a pure oversight role. Set technical standards, review practices, and reusable architecture patterns that the wider data engineering and analytics/visualization functions build against.

Cross‑Team Leadership, AI Storytelling & IT Partnership Turn technical AI and data work into compelling stories — translate pipelines, model behavior, and architecture decisions into narratives that make AI capability tangible, credible, and easy to back for non-technical leadership. Act as a constructive challenger of the status quo — question legacy manual processes, parallel trackers, and entrenched ways of working, and make the case for change even when it's uncomfortable or meets resistance. Coordinate day‑to‑day with the Data Engineer and Insights Lead on the PAI team so the AI layer stays aligned with the data foundation and the insights being surfaced. Partner directly with IT/Tech@Lilly to take the Data Hub and AI layer from MVP to enterprise-grade.

Stakeholder Engagement & Governance Represent the team's AI and data architecture in cross-functional governance forums and on a cross-functional data and AI advisory board. Translate technical architecture and AI capability into a business narrative. Provide credible technical grounding for roadmap and leadership review materials. Ensure compliance with all relevant industry regulations, data privacy standards, and company policies.

Basic Requirements

Ph.D. or Master’s degree preferred or Bachelor’s degree required in Computer Science, Engineering, Data Science, Bioinformatics, or a related quantitative field with the following years of relevant experience: PhD with 6+ years, Master’s with 9+ years or Bachelor’s with 12+ years. 8–10+ years’ experience building production data and AI/ML architectures Proven track record of successfully defining, launching, and scaling AI/ML-powered products from conception to widespread adoption. Strong understanding of various machine learning algorithms, deep learning techniques, natural language processing (NLP), and computer vision. Experience with AI/ML platforms, tools, and cloud services (e.g., AWS SageMaker, Google AI Platform, Azure ML). Demonstrated ability to translate complex technical concepts into business terms and effectively communicate with both technical and non-technical stakeholders. Excellent analytical, problem-solving, and decision-making skills. Demonstrated willingness to challenge existing processes, tools, or decisions and drive change without waiting for formal authority to do so. Strong stakeholder communication skills and comfort presenting technical tradeoffs to senior and executive leadership. Experience partnering with IT/enterprise infrastructure teams to move a solution from pilot or MVP into supportable, production-grade scale — cloud hosting, security review, and ongoing operations. Experience with data governance, MLOps, and responsible AI practices.

Preferred Qualifications

3–5 years’ experience designing solutions on governed enterprise data — row-level security, identity-based access control, and semantic modeling. Strong leadership, interpersonal, and communication skills, with the ability to influence and inspire cross-functional teams. Experience working in an agile development environment (Scrum, Kanban). Familiarity with the pharmaceutical industry, drug discovery, clinical development, or life sciences research is highly desirable.

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), BlackEmployees at Lilly (BE@Lilly), ChineseCultureNetwork (CCN), EnAble, Evolve, LillyIndianNetwork (LIN), OrganizationofLatinxatLilly (OLA), Pride (LGBTQ+Allies), VeteransLeadershipNetwork (VLN) and Women’sInitiativeforLeadingatLilly (WILL).

Actual compensation will depend on a candidate’s education, experience, skills, and geographic location. The anticipated wage for this position is $144,000 - $231,000. 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! #WeAreLilly