Sr. Director - Lilly Ventures Tech

Eli Lilly and Company; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 194,000 - 284,000; Full time

Job summary

Eli Lilly and Company is seeking a Senior Director for the LV Tech group to lead direct equity investments and fund-of-funds initiatives in early-stage life sciences and health tech software and services. You will source opportunities, conduct due diligence, and execute transactions, driving strategic insights from portfolio companies.

The role requires a Bachelor’s degree with 4+ years VC experience in healthcare, with a preference for graduates with JD, MBA, or PhD.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree.
• 4+ years of venture capital experience in healthcare or life sciences.
• Graduate degree preferred (JD, MBA, PhD).
• Pre-Seed to Series B stage investing experience, including financial modeling, due diligence, and transaction experience.
• Travel required (~25%).

Responsibilities

• Contribute to a strong team culture within a small team.
• Identify, propose, and execute direct equity investments in early-stage life sciences and health tech software and services.
• Strengthen Lilly’s external network with startups, VC funds, incubators and health systems.
• Drive innovative thinking and anticipate market evolution to gain competitive advantage.

Skills

Emotional intelligence

Communication skills

Analytical

Project management

Negotiation

Education

Bachelor’s degree

Graduate degree preferred (JD, MBA, PhD)

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 Overview

Lilly Catalyze360 is a comprehensive approach to enabling the early-stage biotech ecosystem by democratizing access to infrastructure, expertise, and resources. Through its interconnected pillars—Lilly Ventures, Lilly Gateway Labs, Lilly ExploR&D, and Lilly TuneLab—Catalyze360 strategically removes barriers that traditionally block bold science from becoming life-changing medicines, providing biotechs with flexible combinations of capital, physical lab space, R&D capabilities, AI/ML tools, and decades of enterprise learning.

Lilly Ventures (LV) is a pan-therapeutic, global innovation organization embedded within Eli Lilly & Company. Our mission is to identify and integrate breakthrough science and technology - including the rapidly maturing spaces of AI/ML, computational biology, and platform technologies that drive medicine advancement, functional performance, and commercial innovation - into Lilly Research Labs (LRL) to accelerate drug discovery and development and Lilly more broadly. We operate at the intersection of venture capital, biotech and health tech innovation, and R&D transformation.

Job Summary

The LV Tech group seeks a Senior Director to execute the group’s strategy – direct equity investments, fund‑of‑funds investments, and value pull‑through – by sourcing novel software and services businesses for investment, running due diligence, and executing transactions. The Senior Director is expected to be a creative problem solver with strong business acumen and exceptional organizational skills who supports achievement of the group’s goals while seeking ways to optimize the process.

Key Responsibilities

• Contribute to a strong team culture: Work within small team dynamics as part of an organization that emphasizes collaboration and direct communication to achieve big goals. Coach and mentor team member(s) while reinforcing a strong team culture of Diversity & Inclusion.
• Investing in novel innovation: Identify, propose, and execute direct equity investments in early-stage (Pre-Seed to Series B) life sciences and health tech software and services companies, with pull‑through of strategic insights from portfolio companies.
• Strengthening Lilly’s external network: Foster external strategic relationships (e.g., start-ups, venture capital funds, corporate venture capital funds, incubators, health systems, and others) to identify and anticipate opportunities.
• Be an agent for change: Drive innovative thinking across business units, functions, and therapeutic areas on investment decisions that have a critical impact on external innovation. Anticipate the evolution of the market and competition, especially regarding its impact on innovation, acquisitions, and collaborations, to gain competitive advantage.

Minimum Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree.
• 4+ years of venture capital experience in healthcare or life sciences.

Additional Skills/Preferences

• Graduate degree (JD, MBA, PhD) preferred.
• 7+ years of venture capital experience in healthcare or life sciences preferred.
• Recognized as an expert for area of expertise.
• Pre-Seed to Series B stage investing experience, including financial modeling, due diligence, and transaction experience.
• High level of emotional intelligence with exceptional collaboration with colleagues at all levels.
• Effective problem solving, analytical, and project management skills to evaluate and resolve highly complex or unusual business and organizational problems.
• Exceptional business acumen, broad learning agility, and market knowledge.
• Demonstrated negotiation, persuasion, and influence skills.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.

Additional Information

• Travel required (~25%).
• 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 $193,500 - $283,800.

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.

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