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.
Role Summary
The Associate Director for Asset Recovery serves as the global process owner and strategic lead for Lilly’s surplus, redeployment, and pre‑owned equipment lifecycle. This role is accountable for maximizing value recovery, ensuring compliant disposition, and enabling reuse of manufacturing and laboratory assets across Lilly and select external channels.
Core Responsibilities
Asset Recovery & Value Optimization
- Lead the end‑to‑end lifecycle for surplus, excess, and decommissioned manufacturing and laboratory equipment.
- Maximize value through intelligent redeployment, resale, donation, or scrap strategies while minimizing storage and holding costs.
- Provide governance over asset recovery timing to support site exits, line shutdowns, and capital project transitions.
Global Process Ownership
- Own and continuously improve the global Asset Recovery operating model, including standard work, tools, and workflows.
- Define and enforce global standards for equipment disposition, valuation, and data integrity.
- Ensure consistent execution across NA and global sites, balancing local needs with enterprise controls.
Systems, Data, and Platforms
- Serve as process owner for Asset Recovery systems and platforms (e.g., surplus equipment portals and resale platforms).
- Ensure accurate asset data, disposition status, and financial traceability throughout the recovery process.
- Drive adoption of standardized intake forms, approvals, and documentation.
Risk & Compliance Oversight
- Ensure asset disposition aligns with financial controls, export regulations, IP protection, EHS, and data security requirements.
- Partner with Legal, Finance, and Quality to mitigate risk associated with surplus equipment transfers.
- Support internal and external audits related to asset disposition and capital recovery.
Vendor & Partner Leadership
- Be the primary global point of contact for external asset recovery vendors and resale partners.
- Lead recurring governance forums — performance, pipeline, and value recovery reviews — that keep partners accountable and the pipeline moving.
- Advise site and network leadership on disposition strategy, timelines, and trade‑offs.
Strategic Advisory & Decision Rights
- Enterprise-wide accountability for Asset Recovery and Equipment Redeployment, with authority to define global standards, approve disposition pathways, and select preferred recovery channels.
- Support large-scale initiatives — site closures, network transformations, capacity rebalancing, and M&A-related equipment disposition — as the asset recovery lead.
- Influence capital planning by proving out asset reuse before new capital spend is approved.
- Own financial impact reporting: recovered value, cost avoidance, and risk mitigation, delivered as executive-level reporting on a regular cadence.
Compliance & Regulatory Adherence: Ensure adherence to safety, regulatory, and quality standards for MRO operations and asset management processes across all sites. Lead efforts to maintain compliance with industry regulations, corporate policies, and environmental requirements.
- Ensures that all work is performed in a compliant manner utilizing all applicable regulations, procedures, policies, and processes. This includes Red Book, FRAP, Travel, etc.
- Ensures that each member of the department receives and completes the appropriate training and certifications.
- Provides work groups with the appropriate safety equipment and ensures that all equipment is good working order.
- Recognizes safe behaviors and addresses unsafe behaviors.
- Participates in accident and near miss reviews.
Cross-Functional Collaboration:
- Collaborate closely with manufacturing, engineering, supply chain, finance, HSE, GFD, and environmental teams to align MRO and equipment management strategies with broader corporate objectives.
- Lead and influence cross-functional teams to foster a unified approach to operational efficiency and cost savings.
Continuous Improvement:
- Bring lean thinking to a process that's historically been reactive — reduce cycle time, reduce waste, and raise the network's overall service level.
- Build a track record of process improvements with real before/after numbers, not just initiatives.
Basic Qualifications
- Education: Bachelors Degree
- Preferred Masters degree in Business Administration, Finance, or equivalent.
- Minimum 5 years of experience in roles involving project leadership, financial analysis, or capital/cost management
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:
- Site experience in pharmaceutical facilities operations, or larger company operations.
- Proven experience in finance and logistics.
- Expertise in vendor management, and cost control.
- Strong leadership skills with a track record of successfully managing operations at both new and established sites.
- Ability to collaborate and influence at all levels, including senior leadership and cross-functional teams.
Other Information:
- Travel: The role requires occasional travel (25-35%) to North American sites, particularly for new site integration and supporting operational initiatives at established facilities.
- Role is onsite every day, four days work from home a month
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
$118,500 - $173,800Full-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
Skills Required
- Bachelor's degree
- Master's degree in Business Administration, Finance, or equivalent
- At least 5 years of experience involving project leadership, financial analysis, or capital/cost management
- Authorization to work full-time in the United States without employer sponsorship or visa support
- Experience in pharmaceutical facility operations or larger company operations
- Experience in finance and logistics
- Expertise in vendor management and cost control
- Leadership experience managing operations at new and established sites
- Ability to collaborate with and influence senior leadership and cross-functional teams
Eli Lilly and Company Compensation & Benefits Highlights
The following summarizes recurring compensation and benefits themes identified from responses generated by popular LLMs to common candidate questions about Eli Lilly and Company and has not been reviewed or approved by Eli Lilly and Company.
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Retirement Support — Feedback suggests long-term savings are bolstered by a defined-benefit pension alongside a company 401(k) match and retiree health options. These elements make total compensation feel strong beyond base salary.
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Leave & Time Off Breadth — Feedback suggests paid time off is expansive, with substantial vacation, company shutdown days, and milestone time. This breadth of leave is viewed as a meaningful part of overall rewards.
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Parental & Family Support — Feedback suggests family-building and caregiving support are robust, including paid parental leave, adoption or surrogacy assistance, and backup care. These programs enhance the perceived value of benefits across life stages.
Eli Lilly and Company Insights
What We Do
Eli Lilly and Company engages in the discovery, development, manufacture, and sale of products in pharmaceutical products business segment. For more than a century, we have stayed true to a core set of values – excellence, integrity, and respect for people – that guide us in all we do: discovering medicines that meet real needs, improving the understanding and management of disease, and giving back to communities through philanthropy and volunteerism.
