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

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, utilization, 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 use Lilly-approved AI tools to automate reporting and flag risk early.

Plan and Prioritize the Portfolio

• Lead annual and quarterly planning that translates Employer strategy into a prioritized 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 programs or a PMO

• 3+ years of experience leading program 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 program 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, reconciled with fixed external dates.

• Executive communication and judgment: turns a complex portfolio into a one-page update a senior leader can act on, and knows which decisions to own and which to escalate.

• 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 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

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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