Associate Director, Machine Learning Project Management, Lilly TuneLab at Eli Lilly

At Lilly, we unite caring with discovery to make life better for people around the world. We are a global healthcare leader headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana. Our employees around the world work to discover and bring life-changing medicines to those who need them, improve the understanding and management of disease, and give back to our communities through philanthropy and volunteerism. We give our best effort to our work, and we put people first. We’re looking for people who are determined to make life better for people around the world.

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 Tune Lab—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 Tune Lab is an artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML) platform that provides biotech companies access to drug discovery models trained on years of Lilly's research data. Lilly estimates that this first release of AI models includes proprietary data obtained at a cost of over $1 billion, representing one of the industry's most valuable datasets used to train an AI system available to biotechnology companies. By integrating advanced in silico modelling and federated learning, we connect pioneering machine learning algorithms, substantial computational power, exclusive datasets, and Lilly’s domain-specific knowledge to drive innovation in drug discovery and facilitate access to optimal therapies for patients.

Job Summary

The Associate Director, Machine Learning Project Management will provide project management leadership for the Tune Lab machine learning (ML) team across model development, product release cycles, and external partnerships. This role is essential to the successful scaling of our innovative AI/ML drug discovery platform and the broader Catalyze360 ecosystem. The ideal candidate will translate strategic vision into executable plans, drive day-to-day execution, and facilitate productive partnerships between the ML team and internal/external business partners.

This role will collaborate closely with product, engineering, and business development workstreams to implement initiatives, track progress against strategic objectives, and manage external partnerships. Expertise in program management, stakeholder alignment, and problem-solving will be instrumental in navigating the complexities of scaling a first-of-its-kind collaborative AI/ML platform in the pharmaceutical industry.

Key Responsibilities Project Management

• Partner with engineering to build and maintain the ML development workplan, track progress against milestones, and manage critical path and dependencies
• Own the ML team's operating cadence end-to-end, including agenda planning, meeting facilitation, driving timely decision-making, and minutes and action tracking
• Proactively identify, assess, and escalate risks and issues across ML model development and partner execution, driving mitigation plans and ensuring leadership has timely visibility into blockers before they impact delivery

Operations & Reporting

• Build and maintain fit-for-purpose processes that improve ML team efficiency and support cross-functional collaboration with other Tune Lab workstreams
• Drive continuous improvement within the ML team by leading release retrospectives and translating lessons learned into actionable process adjustments
• Create and maintain operational metrics, dashboards, and reporting frameworks, synthesizing ML progress, risks and milestones into leadership ready updates
• Support ML team resource tracking and capacity planning

Alliance & Partner Management

• Own internal/external partner status updates, surface challenges, resolve/elevate problems and ensure clear, consistent communication
• Coordinate ML model deployment and hand-off activities across internal and external partners
• Support onboarding and integration of new internal/external partners into the ML team's operating model

Minimum Requirements

• Education: Bachelor's degree in business, science, engineering, or related field
• Project Management: 3+ years of experience in program/project management, or equivalent experience in an operational or coordination role supporting machine learning, data science, or computational research teams, including proficiency with project management, collaboration, and productivity tools
• Alliance management: 3+ years in alliance management, with ability to independently own coordination across internal Lilly team and external partner relationships, including surfacing status, risks, and action items and driving follow-through
• 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 and/or visas for this role.

Additional Skills/Preferences

• Communication: Strong stakeholder communication skills, with the ability to engage effectively across technical and non-technical audiences at all levels.
• Familiarity with ML development tools and workflows (e.g. GitHub, MLflow, experiment tracking) to independently assess progress and surface issues
• Experience with proactive risk identification, assessment, and escalation, including developing and driving mitigation plans in a technically complex or ambiguous environment.
• Strong analytical skills with ability to synthesize complex information into actionable timelines, insights, and status updates.
• Demonstrated ability to work effectively in ambiguous, rapidly-changing environments, by building fit-for-purpose processes from scratch; meets the team where they are while driving toward the structure needed to scale.
• Proven track record of driving results through influence rather than direct authority.
• Experience in pharmaceutical, biotech, or healthcare technology industries.
• Familiarity with ML tooling and best practices, sufficient to guide technical teams on process.
• Experience with technology platforms, digital product development, or innovation programs.
• PMP, Agile, or other project/program management certifications.
• Background in strategic consulting, business operations, or transformation initiatives.
• Experience supporting rapid organizational growth and scaling operations.
• Knowledge of drug discovery processes or life sciences R&D workflows.

Impact Goals

• Program execution: ML model development milestones against established plans.
• Product releases: ML operating cadence and deliverables shipped on a predictable schedule.
• Alliance operations: external vendors/partnerships inventoried with named owners; actions and timelines tracked and reviewed regularly.
• Operational efficiency: improvements in business processes and resource utilization.
• Stakeholder satisfaction: positive feedback from cross-functional partners and ML leadership.

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 Network, Black Employees at Lilly, Chinese Culture Network, Japanese International Leadership Network (JILN), Lilly India Network, Organization of Latinx at Lilly (OLA), PRIDE (LGBTQ+ Allies), Veterans Leadership Network (VLN), Women’s Initiative for Leading at Lilly (WILL), en Able (for people with disabilities). Learn more about all of our groups.

Actual compensation will depend on a candidate’s education, experience, skills, and geographic location. The anticipated wage for this position is

$132,000 - $193,600

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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