Sr. Director – Enterprise Pandemic Preparedness and Response

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. 

Position Summary

The Sr. Director, Pandemic Preparedness and Response serves as Lilly's enterprise leader responsible for pandemic preparedness, infectious disease risk management, and public health emergency response strategy. This role establishes the governance, policies, and cross-functional capabilities necessary to protect employees, ensure continuity of clinical development and manufacturing operations, safeguard global supply chains, and sustain patient access to critical medicines during infectious disease outbreaks and pandemics.

Working across Lilly Research Laboratories, Manufacturing, Supply Chain, Global Security, Corporate Affairs, Occupational Health, Medical Affairs, Clinical Development, and Human Resources, this leader drives enterprise readiness and response efforts, advises executive leadership on emerging biological threats, and represents Lilly with governmental, regulatory, industry, and public health organizations.

The Sr. Director serves as Lilly's advisor on pandemic preparedness and enterprise health security, ensuring the company maintains the capabilities, partnerships, and operational resilience necessary to respond to future infectious disease threats while supporting the development, manufacture, and delivery of medicines and vaccines that address global public health needs.

During significant public health emergencies, this role serves as a key member of enterprise crisis leadership structures and provides strategic leadership for company-wide response activities.

This role reports to the VP/Chief Scientific Officer, Infectious Disease.

Key Responsibilities

Enterprise Strategy & Governance

• Own Lilly's enterprise pandemic preparedness and infectious disease response strategy, establishing policies, standards, governance processes, and readiness expectations across all major business functions.

• Advise the Executive Committee and senior leadership on emerging infectious disease threats, preparedness investments, and outbreak-related business risks.

• Establish enterprise preparedness objectives, performance metrics, and readiness assessments to ensure organizational resilience.

• Lead development and continuous improvement of enterprise-wide pandemic and infectious disease response plans covering R&D, clinical development, manufacturing, supply chain operations, commercial activities, and corporate functions.

• Prepare strategic briefings, recommendations, and risk assessments for executive leadership, governance committees, and the Board.

Risk Intelligence & Threat Assessment

• Oversee monitoring of global infectious disease surveillance data, epidemiological intelligence, and public health advisories from organizations including WHO, CDC, ECDC, and other relevant authorities.

• Translate emerging outbreak signals into business-relevant risk assessments and strategic recommendations affecting employees, facilities, supply chains, clinical trials, and patient access.

• Lead enterprise assessments of pandemic-related vulnerabilities across manufacturing facilities, supplier networks, clinical trial operations, and critical business processes.

• Partner with internal and external experts to evaluate biological threats and their potential operational, scientific, regulatory, and commercial implications.

Operational Resilience & Continuity Planning

• Provide strategic leadership for continuity planning related to manufacturing, supply chain, clinical development, and commercial operations during public health emergencies.

• Partner with Supply Chain, Manufacturing, and Procurement leaders to establish surge capacity and contingency strategies supporting continuity of critical medicines and vaccines.

• Advise R&D and Clinical Operations on trial continuity and patient access strategies during regional or global outbreak events.

• Ensure enterprise preparedness plans align with applicable regulatory expectations and business continuity frameworks.

Pandemic Response Leadership

• Lead and coordinate enterprise response activities during significant infectious disease events and declared public health emergencies.

• Serve as a principal leader within Lilly's incident command and crisis management structure.

• Direct cross-functional response teams and oversee implementation of mitigation and recovery strategies.

• Coordinate with Corporate Health Services, Human Resources, Security, Corporate Affairs, and other stakeholders to protect employees and maintain business continuity.

• Support executive communications and stakeholder engagement with timely, scientifically grounded guidance and recommendations.

External Engagement & Public Health Partnerships

• Represent Lilly in industry coalitions, public-private partnerships, professional organizations, and pandemic preparedness initiatives.

• Develop and maintain strategic relationships with public health agencies, regulatory authorities, academic institutions, non-governmental organizations, and industry groups.

• Influence discussions regarding pandemic preparedness, health security, medical countermeasures, manufacturing resilience, and outbreak response policies.

• Engage with organizations such as FDA, EMA, WHO, BARDA, CEPI, HHS, and other relevant stakeholders as appropriate.

Training, Exercises & Organizational Readiness

• Establish and oversee enterprise preparedness training, simulation, and exercise programs.

• Lead executive-level tabletop exercises and enterprise-wide response simulations.

• Drive after-action reviews and implementation of lessons learned following exercises or real-world events.

• Foster a culture of preparedness and resilience across the organization.

Minimum Qualifications

• PhD, PharmD, MD, or equivalent advanced scientific or medical degree in Public Health, Epidemiology, Infectious Disease, Virology, Microbiology, Pharmacy, Medicine, Global Health Security, or related field. 

• 10+ years of progressively responsible experience in public health preparedness, infectious disease management, pharmaceutical operations, emergency management, business continuity, global health security, or related disciplines. 

Preferred Qualifications

• Demonstrated success leading enterprise-wide preparedness, crisis management, or risk management programs. 

• Experience advising senior executives on complex risk, preparedness, public health, or operational resilience matters. 

• Proven ability to influence and lead cross-functional teams without direct reporting authority. 

• Strong understanding of regulatory and public health frameworks relevant to the pharmaceutical industry and public health emergencies. 

• Knowledge of pharmaceutical supply chain, manufacturing, clinical development, and commercial operations sufficient to assess and mitigate outbreak-related business risks.

• Direct leadership experience responding to major infectious disease outbreaks or pandemics within a pharmaceutical, biotechnology, healthcare, governmental, or global health organization.

• Experience engaging with FDA, EMA, WHO, CDC, BARDA, CEPI, HHS, or similar organizations.

• Experience briefing executive committees, boards of directors, or governmental leaders on public health risks and response strategies.

• Certification in emergency management (CEM), FEMA ICS/NIMS, or equivalent preparedness frameworks.

• Experience with epidemiological modeling, health security analytics, and decision-support tools.

• Experience working in GxP-regulated manufacturing, clinical development, or vaccine and infectious disease environments.

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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