Associate Director, ExploR&D Consultation Agreements

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 ExploR&D is a team of drug discovery and development experts who partner with biotechs from discovery through clinical proof-of-concept, putting Lilly's industry-leading capabilities behind their missions. We provide flexible support — from strategic consulting to full program execution — making it faster, easier, and more capital-efficient for innovators to transform bold science into life-changing medicines.

Job Summary

The Associate Director, ExploR&D Consultation Agreements is responsible for leading the negotiation and execution of consultation agreements between Lilly ExploR&D and external biotech partners across preclinical and development matters. This is a hands-on, high-throughput contracting role focused on drafting, redlining, and moving a large volume of consultation agreements through negotiation to signature quickly and cleanly.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead end-to-end negotiation of consultation agreements with biotech partners across preclinical and development matters, from initial term discussions through executed contract
• Move a high volume of agreements through negotiation to signature efficiently, balancing speed with rigor
• Serve as the primary interface for biotechs engaging ExploR&D through the consultation pathway, translating scientific scope into commercial terms
• Partner with ExploR&D leadership and subject-matter experts to structure consultations that align with Lilly's R&D capabilities
• Draft, redline, and finalize consultation agreements in collaboration with Legal, ensuring commercial terms, scope, and deliverables are clearly captured, and that contractual provisions reflect the risk of the scientific engagement
• Partner with Lilly scientists to translate technical scope into precise, bounded work plans, defining deliverables and responsibilities clearly
• Negotiate change orders and amendments to existing consultation agreements as scope, timelines, or deliverables evolve
• Communicate with biotech counterparts regarding contract structure, timelines, and Lilly's engagement model with clarity and credibility
• Maintain rigorous deal tracking, pipeline visibility, and cycle-time discipline across the active consultation portfolio
• Identify and drive process improvements to reduce friction, standardize terms where appropriate, and shorten time-to-signature
• Partner with Finance, Legal, and Compliance to ensure all consultations meet Lilly's governance, risk, and approval standards
• Potential to extend scope into alliance management responsibilities over time

Minimum Requirements

• Bachelor's degree in any field
• 7+ years of relevant experience in business development, contracting, or R&D consulting
• 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 Skills/Preferences

• Advanced degree in a life sciences, biomedical, or related STEM field (PhD, PharmD, MS)
• Deep R&D fluency across drug discovery and/or development, with the credibility to engage biotech scientific leaders as a peer
• Demonstrated experience negotiating agreements with external partners in biotech, pharma, or life sciences
• Direct experience drafting, redlining, and executing contracts, with strong command of terms and contract structure
• Track record of managing multiple concurrent contracts with high attention to detail and disciplined follow-through
• Experience with early-stage biotech ecosystem or external innovation
• Alliance management experience with biotech companies
• Excellent written and verbal communication, with the ability to distill complex scientific and contractual terms for varied audiences
• High comfort operating with ambiguity and building repeatable processes from the ground up
• Strong cross-functional collaboration skills across Legal, Finance, and R&D

Additional Information

• Travel up to 10% US and/or OUS

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

$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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