Senior Director - Counsel-Alliance Management and Transactions (R&D)

Job ID: R-112166Company: LillyLocation: Indianapolis, Indiana, United States of AmericaJob Type: Full TimeCategory: LegalPosted Date: 2026-09-22At 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. At Lilly, we serve an extraordinary purpose. We make a difference for people around the globe by discovering, developing and delivering medicines that help them live longer, healthier, more active lives. Not only do we deliver breakthrough medications, but you also can count on us to develop creative solutions to support communities through philanthropy and volunteerism. Responsibilities:Are you seeking a career that makes a difference in the world? We are seeking an experienced attorney to join our Legal Transactions Center of Excellence at Lilly. We’re interested in a versatile, team-oriented candidate who desires to work in a dynamic environment with broad responsibility and influence.This multidisciplinary position requires that you demonstrate your deep legal and business sense and problem-solving skills, with an understanding of R&D and commercial contracting for the life sciences industry to help advance the development of medicines for patients across the world. This position provides the opportunity to work cross functionally within the legal and business functions, including Alliance Management, R&D, Business Unit Legal, IP, Privacy, Litigation, Compliance, Marketing, Procurement, Investor Relations and Public Affairs. This position will focus on:Alliance and Transaction Management: This position will have responsibilities for post-execution management of license, collaboration, M&A and other agreement legal support. The Alliance, Transactions and R&D Legal Counsel and will be a key partner in providing strategic legal and business advice for the Alliance Management function and other functions leading on-going contractual relationships. R&D and Commercial Transactions: Responsibilities of this role will include preparing, reviewing, and negotiating a wide variety of complex R&D and commercial agreements. This role will also provide counsel in substantive transactional areas. The ideal candidate will have experience negotiating R&D and commercial service agreements, clinical and non-clinical research agreements (e.g., sponsored, collaborative, real world evidence, and quality), as well as partnership agreements, sponsorship agreements, or other transactions involving other healthcare professional/healthcare care institution/academic center or advocacy organization counterparties.Lilly Research Labs (LRL) Support: This position will provide general legal and contract support for specified LRL therapeutic areas as well as for other LRL projects and workstreams spanning multiple therapeutic areas and/or geographies. Key Responsibilities:Leading legal aspects of post-execution license, collaboration, M&A and other agreement issues, including but not limited to, governance, milestones/royalties, reporting obligations, dispute resolution, termination, and any other issues that arise over the life cycle of such agreements. Identifying and resolving, highly sophisticated legal issues and drafting and negotiating a wide range of R&D and commercial agreements, and, ultimately, driving successful business outcomes in situations of ambiguity. Ensuring that agreements are consistent with relevant laws, regulations and guidelines, including but not limited to familiarity with supply chain terms and conditions, terms applicable to good clinical research practices, Anti-Kickback Statute, FCPA, False Claims Act, FDCA and HIPAA.Providing clear advice to clients, including legal leadership, ensuring that advice maximizes the potential of our pipeline and commercialized assets.Effectively communicating, translating complex technical, performance and legal issues into understandable terms and recommending strategic and sometimes novel solutions.Navigating multiple legal disciplines that impact both the R&D and commercial organization.Additionally, this individual will: Be a proactive self-starter and take ownership of matters and projects.Identify legal issues for assigned matters.Assist other attorneys and stakeholders in resolving legal issues on cross-functional projects.Develop knowledge of business and client concerns.Keep abreast of changes in the law.Represent Lilly externally to partners, customers, and suppliers.Resolve legal issues using negotiation skills and legal expertise.Help direct work of outside counsel.Basic Requirements:Juris Doctor (J.D.)Licensed to practice law in at least one of the 50 StatesMinimum of 7 years of legal experience related to the drafting, review and negotiation of sophisticated transactions either practicing as a member of a law firm in a relevant area of law or practicing at an in-house law department, or a combination of the two.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 toF-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:Bachelor's degree in a scientific discipline advantageous.Understanding of drug development and pharmaceutical industry experience.Demonstrated ability to proactively see opportunities for creative and innovative solutions to transactional issues and process improvements.Sound judgement, commitment to ethical conduct and a high level of attention to detail.Demonstrated business acumen. Ability to effectively prioritize and lead workflows for multiple assignments in parallel.Ability to quickly understand and integrate with Lilly Legal and pharmaceutical industry, and ability to absorb complex technical and scientific information on a project-by-project basis.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 () 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 (View email address on us.fitly.work), 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$199,500 - $292,600Full-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.#WeAreLillySkillsjuris doctorlicensed to practice lawcontract negotiationr&d agreementscommercial agreementsmergers and acquisitionsalliance managementcommercial transactionssponsored agreementspartnership agreementssponsorship agreementsclinical research agreementsgood clinical practiceanti-kickback statutefalse claims actfdcahipaadispute resolutionlegal researchlegal compliancelegal risk assessmentlegal leadershipstakeholder managementcross-functional collaborationbusiness acumenprocess improvementlegal strategylegal project managementlegal translation