Senior Director - Counsel- Alliance Management and Transactions (R&D), Infectious Disease & Vaccines

Job ID: R-112038Company: LillyLocation: Indianapolis, Indiana, United States of AmericaJob Type: Full TimeCategory: LegalPosted Date: 2026-09-18At 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.Organization OverviewLilly has established a newly formed Infectious Disease and Vaccines business, bringing together novel science, high-stakes regulatory environments, and significant opportunity for patients around the world. This role sits within the Legal team and will serve as a dedicated alliance management and transactions partner for this emerging franchise, working in close coordination with Regulatory Legal, Business Unit Legal, IP, Litigation, and other legal and risk functions to deliver cohesive, forward-looking guidance that enables innovation while managing legal and business risk.Responsibilities:Are you seeking a career that makes a difference in the world? We are seeking an experienced attorney to join our Legal team at Lilly, supporting Lilly's growing Infectious Disease and Vaccines portfolio. We're interested in a versatile, team-oriented candidate who desires to work in a dynamic environment with broad responsibility and influence, and who is energized by the opportunity to help build legal support for an emerging, fast-growing therapeutic area.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 — particularly within the infectious disease and vaccines space — to help advance the development of medicines and vaccines 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, Regulatory 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 responsibility for post-execution management of license, collaboration, M&A and other agreement legal support for Lilly's infectious disease and vaccines portfolio, including newly acquired assets and platforms. The Alliance, Transactions and R&D Legal Counsel 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 across this emerging franchise.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 supporting infectious disease and vaccine programs. This role will also provide counsel in substantive transactional areas relevant to vaccines and infectious disease, such as government and BARDA-related contracting considerations and CRADAs and other public-private collaboration structures. 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 institution/academic center, government agency, or advocacy organization counterparties.Lilly Research Labs (LRL) Support: This position will provide general legal and contract support for Lilly's infectious disease and vaccines therapeutic area, 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 for the infectious disease and vaccines portfolio, 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.Supporting the integration of newly acquired infectious disease and vaccine assets and platforms, providing tailored, program-specific transactional counsel across all stages of product and platform lifecycle.Identifying and resolving highly sophisticated legal issues and drafting and negotiating a wide range of R&D and commercial agreements for an emerging therapeutic area, and, ultimately, driving successful business outcomes in situations of significant 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, government contracting requirements, 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 infectious disease and vaccines 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, and partnering closely with Regulatory Legal and other legal subject-matter experts supporting the infectious disease and vaccines portfolio.Additionally, this individual will:Be a proactive self-starter and take ownership of matters and projects in a new and growing business area.Identify legal issues for assigned matters.Assist other attorneys and stakeholders in resolving legal issues on cross-functional projects.Develop knowledge of the infectious disease and vaccines business and client concerns.Keep abreast of changes in the law, including vaccine- and infectious-disease-specific legal and policy developments.Represent Lilly externally to partners, customers, suppliers, and government counterparties.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 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:Bachelor's degree in a scientific discipline advantageous.Understanding of drug development and pharmaceutical industry experience; experience with infectious disease and/or vaccine programs strongly preferred.Familiarity with vaccine-specific legal and contracting frameworks (e.g., BARDA and other U.S. government contracting mechanisms, CRADAs, VICP, PREP Act/CICP) a plus.Demonstrated ability to proactively see opportunities for creative and innovative solutions to transactional issues and process improvements, including in a new and fast-evolving business area.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 click.appcast.io), 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 negotiationalliance managementmergers and acquisitionscommercial agreementsr&d agreementsvaccines and infectious disease legal expertiseregulatory compliancegovernment contractinghipaaanti-kickback statutefcpafdcabardacradavicpprep actcicpsupply chain terms and conditionsgood clinical research practicedispute resolutionlegal risk managementbusiness acumenstakeholder managementcross-functional collaborationlegal leadershipprocess improvementclinical research agreementssponsored agreements