Sr. Director of Strategic Partnerships, TuneLab Platform

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,

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 TuneLab 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. How do we do this? We continue to look for ways to include, innovate, accelerate and deliver while maintaining integrity, excellence and respect for people.

Help transform drug discovery by building the strategic partnerships that power TuneLab's AI/ML platform. This role is essential in supporting the growth and evolution of the Lilly TuneLab platform’s business model, and resulting partnership strategy, to ensure its success in transforming drug discovery and development. The ideal individual will thrive at the creation of novel strategic partnerships at the intersection of AI/ML and drug discovery, and be able to operate effectively across the end-to-end strategic partnership ideation, development and execution process across a wide range of partner companies by both size and sector (e.g. tech, biotech, pharma, AI/ML startups, and service providers) collaborating with internal and external stakeholders to drive these transactions to completion.

Key Responsibilities

• Partnership Strategy & Development Evaluate and advance partnership opportunities across multiple domains as we develop the TuneLab ecosystem. Examples include: AI/ML leaders: Engage with market leading AI/ML companies of all sizes to access and build next-generation AI/ML models for drug discovery. Biotech: Identify data contributions that fit specific use cases, facilitating collaborations that align with platform needs. Service Providers (e.g. CROs): Develop standardized and streamlined services for platform participants to ensure seamless integration into their workflows. Data Acquisition and Generation: Identify and evaluate opportunities to acquire or generate data that supports the platform's AI/ML models and use cases. Establish partnerships to ensure access to high-quality data necessary for driving drug discovery outcomes. Continuously evolve the platform’s strategy by understanding how AI/ML capabilities are being developed, both in commercial and open-source environments, to ensure differentiation of our offering.
• Deal Execution and Operational Excellence Own the process of continually driving deal progress, including efficiently coordinating complex multi-stakeholder internal and external review processes, while maintaining momentum, ensuring strategic partnerships progress smoothly from initial discussion through close. Develop and run operational systems and processes to manage timelines, workflows, and cross-functional threads required to keep multiple transactions moving forward simultaneously.
• Market Intelligence and Analysis Monitor the competitive landscape, keeping track of technological advances and trends across the full range of current and potential future AI/ML applications in drug development, and assessing their impact on Lilly’s strategy.
• Deal Structuring and Financial Analysis Propose deal financials, backed by analysis to demonstrate the rationale and return on investment across a range of novel deal types. Ensure resources are allocated to support the highest-impact initiatives aligned with our platform’s business goals.
• Cross-Functional Collaboration and Communication Coordinate effectively with internal teams, including R&D, engineering, product, legal, finance, and technology to meet your objectives. Communicate partnership strategy, progress, and impact to leadership and other stakeholders.

Minimum Requirements

Education: Bachelor’s degree in Business, Computer Science, Engineering, Biology, Chemistry or related fields. Experience: 5+ years of strategic partnership experience in AI/ML, technology, biotech, life sciences, pharma, or adjacent supporting sectors.

Preferred Qualifications

Advanced degree (Master’s, PhD, JD, or similar) with at least 8 years of strategic partnership experience in AI/ML, technology, biotech, life sciences, pharma, or adjacent supporting sectors. Experience operating at the intersection of AI/ML and its application to improve all aspects of the drug discovery process, or background in biotech/pharma or technology/ tech startup environment involving complex enterprise deal structures. Strong legal grounding - you are comfortable being in the details partnering with internal and external counsel drafting, reviewing and solving complex contracting challenges. Demonstrated ability to run multi-step deals end-to-end, managing many simultaneous conversations, legal processes, and cross-functional threads. Detail-oriented, highly reliable and intellectually sharp, with strong judgment and the ability to spot risks, implications, and structural issues early. Ownership and startup mentality, for example from operating in small team, high-impact environments whether in a startup or within new initiatives or a new business unit within a corporate setting.

Personal Characteristics

Highly motivated by the impact our work can have on drug discovery Low-ego collaborator who builds trust quickly with a wide range of internal and external stakeholders A smart and thoughtful force multiplier, with strong judgment and the ability to reason clearly across legal, commercial, and operational dimensions You’ve worked and thrived in environments where the roadmap wasn’t fully defined, may change regularly, and the team was small Proactive and resourceful, able to anticipate needs, identify gaps, and implement solutions without being asked Strategic and systematic in how you prioritize your time and resources across the many potential projects we could take on, in order to best accomplish our objectives

Additional Information

Lilly may provide support for or sponsor work authorization or visas for this role for internal applicants only. 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 $193,500 - $283,800 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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