Senior Director Medical​/M.D ExploR&D Translational Medicine

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.

ExploR&D, a Division of Lilly Research Laboratories, is a drug development organization with a mission to catalyze the biotechnology ecosystem. As a multidisciplinary team of highly experienced drug developers, we seek to advance investigational medicines for external sponsors with speed and efficiency. ExploR&D (operating as Chorus since 2002) has supported over 90 development programs throughout North America, Europe, and Asia. We are therapeutic area and modality agnostic, and seek to advance breakthrough science and create value for our partners and patients.

The Senior/Executive Director [commensurate with experience], ExploR&D Translational Medicine incumbent is responsible for the overarching medical strategy and medical oversight for multiple assets in the ExploR&D portfolio, across therapeutic areas and modalities. This unique breadth and depth of the role gives the right candidate the opportunity to provide leadership in early phase clinical development on multiple exciting programs, working with external biotechnology companies and venture capital funds, as well as internal Lilly therapeutic area experts.

• For assigned assets, the incumbent is accountable for the medical and safety leadership for all phases of drug development from candidate selection to proof-of-concept readout.
• Works with a multidisciplinary team to construct and execute a sound clinical development plan to develop and test key scientific hypotheses, discharge risks regarding asset safety and efficacy, and enable effective decision-making related to asset development.
• Partner with the project team leader who holds accountability for the scientific strategy and overall program management, and the Clinical Research Coordinator (CRC) and other cross functional experts to develop, consult on, and/or execute development plans.
• Workswith toxicology and pharmacokinetics teams, especially for First-in-Human (FIH) assets, in establish starting doses, dose ranges and in interpreting emerging human PK/PD data to inform dose escalation and dose regimen selection for proof-of-concept studies.
• Author, review and approve key documents, including protocols, risk profiles, informed consent documents, clinical study reports, and disclosure of research results.
• Interface directly with client companies, including biotechnology startups and venture capital product companies.

• Integrate complex scientific concepts quickly (critically reviewing and evaluating available information on asset and disease biology) and applying this effectively to development programs
• Critically read and evaluate the relevant medical and scientific literature; know the status and data from relevant competitive assets and keep updated with medical, safety and other scientific developments relevant to the ExploR&D asset
• Network with internal Lilly experts and external thought leaders to maintain awareness of current trends and projections for clinical research, practice, and access in the therapeutic area(s) relevant to the product
• Provide medical leadership for clinical plans including appropriate strategic objectives, study population, dose range justification, biomarkers and study endpoints, assessment of safety, drug-drug interactions, and critical success factors
• Provide scientific content to critical documents with primary accountability for risk/benefit assessment, patient safety and observing the principles of GCP
• Review and assist in the…