Senior Advisor - Psychiatry, Pain and Neuronal Health

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. We are seeking a highly motivated, scientifically accomplished laboratory leader to help build Lilly's emerging psychiatry portfolio within the Neuroscience Discovery organization. The successful candidate will bring deep technical and theoretical expertise spanning molecule development, translational models, and clinical application, with a demonstrated passion for psychiatric and neurodevelopmental disease biology.

This Senior Advisor will serve as a cross-functional laboratory lead in the Psychiatry Therapeutic Area, translating in vivo pharmacology and biomarker data into decision-enabling insight that advances candidate molecules from the bench toward the clinic. The role calls for a scientist who has consistently demonstrated capabilities expected at the R6 level: independently identifying key scientific questions, applying innovative solutions that significantly advance project understanding, and building the diverse, cross-functional and external networks needed to translate science into medicines that make life better for patients.

• Lead a cross-functional psychiatry laboratory, independently identifying the key scientific questions and developing solutions that advance the portfolio.
• Build and mentor a laboratory team, bringing an authentic presence that creates a safe environment for colleagues to share ideas, contribute, and thrive.
• Develop and test innovative in vitro and in vivo pharmacology and translational approaches that significantly advance scientific and project understanding in psychiatric and neurodevelopmental disease biology.
• Focus the team on clear scientific hypotheses, goals, critical success factors, and timelines that keep the psychiatry portfolio moving from bench to clinic.
• Integrate cross-functional and external information, applying technical knowledge to data-driven decision-making on candidate selection and program prioritization.
• Present data and conclusions to leadership and decision-makers in a clear, balanced, and compelling manner, and champion psychiatric indications (e.g. Schizophrenia, Depression, Anxiety) as portfolio opportunities.
• Build a diverse cross-functional and internal/external network to understand how different disciplines and approaches contribute to research, development, and commercialization of psychiatric medicines.

• PhD in Neuroscience, Biology, Psychology, or a related scientific discipline, with 5-7+ years of postdoctoral and/or industry experience, including direct experience leading in vivo pharmacology or translational studies in psychiatric or CNS disease.
• Alternatively, a Master’s degree in Neuroscience or a related discipline with 15+ years of industry or academic experience leading a laboratory and driving discovery projects through preclinical development.
• Demonstrated track record of leading early discovery efforts to gain necessary information to allow advancement in the portfolio.
• Direct people-management experience (3+ years), with a demonstrated ability to mentor and coach diverse talent within a function or across an organization.

• Experience establishing or scaling an in vivo neuroscience laboratory, including hands-on techniques such as stereotaxic surgery, calcium imaging, and behavioral assays.
• Deep expertise in a clearly defined psychiatric or neuroscience discipline (e.g., synaptic plasticity, hippocampal circuitry, psychiatric or neurodevelopmental disease models) with the ability to broadly apply that knowledge across the portfolio.
• Experience developing translational biomarker or data-management strategies (e.g., centralized in vivo data capture, digitization, or peer-review/quality programs) that accelerate access to decision-enabling data across an organization.
• Demonstrated expertise in neuroscience research as evidenced by a…