Director - Cloud Platforms & Agent Infrastructure

Location

San Diego, CA;
San Francisco, CA;
Louisville, CO;
Indianapolis, IN;
Boston, MA

Head of Architecture4

Insight, Data Foundry

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.

Lilly Small Molecule Discovery is an organization purpose-built to create molecules that make life better for people. We focus on using cutting edge science to unlock new approaches that can treat people suffering from diseases with poor treatment options. We continually challenge ourselves to deliver molecules that can provide breakthrough efficacy with the highest possible safety margins. We are dedicated to optimizing our mindset, technology, and processes for faster, more nimble execution.

Our success is built on a culture that empowers innovative problem solving through open collaboration and individual accountability.

Discovery Technology and Platforms is a newly established function within this organization. Its mission is to accelerate molecule discovery by building highly optimized foundational platforms, streamlining lab operations through advanced technologies and data connectivity, and intentionally investing in novel technologies and capabilities.

Data Foundry is a multidisciplinary team dedicated to enabling and accelerating molecule discovery through scalable and reproducible data generation, fueled by advanced scientific computing, informatics, and automation solutions. Data Foundry operates through four integrated pillars:
Architecture4

Insight (data infrastructure and scientific software),
Methods4

Insight (analytical and computational methods),
Scale4

Insight (lab automation and agentic workflows), and Preparedness4

Insight (data governance and readiness). Together, these pillars empower every Lilly scientist to make optimal decisions by providing seamless access to data, insights, and AI-driven capabilities at scale.

The Senior Director, Cloud Platforms & Agent Infrastructure will lead technical architecture and platform engineering for Data Foundry's cloud-native infrastructure. Reporting to the Head of Architecture4

Insight, you will build scalable, secure, and agent-ready systems that enable both human scientists and autonomous AI agents to accelerate molecule discovery.

You will architect and operate the computational infrastructure, APIs, and workflow automation systems that power real-time data access, analytical method deployment, and agent-driven experimentation — partnering closely with the Frontier AI group to ensure autonomous agents can reliably access data, invoke methods, and control laboratory systems  the enabling foundation across all Data Foundry pillars, this role provides Methods4

Insight with production-ready platforms for deploying analytical methods as agent-callable APIs; integrates with Automation & Scale4

Insight for real-time data capture from laboratory instruments; and partners with Preparedness4

Insight to embed governance, metadata standards, and FAIR principles directly into platform design.

The ideal candidate brings proven experience building cloud-native platforms in life sciences, deep expertise in modern software architecture and Dev Ops, and a track record of translating scientific requirements into scalable technical solutions. Experience with AI agent workflows or MCP server infrastructure is highly valued.

• Lead the design and operation of Data Foundry’s cloud-native infrastructure (AWS, Azure, and/or GCP), including infrastructure-as-code, containerization, orchestration, and self-service platforms that empower discovery scientists to deploy tools and run analyses at scale.

• Partner closely with the Frontier AI group to build agent-ready infrastructure—including APIs with structured error handling, versioning, and audit…