Scientific Lead - Global Sample Management

At Lilly, we unite caring with discovery to make life better for people around the world. We are a global healthcare leader headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana. Our employees around the world work to discover and bring life-changing medicines to those who need them, improve the understanding and management of disease, and give back to our communities through philanthropy and volunteerism. We give our best effort to our work, and we put people first.

We’re looking for people who are determined to make life better for people around the world.

At Lilly, the molecules that become medicines start as ideas — and behind every breakthrough is a team that ensured the right compound reached the right assay at the right time. The work of Global Sample Management is foundational to drug discovery, and the people who do it well make science move faster.

The Scientific Lead is responsible for operational leadership of Eli Lilly's Indianapolis sample management site within the Global Sample Management (GSM) organization. This role leads a blended team of full-time employees and contractors across a wide remit of sample activities in service of large-scale, high throughput sample production and data stewardship, ensuring consistent, high-quality delivery to discovery teams across modalities. As GSM accelerates its adoption of intelligent automation and agentic workflows, the Scientific Lead will be at the center of that transformation — sustaining operational excellence today while actively shaping what sample management looks like tomorrow.

This lab-based role serves as the primary point of escalation for site-level issues, a liaison between the bench and leadership, and a driver of process, capacity planning, and staff development. The ideal candidate brings strong scientific and operational credibility, people leadership experience, and a genuine appetite for building the next generation of high-throughput sample management capability. The level of appointment will be determined by the experience and qualifications of the selected candidate.

• Oversee daily operations across all sample management functions, including compound registration, plate preparation, neat/weigh operations, liquid handling, and sample delivery to internal and external stakeholders.
• Serve as the primary operational point of contact for Indianapolis-based discovery scientists, triaging requests, managing priorities, and ensuring turnaround commitments are met.
• Own site throughput, queue status, and processing time metrics, escalating capacity constraints and service disruptions to leadership with clear data and recommended actions.
• Maintain readiness across instrumentation and automation platforms, coordinating maintenance, troubleshooting, and vendor engagement as needed.
• Provide direct day-to-day leadership for the site team, including scheduling, task assignment, performance feedback, onboarding, and development planning to build capability across core GSM competencies.
• Foster a culture of safety, accountability, and continuous improvement.
• Partner with leadership on workforce planning, capacity forecasting, and succession considerations for key roles.
• Ensure data integrity, quality, and compliance across LIMS and related systems by maintaining accurate material records, supporting compliance expectations, and strengthening traceability through standardized workflows.
• Drive process improvement by identifying bottlenecks, inefficiencies, and risk points, and implementing workflow, automation, or robotics enhancements in collaboration with global sample management and cross-functional partners.
• Document and maintain standard operating procedures (SOPs) for critical LCC processes and ensure the team is trained to current standards.
• Engage with medicinal chemistry, biology, and computational teams to understand evolving sample management needs and proactively align GSM capabilities.
• Collaborate across the sample management network to share best practices, enable sample transfers, support network-level capacity balancing, and represent Indianapolis operations in project discussions with clarity and confidence.
• Contr…