Senior Director, Global Issues and Public Affairs Communications

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.

The Senior Director, Global Issues and Public Affairs Communications is a critical member of the Global Corporate Communications, Crisis and Issues team who works in a cross‑functional environment with Global Public Policy (GPP), Legal, Federal Government Affairs (FGA), Value and Access (LVA), and Business Unit Corporate Affairs (BUCAs) to proactively design and lead communications strategies that shape policy environments at the international level and promote Lilly policy objectives.

This position reports to the Head of Crisis and Issues Communications.

The Senior Director designs and leads international public affairs communications campaigns — including media strategy, interested‑party engagement, third‑party mobilization, paid media, and digital/social amplification — while advising internal collaborators to ensure communications strategy shapes and is shaped by policy goals from the outset. The ideal candidate brings clear judgment about how Lilly should lead policy conversations and when third‑party voices might be more effective, along with superior writing skills and pharmaceutical industry knowledge.

• Develop and execute environment‑shaping communications campaigns and activities for priority policy goals in partnership with GPP, Legal, FGA, LVA, and the BUCAs; proactively bring communications solutions and strategic options to these partners, demonstrating what is possible and building shared ownership of the communications approach.
• Collaborate closely with the International Business Unit communications lead to support proactive communications that influence positive policy outcomes and handle related media inquiries.
• Collaborate with partners within Global Corporate Communications to drive story opportunities and implement tactics.
• Coordinate with trade associations’ (e.g., PhRMA, BIO, IFPMA) public affairs teams to influence the strategic direction of their efforts and inform internal Lilly interested parties on the policy and political environment.
• Counsel various functions on communications strategies and tactics that can include earned and paid media, digital/social amplification, internal communications, advocacy partnerships, speaking opportunities for Lilly executives, and events or briefings.
• Pay attention to the evolving global policy landscape in terms of international reference pricing, reimbursement policy, intellectual property protections, and compounding.
• Exercise strategic judgment on the intersection of proactive public affairs campaigns and issues management within the same policy area: assess when Lilly’s voice should be front and center, when it is more effective to operate through third‑party surrogates or coalitions, and ensure these approaches are coordinated and reinforce each other.
• Partner with GPP to engage external policy influencers to provide POV.
• Develop proactive and reactive message documents, including talking points, standby statements, press releases, and FAQs.
• Develop advocacy communications materials, including issue backgrounders, fact sheets, and stakeholder letters.
• Draft and place op‑eds on behalf of Lilly executives.
• Build relationships with key policy media.
• Work with Legal and Compliance functions to outline appropriate guardrails related to influencing the external environment.
• Evaluate and recommend new ideas to drive Lilly’s voice externally.
• Partner with and provide direction to external agencies and vendors, as needed.
• Flex to support other areas of the reputation management team, as needed.