Senior Director, Business Development Communication

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.

• Build and lead the business development communications function — setting clear priorities, developing the team, and building the capability needed to operate at the pace of the business.
• Set the enterprise business development communications strategy, defining the through-line narrative that connects Lilly's deal activity, pipeline progress, and strategic priorities into a coherent story for employees, media, and the broader market.
• Build a proactive business development storytelling agenda — using deal rationale, integration landmarks, and partnership progress to land sustained, narrative-driven coverage across business and trade media between announcements.
• Go beyond legacy outlets to engage new and emerging media that shape how deals and deal makers are perceived — including independent creators, business and biotech podcasters, deal-focused newsletters and Substacks, and biotech and life‑sciences communities — and build a current, relevant rolodex across them.
• Support business development and M&A communications end-to-end — partnering with Business Development, Legal, Finance, and Investor Relations to develop announcement strategy, press materials, internal communications, executive talking points, media and analyst engagement plans, and post-close integration storytelling for partnerships, licensing deals, acquisitions, and divestitures.
• Serve as a trusted advisor to the CEO, CFO, Head of Business Development, and other members of the executive team on deal-related communications — counseling on message, sequencing, audience reaction, and risk, and preparing materials and talking points for Board-level discussions where appropriate.
• Partner closely with global communications counterparts across media & influence, therapeutic areas, employee communications, and policy to ensure BD storylines are tightly integrated with the broader corporate narrative and consistently land across collaborator audiences.
• Partner with the Financial Communications lead as a peer — ensuring business development activity is woven into the company's earnings communications.

• Bachelor's degree in Communications, Journalism, Public Relations, Finance, Marketing, or a related field.
• 9+ years of experience in communications, including substantial time in business development/M&A communications, corporate communications supporting deal activity, or related fields; demonstrated experience leading and developing teams.
• Qualified applicants must be authorized to work in the United States on a full-time basis. Lilly will not provide support for or sponsor work authorization or visas for this role, including but not limited to F-1 CPT, F-1 OPT, F-1 STEM OPT, J-1, H-1B, TN, O-1, E-3, H-1B1, or L-1.

• Demonstrated experience translating corporate strategy and deal rationale into external narratives — including deal announcements, partnership launches, and integration milestones — and partnering directly with Business Development, Legal, and Investor Relations.
• Previous experience leading the business development or M&A communications function at a Fortune 500 company, large pharmaceutical or healthcare organization, or top-tier corporate or financial communications agency — including ownership of strategy, team, and senior-leader counsel.
• Established relationships with business and biotech reporters covering deals and deal makers across outlets such as the Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, Reuters, Financial Times, STAT, Endpoints, Bio Pharma Dive,…