Director​/Sr. Director​/Exec. Director Computational Biophysics, Advanced Molecular Design; AMD

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.

Location: Louisville, Colorado and Indianapolis, Indiana

Reports to: Associate VP, Computational Chemistry, AMD

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.

The Lilly Small Molecule Discovery group 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.

Lilly’s Advanced Molecular Design (AMD) team is responsible for small molecule lead optimization with rapid progress toward new clinical candidates for patients in need. The AMD team is seeking an exceptional computational biophysicist to tackle the problems our discovery teams have yet to solve. This is not a traditional computational chemistry role — it is a scientific leadership position for someone who sits at the intersection of deep physical theory, computational methods, and AI‑enabled data analysis, and uses that combination to transform intractable problems into tractable ones.

The ideal candidate engages with discovery teams when new perspectives, analyses, or solutions are needed, revealing understanding buried in datasets and structures, and provides teams with fundamentally deeper understanding leading to new paths forward. The position requires thinking at the level of first principles, building whatever tools are necessary, and measures success not by workflows delivered but by scientific understanding created.

• Develop and deploy advanced physics‑based algorithms to characterize biophysical processes and their application across a range of therapeutic areas
• Play a key role in prioritizing computational methods and workflows to efficiently and effectively enable drug discovery efforts leading to highly focused work and rapid progress
• Ensure the timely delivery of data and results to project teams to enable rapid iterative design cycles
• Maintain critical timelines and set team expectations for the efficient delivery of computational technologies with strong impact on therapeutic programs
• Work closely with other AMD and therapeutic area leaders to move our portfolio of molecules from leads to quality drug candidates that have a strong potential to become breakthrough drugs
• Contribute to the ongoing evaluation of external technologies

• Ph.D. in physics, chemistry, mathematics, computer science or related discipline
• 10 or more years of research experience

• A deep scientific background in theoretical and computational biophysics
• Proven track record of leadership and success applying computational biophysics toward a deeper understanding of structure‑function relationships in human health
• Proactive and effective collaboration with computational chemists, medicinal chemists, structural biologists, and other disciplines to achieve project goals and timelines
• A strong desire to…