Senior Director- U.S. Advocacy and Society Relations — Hematologic Cancers

Senior Director, U.S. Advocacy and Society Relations

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 Oncology Business Unit (OBU) Medical Affairs organization is building a best-in-class patient advocacy and society relations function across a strategically important portfolio spanning breast cancer, lung and gynecologic malignancies, hematologic and genitourinary cancers, and a growing early-stage pipeline. The OBU is committed to ensuring the patient and provider voice is embedded in every stage of medical strategy, clinical development, and evidence generation.

The Senior Director, U.S. Advocacy and Society Relations is a dedicated advocacy and society relations lead. This individual builds and manages Lilly's corporate relationships with a portfolio of cancer patient advocacy organizations (PAOs), professional medical societies, and related coalitions, ensuring these relationships advance Lilly's innovation readiness priorities and position Lilly as a partner of choice for improving outcomes for people living with cancer.

This position reports to the Associate Vice President, Patient Advocacy and Professional Relations, OBU Medical Affairs, and serves as a primary point of connectivity for disease state team leads and cross-functional colleagues across Clinical Development, Global Medical Affairs, Commercial, Communications, and Government Affairs and Policy.

The Senior Director will support Lilly's goals to accelerate the reach and impact of the OBU portfolio and pipeline by managing a portfolio of patient advocacy and professional society relationships and their associated collaborations, sponsor ships, and memberships. This individual will partner with the disease state teams and OBU advocacy leadership to advance innovation readiness strategic initiatives supporting the launch of key late-phase programs, line extensions, and other pipeline assets.

Primary responsibilities include:

Patient Advocacy and Professional Society Relationships

• Build and sustain relationships with key cancer patient advocacy organizations and professional groups, identifying partnership opportunities and advocating for programs and policies that support the OBU portfolio.
• Serve as Lilly's relationship owner for key PAOs and manage engagement with professional societies at the organizational level, ensuring Lilly's scientific and medical contributions are appropriately represented in society programming and policy positions.
• Execute the OBU's tiered PAO engagement model, protecting core relationships from year-to-year prioritization volatility while enabling flexible activation at clinical and regulatory milestones.
• Represent Lilly's mission and values through customer engagements, including congresses, meetings, and Lilly-sponsored events.
• Execute memberships, sponsor ships, and partnerships to grow brand equity and strengthen relationships, ensuring commitments and benefits are fulfilled.

Integration with OBU Disease State Teams

• Serve as the advocacy and society relations partner to disease state team leads, ensuring PAO and society priorities are aligned with franchise medical strategy.
• Advance understanding of the science related to priority oncology disease states and molecules, and build internal understanding of customer priorities, positions on key issues, and other environmental factors relevant to the assigned disease area(s).
• Bring patient and provider community perspectives into clinical trial design, PRO endpoint discussions, and post-approval evidence communication for oncology assets, as appropriate.
• Address barriers to access for the oncology patient community through external relationships and collaborations.

Government Affairs and Policy Connectivity

• Partner with Lilly's Government Affairs and Policy team to advocate for policies supportive of key oncology priorities, including clinical trial access, rare disease designations, and coverage policies.
• Keep Lilly's Government Affairs and Policy team informed of emerging PAO perspectives on access, coverage, and pricing, and identify opportunities for coordinated advocacy on oncology-relevant policy issues.

Funding, Governance, and Compliance

• Manage sponsor ships, memberships, and partnerships for the assigned oncology portfolio in alignment with company policies and OBU advocacy governance.
• Provide input to the OBU patient advocacy budget and annual prioritization recommendations based on…