AVP - Design Validation & Learning, Biotherapeutics

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.

At Lilly, we unite caring with discovery to make life better for people around the world. For more than 25 years, Lilly's Biotechnology Discovery Research (BioTDR) organization has advanced novel antibody and peptide therapeutics from concept through clinical development to market in areas of high unmet medical need.

This role is based at the Lilly Biotechnology Center in San Diego, where we are expanding our computational capabilities to build a generative design platform. By bringing together AI/ML, protein engineering, automation, structural biology, and high-throughput experimentation, BioTDR is creating an integrated de novo design platform capable of generating, ranking, and optimizing novel therapeutic antibodies and other biotherapeutics with improved activity, safety, manufacturability, and target coverage.

Designs are rapidly evaluated through experimental validation, creating a continuous learning cycle that strengthens both models and discovery outcomes. The program is supported by dedicated capacity on Lilly Pod, our wholly owned 1,016-GPU NVIDIA Blackwell Ultra SuperPOD.

Help us push the de novo protein design frontier beyond binders to molecules that can become medicines, faster. Ready to make an impact? Join us.

Our Generative Design platform has three pillars:
Generative Foundation Models, Generative Protein Design & Optimization, and Active Learning & Design Validation.

The AVP of Design Validation & Learning will define and execute the scientific strategy that determines how Lilly evaluates, validates, and continuously improves its de novo biologics design capabilities. This leader will establish the experimental learning systems, validation standards, benchmarking frameworks, and data generation strategies that transform computational predictions into actionable scientific insights and increasingly powerful design capabilities.

This is a founding leadership role. You will build and lead a multidisciplinary team spanning model evaluation, active learning, computational biology, statistical methodology, physics-based modeling, and experimental learning. You will be accountable for ensuring that every experimental outcome strengthens the platform's ability to design better therapeutic molecules over time.

• Define the scientific strategy for evaluation, validation, and learning.
• Define and establish rigorous benchmarks and validation standards.
• Establish a closed computational-experimental learning system.
• Set the role of physics-based approaches in the design stack.
• Active learning and proprietary data strategy.
• Translate frontier AI research into therapeutic impact.
• Establish platform-wide success metrics.
• Build and lead a world-class interdisciplinary organization.
• Shape the enabling technology ecosystem.
• Represent the organization as a scientific leader.

• Ph.D. in computational biology, biophysics, computational chemistry, bioengineering, chemical engineering, physics, statistics, or or a related STEM field, with 5+ years post-Ph.D. research experience (or M.S. with 10+ years).
• At least 3…