Associate Director

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.

Lilly is currently constructing an advanced manufacturing facility for production of API molecules located in Houston, TX. This facility is one of Lilly’s largest investments in manufacturing capacity and is intended to provide APIs for current and future products. This is a unique opportunity to be a part of the Houston Plant team for the startup of a greenfield manufacturing site, and the successful candidate will help to build the organization, the facility and the culture to enable a successful startup into GMP manufacturing operations.

The Global Manufacturing and Quality Learning and Development (GMQLD) team is dedicated to delivering learning solutions that empower Lilly’s Manufacturing and Quality organizations to achieve our mission: making medicine with safety first and quality always.

The Site Learning & Development (L&D) leader will drive excellence in learning and capability-building at our sites. This role will lead a team of L&D professionals and is responsible for aligning site L&D strategies with global policies and procedures, while ensuring compliance, operational effectiveness, and workforce development.

This leader will be a key connector between the sites, network L&D team and global Center of Excellence (CoE), ensuring protocols, governance, and innovation in learning are effectively driven at the local level. The role requires a strategic problem solver and hands-on leader who can balance global strategies with site-specific needs while ensuring a high level of audit and inspection readiness

Key Objectives/Results:

Strategic Leadership & Governance

• Serve as the primary L&D Leader at the site, ensuring alignment with global L&D strategies, policies, and procedures while meeting local operational needs.
• Report to and partner with Network L&D lead and global CoE to implement future-facing learning solutions that drive performance, compliance, and operational excellence.
• Ensure governance frameworks are implemented at the site level, maintaining inspection and audit readiness in real time.
• Act as a champion for a modern learning culture, shifting away from traditional document-based training toward interactive, digital, and experiential learning solutions.

Team Leadership & Development

• Lead, develop, and inspire site L&D team, ensuring they are equipped to implement high-quality learning initiatives that support business objectives.
• Develop a culture of continuous learning and innovation, employing sophisticated learning technologies, AI-driven learning analytics, and immersive training methods.
• Ensure strong capability-building within the L&D team, upskilling them in learning sciences, digital learning tools, and manufacturing-specific training methodologies.
• Create initial project scope documents, appropriately employing learning services suppliers for outsourced work to achieve business objectives.

Learning Strategy & Execution

• Design and implement site-specific L&D initiatives that support compliance, manufacturing excellence, and employee development.
• Drive learning effectiveness measurement using real-time data and analytics to ensure programs deliver measurable business impact.
• Partner cross-functionally with Quality, Operations, HR, and Technical Training teams/SMEs to embed a learning perspective across the site.
• Ensure audit and inspection readiness, proactively addressing training gaps and regulatory expectations.

Basic Requirements

• Education: Bachelor’s degree
• 5+ years of experience in Learning & Development, Talent Development, and/or Manufacturing Training with a focus on regulated environments
• 5+ years of experience with Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP), regulatory requirements, or compliance training
• 2+ years of experience managing and developing L&D teams
• Language Requirements: Local Language

• 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.

Additional Preferences

• Master’s degree preferred, in Instructional Systems Technology, Performance Technology, Adult Learning, Human Resources, or related experience/education
• Experience in governance, audit readiness, and inspection preparedness related to training programs.
• Expertise in modern learning methodologies (e.g., competency-based training, AI-driven learning platforms, immersive technologies).
• Ability to balance global strategy with local execution ensuring both alignment and agility.
• Strong customer leadership skills, with experience partnering across Operations, Quality, HR, Global L&D functions.
• Experience leading learning transformation initiatives in a manufacturing environment.
• Familiarity with learning technologies, LMS, digital learning tools and AI-driven analytics.
• Certification in learning and development (CPTD, ATD or similar) is a plus.
• Experience implementing skills-based training and workforce upskilling initiatives.
• Ability to lead and influence others at all levels, with and without authority, particularly on broad and sophisticated issues
• Ability to work cross-functionally, cross-culturally, and with individuals at all levels across a matrixed organization
• Ability to think strategically, successfully navigate ambiguity and complexity, solve problems, and implement. 
• Ability to effectively partner globally
• Organisational change experience 
• Excellent communication and project management skills
• Strong intuition for business
• Ability to perform data analysis and construct significant insights that drive decisions and strategic plans
• Human Performance Improvement (HPI) Certification

Additional Information

• Travel %: ~15%
• Position Location: Site Based

Lilly is dedicated to helping individuals with disabilities to actively engage in the workforce, ensuring equal opportunities when vying for positions. If you require accommodation to submit a resume for a position at Lilly, please complete the accommodation request form (https://careers.lilly.com/us/en/workplace-accommodation) for further assistance. Please note this is for individuals to request an accommodation as part of the application process and any other correspondence will not receive a response.

Lilly is proud to be an EEO Employer and does not discriminate on the basis of age, race, color, religion, gender identity, sex, gender expression, sexual orientation, genetic information, ancestry, national origin, protected veteran status, disability, or any other legally protected status.

Our employee resource groups (ERGs) offer strong support networks for their members and are open to all employees. Our current groups include: Africa, Middle East, Central Asia Network, Black Employees at Lilly, Chinese Culture Network, Japanese International Leadership Network (JILN), Lilly India Network, Organization of Latinx at Lilly (OLA), PRIDE (LGBTQ+ Allies), Veterans Leadership Network (VLN), Women’s Initiative for Leading at Lilly (WILL), enAble (for people with disabilities). Learn more about all of our groups.

Actual compensation will depend on a candidate’s education, experience, skills, and geographic location.  The anticipated wage for this position is

Full-time equivalent employees also will be eligible for a company bonus (depending, in part, on company and individual performance). In addition, Lilly offers a comprehensive benefit program to eligible employees, including eligibility to participate in a company-sponsored 401(k); pension; vacation benefits; eligibility for medical, dental, vision and prescription drug benefits; flexible benefits (e.g., healthcare and/or dependent day care flexible spending accounts); life insurance and death benefits; certain time off and leave of absence benefits; and well-being benefits (e.g., employee assistance program, fitness benefits, and employee clubs and activities).Lilly reserves the right to amend, modify, or terminate its compensation and benefit programs in its sole discretion and Lilly’s compensation practices and guidelines will apply regarding the details of any promotion or transfer of Lilly employees.

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