Associate Director - Clinical Research Lead
About this opportunity
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.
About Lilly
At Lilly, everything we do starts with patients.
We unite caring with discovery to make life better for people around the world.
Headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana, our global team of over 50,000 employees work with urgency and purpose to discover and deliver life-changing medicines, strengthen how health is understood and managed, and support the communities we serve.
We bring our best to this work because people depend on it.
If you’re driven by purpose and determined to make a meaningful difference for patients, we invite you to bring your skill and your commitment to Lilly.
About Lilly’s India Affiliate
Few careers offer the opportunity to work directly for the people your work is ultimately meant to serve.
Lilly’s India affiliate is one of them.
Whether you are building brand strategies, developing sales capabilities, creating market access, or enabling the teams that do, the work you do here ensures that Lilly’s medicines reach the people who need them.
Job Description
The Clinical Development Consultant (CRL) is responsible for the management of clinical sites being considered and/or participating in Lilly clinical trials; inclusive of site identification and qualification, the timely delivery of clinical trial enrollment in accordance with scientific objectives, timely delivery of database locks, issues management at clinical trial sites, and ensuring inspection readiness at all times for assigned therapeutic area(s) within a region/country that enables global program delivery. This is achieved by the CRL’s accountability for comprehensive site management, leveraging of information/tools to make/have informed decisions and discussions, and high-quality interactions with global clinical trial sites to drive to an unparallel customer experience. The CRL is also responsible for oversight of vendor monitoring activities at clinical trial sites, including the identification, mitigation and escalation of significant findings and trends. Additional local responsibilities may be required as needed/appropriate for the local geography.
Clinical Investigator Management
Accountable for activities required at clinical trial sites and by investigators and site staff participating in Lilly trials; inclusive of site identification and qualification, enrollment planning and execution, to database lock and close out
Accountable for comprehensive site management activities to ensure timely delivery of enrollment readiness, trial recruitment/enrollment and database locks; inclusive of performance management and issue mitigation, identification and resolution
Responsible for identifying potential opportunities to accelerate trial enrollment, while driving to an unparalleled clinical trial/customer experience
Accountable for the application of scientific, therapeutic area, and institutional/regional expertise to inform and ensure timely delivery of trial enrollment and quality data
Accountable for the development of strategic institutional/site relationships to optimize the delivery of clinical trial programs; including across therapeutic areas where applicable
Clinical Trial Management
Responsible for the development and implementation of applicable site risk plans to ensure delivery of clinical trial enrollment commitments and database locks
Ensure site and country level inspection readiness at all times
Leverage metrics to inform site/country/regional level decision making
Work with internal and external teams to remove barriers to trial execution at a site and/or country level
Responsible for understanding local treatment paradigms and standard of care to support targeted feasibility and strategic allocation of trials as required
Provide vendor oversight for site monitoring activities at site/country level
Business Management and Engagement
Establishes and develops strong professional relationships with active/potential clinical investigators to expand/maintain clinical research partnership opportunities and provide an unparalleled experience for participation in Lilly clinical trials
Cross functional collaboration and partnership to ensure alignment in priorities and deliver the portfolio
Perform targeted sites prospecting in alignment with portfolio strategy & priority
Maintain therapeutic and technical expertise to enable scientific discussions with the investigator and site personnel
Serve as an effective communication ‘bridge’ between sites, third party vendors and Lilly
Influence and challenge internal and external factors in order to improve clinical research delivery
Minimum Qualification Requirements
Bachelor’s degree or equivalent
Minimum of 8–10 years’ experience in the pharmaceutical industry and/or clinical research and strong working knowledge of Good Clinical Practice
Therapeutic expertise and knowledge of the clinical research landscape; ability to acquire and maintain therapeutic expertise to support portfolio needs
Strong self-management and organizational skills; ability to manage workload, set personal priorities and adjust as needed
Demonstrated strategic agility & broad business acumen
Demonstrated leadership behaviours with ability to accept challenges, seek opportunities to remove barriers, influence without authority, and lead in areas of uncertainty
Other Information / Additional Preferences
Strong preference for bachelor’s degree in scientific or health-related field
Strong communication (both verbal and written) and language skills
Strong organizational/planning skills
Demonstrated ability to enhance/improve customer experience
Fluent in English as well as required language to conduct day-to-day business
Strong knowledge in country regulatory guidelines/requirements
Strong teamwork and interpersonal skills
Demonstrated decision-making ability
Ability to develop and apply creative solutions
Travel required (50–75%)
At Lilly, caring is not only what we do for patients.
It is how we work.
We believe the people who dedicate themselves to making medicines better deserve an environment that makes their lives better too, one where they are supported, respected, and given the space to do their best work.
This is not just a policy.
It is who we are.
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 does not discriminate on the basis of age, race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, national origin, protected veteran status, disability or any other legally protected status.
#WeAreLilly
Job details
How this role compares
Computed from every other active Clinical Development role in our database, not just this employer's listings.
We currently track 309 comparable Associate Director Clinical Development roles across 48 biopharma companies.
Salary context
66 of 309 peers report a salary range (USD, annualized)
Peers share this role's job function and a matching or adjacent seniority level -- not necessarily the same therapeutic area or country.
Where these roles are based
Top locations among the 309 comparable roles
+ 22 more countries
Seniority mix
309 of 309 peers have a known seniority level
Therapeutic area mix
24 of 309 peers have a known therapeutic area; the rest are genuinely unlabeled, not hidden
Similar opportunities
The closest matches from our peer group, ranked by how similar they are, not how well you'd qualify for them -- treat this as market context, not a guaranteed shortlist; a weak match is labeled as one below.
How we calculate "similar"
No black box, no LLM guesswork: a deterministic score built from four normalized attributes. Here's this role's own peer group at different match levels, so you can see the mechanism, not just the result.
Every comparison starts from the same 100-point budget: 25 for working in the same function, 40 for the same therapeutic area, 20 for the same or adjacent seniority, 15 for the same country. A dimension we can't confirm on both sides contributes nothing, never a guess, never a free pass.
0 points, never a partial guess. A role we know almost nothing about beyond its function bottoms out at 25%; it never inflates to 100% just because there's little to compare against. Seniority uses a defined ladder (Associate → Manager → Associate Director → Senior → Principal → Director → Senior Director → Executive/VP) so "Director" and "Senior Director" count as adjacent, but "Director" and "Executive/VP" do not.