Lilly Posted July 26, 2026

Director-Engineering Design Lead

Huntsville, Alabama, United States of America FULL_TIME
Manufacturing & CMC Director

Lilly is the source of truth for this posting and owns the application process. We surface normalized context and market comparison you won't find on the original listing.

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.

The Global Facilities Delivery (GFD) Organization, part of Corporate Engineering, delivers new and renovated capital assets around the world.  Our mission is accomplished through partnerships with design, construction and qualification contractors.

Many of the assets delivered focus on manufacturing of medical innovations and delivering innovative solutions to patients and support an expansion in supply of existing medicines.

Responsibilities for a Director-level DL (Design Lead) include:

Overall design delivery for capital project(s) for a multi-node program or network, and manage a team of DLs on node-level design (manufacturing buildings, utilities, or support systems).

DL teams will be a mixture of Lilly team members and external partners fully accountable in the project location for project technical success.

Directly influences Sr. Management on asset design and/or delivery approaches.

Lead the identification of the applicable Engineering Design Standards, Engineering Functional Standards, Engineering Specifications and Regulatory requirements and guidance (both internal and external).

Actively leads delivery team to expand on their knowledge of design processes based on a history of project delivery.

Coordinate all design for the Project Manager during all design phases of the project and be responsible in delivering the conceptual design review and basic design review.

Direct the development of the design requirements.

Command of the design schedule to meet the project needs.

Often participate in the selection of the A/E firms.

Coordinate with A/E firms to develop earned value progress systems to measure progress by discipline (monitor work versus invoice amounts).

Own design decisions and coordinate information flow between the design team and system owners.

Responsible for ensuring the design meets approved intent through interactions between the design firm, design specialists, engineering tech center disciplines, and end user/customer.  Clear articulation of want vs need for asset and facility requirements.

Responsible for design activities and governance, resolving design-related problems.

Examine areas of inefficiency and develop strategies for improvement to direct the design team to meet or improve on the design hours plan.

Instruct the development of standard operating procedures, project delivery work instructions, and/or best practices related to design/verification and ensure they remain current with industry best practices.  Influences the network in the adoption of those industry best practices.

Review and approve along with the respective Project Manager the key design project personnel (both internal and external resources).

Work with Engineering Tech Center resources and other key project team technical/constructability resources to address and resolve design issues, and issue formal reports accordingly.  Influences key technical decision makers on issues of corporate significance.

Ensures replication is achieved during design when applicable, even in new situations.

Support the Project Manager for value engineering exercises efforts to maximize project opportunities and deliver significant site impact and directly contribute meaningful ways to reduce cost through design.

Participate in KPI reviews/assessments.

Participate in the selection of the verification professional services.

Accountable for the development of the Project Verification Plan, Traceability Matrix, and risk assessments (not necessarily lead the execution).

Coordinate verification for the Project Manager during the verification phase of the project.

Accountable for the discrepancy tracking and management in the Verification phase and uses root cause investigation techniques to resolve problems.

Basic Qualifications:

BS in Engineering (Chemical or Mechanical strongly preferred)

Minimum of 20 years manufacturing and/or engineering in support of pharmaceutical or API networks

Ability to work at the site of the project on a weekly basis. This position reports through Indianapolis but is located at site of the supported project.

Additional Preferences:

Strong manufacturing and engineering background.

Additional Information:

Travel is required for this role (20%, 1-2 weeks/month until relocation to project site)

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 (AMECA), Black Employees at Lilly (BE@Lilly), Chinese Culture Network (CCN), EnAble, Evolve, Lilly Indian Network (LIN), Organization of Latinx at Lilly (OLA), Pride (LGBTQ+ Allies), Veterans Leadership Network (VLN) and Women’s Initiative for Leading at Lilly (WILL).

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

$151,500 - $264,000

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.

#WeAreLilly

Job details

Seniority
Director
Function
Manufacturing & CMC
Therapeutic area
Not listed
Location
Huntsville, Alabama, United States of America
Employment type
FULL_TIME

How this role compares

Computed from every other active Manufacturing & CMC role in our database, not just this employer's listings.

We currently track 163 comparable Director Manufacturing & CMC roles across 25 biopharma companies.

163Comparable roles tracked
157Currently active
25Companies hiring similar roles
11Countries represented

Salary context

118 of 163 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.

This roleSubject $151,500/yr – $264,000/yr
Lowest disclosed · Senior/Principal Scientist, Bioprocess Purification Development · Lilly $79,500/yr – $116,600/yr
Highest disclosed · Sr Director Operations · Hospira, Inc. $214,900/yr – $358,100/yr
Peer group range $98,050 – $286,500 (median $184,900)

Where these roles are based

Top locations among the 163 comparable roles

United States139
India11
Netherlands4
Ireland2
France1
United Kingdom1

+ 5 more countries

Seniority mix

163 of 163 peers have a known seniority level

Principal79
Director63
Senior Director21

Therapeutic area mix

2 of 163 peers have a known therapeutic area; the rest are genuinely unlabeled, not hidden

Oncology1
Vaccines & Infectious Disease1

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.

60%similar
AstraZeneca Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States of America Director
Same function Same seniority Same country
60%similar
Lilly Indianapolis, Indiana, United States of America Director
Same function Same seniority Same country
60%similar
Lilly Indianapolis, Indiana, United States of America Director
Same function Same seniority Same country
60%similar
Lilly Indianapolis, Indiana, United States of America Director
Same function Same seniority Same country
60%similar
Lilly Indianapolis, Indiana, United States of America Director
Same function Same seniority Same country
60%similar
Lilly Indianapolis, Indiana, United States of America Director
Same function Same seniority Same country

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.

60%
Director, Integrated Bioanalysis Oncology Development
AstraZeneca · Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States of America · Director
Function Therapeutic area Seniority Country
60%
Director - Analytical Chemistry
Lilly · Indianapolis, Indiana, United States of America · Director
Function Therapeutic area Seniority Country
60%
Director, Vaccine Formulation Development
Lilly · Indianapolis, Indiana, United States of America · Director
Function Therapeutic area Seniority Country
60%
Director of GMP Analytical, Pharmaceutical Analytical Sciences
Merck · Rahway, New Jersey, United States of America · Director
Function Therapeutic area Seniority Country
Unmatched or unknown dimensions score exactly the same: 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.