Senior Principal Software Engineer

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 Technology@Lilly

At Lilly, technology is not a support function. It is how a global medicine company operates, innovates, and delivers. Lilly in Hyderabad builds the capabilities that make this possible, cloud platforms, AI systems, and automation at enterprise scale, all in service of a purpose that makes this technology work genuinely distinctive, from advancing drug discovery to enabling connected clinical trials to keeping a global medicine company running at the standard patients deserve.

About the Business Function

The Software Product Engineering (SPE) team is a specialized engineering group that delivers strategic solutions and differentiated capabilities. We take a forward-thinking approach, focusing on an enterprise platform and product mindset, ensuring that the solutions we build can be leveraged across Technology teams for broader impact and efficiency.

About the Role - Senior Principal Software Engineer ​

We are looking for a passionate and driven Software Engineer to join our Software Product Engineering team. In this role, you will design, build, and scale intelligent systems that leverage the latest advances in Generative AI and Large Language Models. You will work closely with product, data science, and infrastructure teams to deliver robust, production-grade solutions that power real-world use cases across the organization. You should be comfortable working across the stack, from crafting clean backend services to contributing to frontend experiences and be excited about the rapidly evolving landscape of agentic AI, model-context protocols, and cloud-native architecture.

Why You Should Be Interested in This Role

This is not a typical Software Engineering role.

Autonomous team. We move fast, iterate, and solve real problems for real customers.

AI-first from day one. You are curious, learn quickly, empathize with our users, and build solutions to critical problems that shape how Lilly operates.

Full SDLC ownership. Every engineer moves across ideation, build, QA, deployment, and monitoring. You build it, you own it.

Direct partnership with Business, Product, Operations, and other stakeholders.

You will learn a ton, build on AI, and deliver tangible impact. You will also shape the team's direction, its charter, and its technology choices.

If you're looking for the best parts of an established company with an AI-first mindset and the agility to move fast, this is your opportunity.

What You’ll Be Doing

1) Key Responsibilities

Architect and lead the delivery of scalable, cloud-native software systems across backend and frontend layers.

Own end-to-end design and implementation of GenAl and LLM-powered platform capabilities in production and familiarity with Multi Agent orchestration.

Lead architectural reviews, establish engineering best practices, and set technical direction for the team while championing observability, reliability, and security practices.

Drive cross-functional technical collaboration with product, data science, security, and infrastructure teams.

Mentor junior engineers through pairing, code reviews, and structured knowledge transfer.

2) Required Qualifications

Bachelor’s degree in computer science or a related technical field.

Hands-on experience with at least one programming language: Python, Go, or TypeScript

Experience building or integrating Generative AI or LLM-based solutions and familiarity with agentic AI concepts and frameworks (MCP, A2A, or similar)

Understanding of object-oriented design principles and common design patterns

Experience with Docker and container-based development

Working knowledge of cloud platforms such as AWS, Azure, or GCP

Experience with both SQL and NoSQL databases

Strong analytical and problem-solving skills, ownership and accountability

Knowledge of microservices and distributed system design

Exposure to Kubernetes or container orchestration platforms ​

Effective verbal and written communication skills

Ability to work collaboratively across backend, frontend, DevOps, and product teams

3) AI-Enhanced Development

Leverage AI tools like GitHub Copilot, claude code to accelerate development workflows, improve code quality, and reduce boilerplate

Demonstrate proficiency in prompt engineering to effectively guide AI tools in generating optimal and context-aware code solutions

Use AI-assisted pair programming to support rapid prototyping, test case generation, and debugging.

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 ( Workplace Accommodation | Lilly ) 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.

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.

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