Discovery ADME Project Leader

Eli Lilly and Company • Us, IN

4d • Hybrid

About The Position

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. Lilly is a global healthcare leader headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana. Our 50,000 employees around the world work to discover and bring life-changing medicines to those who need them. At Lilly, the Discovery Investigative ADME, Toxicology and BioAnalytical Research team focuses on pre-clinical discovery using cutting-edge science and technology approaches to treat diseases with poor treatment options. We are seeking an experienced, accomplished drug hunter as a Discovery ADME Project Leader. The ideal candidate will provide deep mechanistic understanding of drug disposition, PK, and translational science, plus the ability to integrate biology, chemistry, and modeling. Experience with Small Molecule Discovery and in project teams with Beyond-Rule-of-Five and pan-modality chemotypes is advantageous. The successful candidate will bring exceptional scientific depth, acumen, and leadership as an integral member of the project team to create bold Target Product Profiles, help establish molecule design strategy and expectations, partner globally and cross-functionally, and ensure teams are advancing The Right Molecule to The Right Study at The Right Time (our three R’s).

Requirements

• PhD (or equivalent) in Pharmaceutical Sciences, Pharmacokinetics, Pharmacometrics, Systems Pharmacology, Preclinical or Clinical Pharmacology, Drug Metabolism, Toxicology, Chemical Biology, or related field.
• Minimally 3+ years of post-graduation industry experience in a drug discovery environment, driving discovery teams and you understand how an ADME Project Leader impacts the life cycle/flywheel (Design, Make, Test, Analyze) of a discovery project.
• Deep subject matter ADME expertise and a working knowledge of medicinal chemistry, and Toxicology principles is advantageous.
• Exceptional written and verbal communication skills; ability to successfully navigate ambiguity and/or global cross-functional collaborations.
• Demonstrated ability to translate complex technical concepts into strategic value for senior leadership and cross-functional partners.

Nice To Haves

• Experience with Small Molecule Discovery and in project teams with Beyond-Rule-of-Five and pan-modality chemotypes is advantageous.

Responsibilities

• Keep Safety as a priority.
• Develop and execute integrated preclinical ADME strategies aligned with discovery stage, target product profile (TPP), design hypotheses being tested, and regulatory expectations.
• Integrate ADME and pharmacology to enable translational simulations and modeling to support dose selection, design of PK/PD, efficacy, and safety studies.
• Define stage-, modality-, and issue-appropriate profiling, decision funnels (in silico, in vitro, in vivo to translational modeling).
• Guide compound design and optimization through data-driven design principles (clearance, permeability, solubility, DDI risk, transporter liabilities).
• Serve as the ADME strategy and science single-point-of-accountability on cross-functional program teams, translating ADME findings into actional design and test hypotheses.
• Collaborate closely with Medicinal Chemistry, DMPK, Toxicology, Pharmacology, and other Discovery Functions to drive high quality candidate selections.
• Contribute to go/no-go decisions using quantitative PK/PD, IVIVE, and mechanistic interpretation.
• Represent ADME in portfolio governance discussions and leadership reviews.
• Implement best practices, assay innovation, and automation where appropriate.
• Drive continuous improvement in data reporting, knowledge management, and decision frameworks.
• Seek, leverage and deploy AI and agentic tools where possible to pipeline data, interpret data and share/accelerate results.
• Maintain inspection-ready documentation and alignment with regulatory expectations.
• Mentor, teach and grow junior scientists and contribute to functional capability building.

Benefits

• company bonus (depending, in part, on company and individual performance)
• company-sponsored 401(k)
• pension
• vacation benefits
• 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
• well-being benefits (e.g., employee assistance program, fitness benefits, and employee clubs and activities)

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior
• Education Level: Ph.D. or professional degree