Senior Director, Heritage & Archives

Eli Lilly and Company • Us, IN

5d

About The Position

Lilly is undertaking a five-year transformation to modernize its Archival Services and strengthen its heritage assets as a strategic enterprise resource. The Senior Director, Heritage & Archives, is the enterprise leader responsible for defining and advancing the heritage and archives strategy, and establishing the long-term operating model, governance, and investment priorities needed to preserve, activate, and scale Lilly’s historical assets.

The role provides dedicated leadership for Lilly’s archives, Heritage Hall, the Replica Building, Lab Line Life, heritage tours, and related spaces and programming. It will protect Lilly’s investment, expand access to archival assets, and activate company history to support employee engagement, executive storytelling, research services, and key milestones. The leader translates historical facts, scientific discoveries, medicine-making, and current business priorities into accurate, compelling verbal and visual storytelling and experiences for employees, leaders, external stakeholders, and visitors.

The position requires enterprise-level judgment, independent prioritization, and the ability to influence stakeholders across Communications, Facilities, Legal, Corporate Affairs, Research, Manufacturing, and external partners. The role leads a two-person team—a senior historian and a special collections director—setting direction, building capabilities, and delivering measurable outcomes in access, preservation, storytelling, service quality, stakeholder satisfaction, and business impact. The team reports to Global Communications and works closely with Facilities, which holds budget and operational accountability for the physical assets.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in communications, business, or a related field.
• At least 10 years of experience leading complex programs or enterprise initiatives.
• At least 5 years of experience managing budgets, vendors, agencies, or cross-functional teams.
• Strong working understanding of science, medicine, and the medicine-making process.
• Ability to translate historical facts, scientific discoveries, archival assets, and business context into compelling verbal and visual storytelling.
• Ability to collaborate across functions and influence stakeholders with competing needs.
• Ability to provide strategic counsel, make judgment-based decisions, set expectations, and persuade key stakeholders.
• Ability to lead, coach, and develop a high-performing team.

Nice To Haves

• Experience in content development, corporate heritage, storytelling, or communications.
• Experience leading enterprise-scale transformation, operating model change, or strategic capability building.
• Accountability for strategic planning, resource prioritization, governance decisions, and measurable business outcomes.
• Demonstrated ability to influence senior leaders, align stakeholders, and drive results in a matrixed environment.
• Familiarity with pharmaceutical research, development, manufacturing, and quality, including regulatory considerations, healthcare reputational issues, and industry dynamics.
• Experience developing, delivering, or enhancing corporate interiors, archives, corporate heritage, executive tours, or visitor tours.
• Experience establishing governance structures, operating models, or service strategies.
• Experience collaborating with and presenting to executives and senior leaders.
• Experience working in a matrixed corporate environment.
• Experience working in a highly regulated industry.
• Knowledge of digital content management systems, metadata standards, and employee self-service platforms.

Responsibilities

• Own and drive the remaining transformation roadmap, including collection processing, prioritization and housing, digitization, new acquisitions, tour and programming enhancements, milestone goals, and long-term service evolution.
• Set the enterprise strategy for developing, organizing, governing, and activating Lilly’s heritage assets.
• Guide the planning, maintenance, and refresh of physical and digital heritage experiences, including Heritage Hall Phases 2 and 3, the Replica Building, and future iterations of Lab Line Life.
• Establish and lead a cross-functional Archives advisory board to set priorities, guide decisions, resolve trade-offs, and recommend resource investments.
• Collaborate with the team to create verbal and visual storytelling for employee engagement, executive storytelling, research services, tours, milestone programming, and company communications.
• Oversee and continuously enhance heritage tours and visitor experiences, ensuring content is accurate, engaging, audience-appropriate, and connected to Lilly’s broader story.
• Partner with Research Laboratories, Manufacturing, therapeutic area leaders, and subject matter experts to ensure scientific and medicine-making content is accurate, accessible, and relevant.
• Build alignment and timely decisions across business areas, senior leaders, subject matter experts, vendors, and enterprise stakeholders, including Communications, Facilities, Legal, Corporate Affairs, Research, and Manufacturing.
• Manage external partners, contracted resources, annual servicing budgets, multi-year capital requests, and overall program spending.
• Oversee digital asset management, including metadata, access models, content standards, and advocacy for AI solutions; apply an understanding of preservation practices.
• Track and report operational measures such as collection volume processed, artifacts cataloged, assets digitized and released, research requests fulfilled, tours, visitors, and preservation milestones.
• Define and monitor impact measures, including accessibility, service quality, stakeholder satisfaction, enterprise use of archival assets, tour effectiveness, milestone readiness, and preservation risk reduction.
• Provide strategic counsel, set expectations, ensure work meets quality, legal and regulatory, timing, budget, and governance standards, and present recommendations to influence stakeholders.
• Set team direction, develop archival and historical capabilities, recommend priorities, and influence senior leaders to deliver enterprise outcomes.
• Build, coach, and develop a high-performing team by setting clear priorities, empowering decisions, encouraging diverse perspectives and ideas, and creating a safe environment for raising issues, challenging assumptions, learning, and building resilience.
• Lead Heritage tours when required and travel domestically or internationally as business needs arise.

Benefits

• Company bonus, depending in part on company and individual performance.
• Eligibility to participate in a company-sponsored 401(k).
• Pension.
• Vacation benefits.
• Eligibility for medical, dental, vision, and prescription drug benefits.
• Flexible benefits, including 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, including an employee assistance program, fitness benefits, and employee clubs and activities.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior