Sr. Director LillyDirect Payment Operations

Lilly • San Diego, CA

3d • $154,500 - $226,600 • 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.

LillyDirect is Eli Lilly's direct-to-consumer pharmacy platform, bringing life-changing medicines — including GLP-1 therapies — directly to patients. We are building enterprise-grade payment infrastructure to support this mission, and we are looking for a payments leader who wants to build enterprise-grade capability from the ground up.

The Sr. Director, Payment Operations will lead the end-to-end payment operations function for LillyDirect, with accountability for success in operational execution, team build-out, and cross-functional coordination across Finance, Customer Care, Platform Experience, Tech@Lilly, Global Business Solutions (GBS), and external partners.

The role will initially support the stand-up and stabilization of payment operations and is intentionally designed to evolve into a people-leader role: over time, the Sr. Director will recruit, build, and lead a dedicated payment operations team and manage key functional partners as volume and complexity scale. Accountabilities span the full payment operations stack — owning the PSP vendor relationship, evaluating new payment methods, optimizing processing tools, managing disputes and chargebacks, partnering with Customer Care on service escalations, and coordinating with GBS on daily reconciliation and accounting workflows to ensure Finance has accurate, timely visibility into payment results.

The Sr. Director will also serve as the primary payments point of contact for our international affiliates as LillyDirect expands globally. This role will report to the Associate Vice President - Business Operations for LUSA Consumer Services and will have direct reports.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree
• 7+ years in direct-to-consumer payments operations — with direct, hands-on experience (not just oversight through a team)
• Qualified applicants must be authorized to work in the United States on a full-time basis. Lilly will not provide support for or sponsor work authorization and visas for this role, including but not limited to F-1 CPT, F-1 OPT, F-1 STEM OPT, J-1, H-1B, TN, O-1, E-3, H-1B1, or L-1

Nice To Haves

• Strong working knowledge of payment flows: card processing, settlements, disputes, chargebacks, and reconciliation
• Familiarity with enterprise payment service providers and payment orchestration platforms
• Demonstrated experience building or significantly improve operations
• Strong analytical skills and judgement
• Clear communicator who can translate payments complexity for non-specialist audiences
• Ability to work independently in a fast-paced, startup-like environment within a large enterprise
• Exposure to international payment flows and cross-border expansion
• Familiarity with SAP S/4HANA and/or Vertex for tax compliance
• Experience with fraud prevention, underwriting, or risk monitoring
• Familiarity with PCI-DSS compliance requirements
• Background working with or alongside Global Business Solutions or shared services teams

Responsibilities

• Own Daily Payment Operations: Manage dispute and chargeback processing, vendor oversight, escalation response across LillyDirect payment flows and support the daily payment reconciliation process
• Serve as the internal subject matter expert on our payment service provider — monitoring performance, troubleshooting transactions, and flagging anomalies
• Coordinate with LillyDirect Finance and Global Business Solutions to ensure daily payout reconciliation and SAP accounting entries are generated, posted, and automated to the greatest extent possible
• Handle complex customer escalations related to payments, refund issuances, and dispute resolution
• Build the Process Layer: Design the target-state payment operations operating model — roles, workflows, controls, and escalation paths — that a dedicated team will eventually run
• Design, document, and maintain SOPs for all payment operations functions — with a clear eye toward what can be systematized, templated, or automated
• Implement controls and workflows that are audit-ready and scalable as volume grows
• Continuously enhance the patient-facing payment experience, including payment methods, checkout flows, and error resolution
• Drive Automation and Innovation: Identify repetitive or high-volume operational tasks and lead efforts to automate them
• Partner with Tech@Lilly and LillyDirect Platform Experience to embed automation into payment infrastructure where manual processes currently exist
• Drive innovation and updates to payment methods as the platform evolves
• Manage the PSP Relationship: Own the day-to-day relationship with our payment service provider — monitoring SLAs, escalating issues, and ensuring reliability
• Serve as the primary point of contact for international affiliates as we onboard new markets to our payment account
• Contribute operational and financial perspective to ongoing payment tool optimization decisions
• Finance Partnership and Controls: Work closely with LillyDirect Finance to ensure payment revenue, processing fees, and margin are accurately captured and clearly communicated
• Build and maintain dashboards and reporting that give leadership real-time visibility into payment economics
• Support monthly close, audit, and internal control requirements related to payment activity, ensuring payment economics and revenue flows are accurately reflected in financial results
• Cross-Functional Collaboration: Partner closely with LillyDirect Customer Care, LillyDirect Finance, Platform Experience, and Tech@Lilly — this role requires strong cross-functional coordination
• Ensure payment operations perspectives are represented in product and technology roadmap decisions
• Support customer support teams by providing payments expertise that improves the patient experience
• People Leader Expectations: Model Lilly values and Team Lilly behaviors by acting with integrity, respect, and inclusion.
• Coach and develop talent through regular conversations and actionable feedback.
• Drive clarity and accountability by setting clear expectations and aligning behaviors with Lilly’s mission.
• Lead boldly and adapt quickly by championing change and enabling organizational agility.
• Foster psychological safety and engagement by creating an environment of trust and openness.
• Build future leaders by supporting growth opportunities and sponsoring talent visibility.
• Exhibit expertise and influence to deliver impact and shape outcomes across teams and functions.

Benefits

• company bonus (depending, in part, on company and individual performance)
• 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
• 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: Director