Lilly Posted August 12, 2026

Advisor/Sr. Advisor Formulation Development

Indianapolis, Indiana, United States of America FULL_TIME
Manufacturing & CMC Senior

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.

At Lilly, we serve an extraordinary purpose. We make a difference for people around the globe by discovering, developing and delivering medicines that help them live longer, healthier, more active lives. Not only do we deliver breakthrough medications, but you also can count on us to develop creative solutions to support communities through philanthropy and volunteerism.

Position Summary:

The Lilly Bioproduct Research and Development (BR&D) organization is focused on the development and commercialization of parenteral formulations of small molecules and large molecules such as monoclonal antibodies, novel therapeutic proteins and peptides. The organization is also committed to the development of genetic medicines which includes active investments in Oligonucleotide development, nanomedicines for tissue specific targeting and other gene delivery strategies. The drug product team is also investing in building new platforms to support complex formulations such as lipid nanoparticles, Antibody Drug Conjugates and AAV and other non-viral vector delivery.

We are seeking a highly motivated Scientist with an interest or experience in developing parenteral drug product through various stages of clinical development. If you are interested in building platforms for new and novel therapeutic modalities and interested in exploring new frontiers into formulation and drug delivery strategies, you should consider joining our diverse team.

Responsibilities:

Represent Drug Product team in CM&C teams and support the formulation and process development of protein, peptide, oligonucleotides and other novel modalities in clinical development

Hands-on experimental activities in formulation group to support clinical development of parenteral drug products and other complex formulations

Build process capabilities for lab scale, early phase clinical scale, and scale up technologies for parenteral drug product and other complex formulations

Support tech transfer of process and formulation to clinical manufacturing sites.

Work closely with synthetic chemistry, toxicology, ADME groups, analytical teams and device teams to develop the drug product that is stable and patient centric.

May need to support monoclonal antibody, proteins and peptide programs in various stages of development.

Provide technical support in the areas of formulation and drug delivery.

Partner with key teams such as discovery, and drug product delivery and device to develop innovative solutions with a patient focus in an integrated fashion.

Collaborate with Discovery teams on establishing systems for seamless handoff of assets from discovery to clinical development.

Innovate or assess cutting edge formulation methodologies for complex or unstable bioproducts (peptides, proteins, fusion proteins and drug conjugates)

Identify and spearhead research efforts on understanding new drug delivery technologies in the areas of targeted drug delivery and other novel drug delivery fields, and establish proof of concept for technologies for appropriate assets under development

Establish and leverage strategic relationships with academia and start-ups to accelerate and access emerging innovation.

Drive a strong innovation agenda for the team leading to publications, presentations and industry wide influence

Ability to wear multiple functional hats so that input into various complementary parts of the project can be managed in a rapid and localized manner

Basic Requirements:

Earned Bachelors degree OR Master's degree in Pharmaceutics or Pharmaceutical Sciences, Biochemistry, Chemical Engineering or a related field

10+ years of pharmaceutical or biotech industry experience

Prior experience developing processes and understanding basic principles and analytical techniques necessary to characterize large molecules or biological materials

Knowledge and understanding of parenteral drug formulation development, parenteral manufacturing and aseptic technologies, and/or drug product process development

Ability and desire to communicate and work cross-functionally within the team and with other teams on a consistent basis.

Additional Preferences:

Earned PhD in a relevant field with up to 5 years of industry experience.

Background encompasses both innovation and technical development of oligos, protein, peptide, viral or cell therapeutics as evidenced by a history of publications.

Knowledge and hands on experience on the lab automation and high throughput formulation screen is a plus

Additional Information:

Location: Indianapolis, IN. This position requires in-office/lab attendance daily, and does not allow for hybrid/remote work.

This position’s work environment is in a Laboratory.

The work environment characteristics described here are representative of those an employee encounters while performing the essential functions of this job.

*To perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to perform the role and responsibilities satisfactorily. The requirements listed above are representative of the knowledge, skill, and/or ability required. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

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 - $244,200

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
Senior
Function
Manufacturing & CMC
Therapeutic area
Not listed
Location
Indianapolis, Indiana, 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 373 comparable Senior Manufacturing & CMC roles across 53 biopharma companies.

373Comparable roles tracked
344Currently active
53Companies hiring similar roles
20Countries represented

Salary context

174 of 373 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 – $244,200/yr
Lowest disclosed · Senior Scientist II – CMC Developmental Sciences · AbbVie $0/hr – $0/hr (≈ $0–$0/yr)
Peer group range $0 – $222,900 (median $141,813)

Where these roles are based

Top locations among the 373 comparable roles

United States267
India37
Ireland10
Singapore10
Netherlands7
Switzerland6

+ 14 more countries

Seniority mix

373 of 373 peers have a known seniority level

Senior250
Principal79
Associate Director44

Therapeutic area mix

0 of 373 peers have a known therapeutic area; the rest are genuinely unlabeled, not hidden

No peers with a known therapeutic area yet.

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
Lilly San Diego, California, United States of America Senior
Same function Same seniority Same country
60%similar
Merck Rahway, New Jersey, United States of America Senior
Same function Same seniority Same country
60%similar
Seagen Inc Washington – Bothell, United States Senior
Same function Same seniority Same country
60%similar
Pfizer Groton, United States Senior
Same function Same seniority Same country
60%similar
AbbVie North Chicago, IL Senior
Same function Same seniority Same country
60%similar
AbbVie North Chicago, IL Senior
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%
Sr. Scientist - Lab Automation Scientist
Lilly · San Diego, California, United States of America · Senior
Function Therapeutic area Seniority Country
60%
Senior Scientist, Process Development
Pfizer · Groton, United States · Senior
Function Therapeutic area Seniority Country
60%
Senior Scientist, Biologics Purification II
AbbVie · North Chicago, IL · Senior
Function Therapeutic area Seniority Country
60%
Senior Electrical Engineer, Combination Product Development
AbbVie · North Chicago, IL · Senior
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.