Lilly Posted July 8, 2026

Associate Director - Clinical Delivery Capabilities

Cork, Cork, Ireland FULL_TIME
Clinical Development Associate Director

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.

Eli Lilly Cork is made up of a talented diverse team of over 2000 employees across 60 nationalities who deliver innovative solutions that add value across a variety of Business Service functions including Finance, Information Technology, Medical, Clinical Trials and more. Eli Lilly Cork offers a premium workspace across our campus in Little Island, complete with flexible hybrid working options, healthcare, pension and life assurance benefits, subsidised canteen, onsite gym, travel subsidies and on-site parking. Inhouse People Development services, Educational Assistance, and our ‘Live Your BEST Life’

wellbeing initiatives are just some of the holistic benefits that enhance the career experience for our colleagues.

Eli Lilly Cork is committed to diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI). We cater for all dimensions ensuring inclusion of all ethnicities, nationalities, cultural backgrounds, generations, sexuality, visible and invisible disabilities and gender, with four pillars: EnAble, embRACE, LGBTQ+ & Ally and GIN-Gender Inclusion Network. EnAble, our pillar for people with disabilities and those that care for them, partners with the Access Lilly initiative to make our physical and digital environment accessible and inclusive for all. Together they are committed to promoting awareness to create a disability confident culture both at Eli Lilly Cork and beyond.

Come join our team - Be Creative, Be an Innovator, and most of all, Be Yourself!

This is a 12-month fixed-term contract.

Purpose:

The Associate Director - Clinical Delivery (CD) & Clinical Delivery Capabilities (CDC), Exploratory Medicine and Pharmacology (EMP) provides supervision, leadership and technical/process expertise for the associates and managers they supervise within EMP, alongside leading cross therapeutic area (TA) strategic projects.

This position provides strategic input, focuses on results, thinks critically, and emphasizes and drives cross-functional team collaboration. The Associate Director is responsible for the quality delivery of the clinical trial portfolio their team leads.

The Associate Director is responsible for coaching and developing team members to ensure that trial-level planning and execution are in alignment with strategy and timelines for the asset, in addition to this they will also provide leadership with recruiting/onboarding new team members, inspection readiness activities, process improvements, recruiting diversity initiatives etc and implementing EMP cross-TA projects to drive efficiency and standardization. As part of their supervisory responsibilities, the Associate Director will ensure career development plans are in place for their team members whilst also leading by example in Team Lilly behaviours.

Primary Responsibilities:   This job description is intended to provide a general overview of the job requirements at the time it was prepared.  The job requirements of any position may change over time and may include additional responsibilities not specifically described in the job description.  Consult with your supervision regarding your actual job responsibilities and any related duties that may be required for the position.

Portfolio Delivery and Therapeutic Area Expertise:

Leverages technical expertise to coach study start up associate team members and to ensure plans are delivered ahead of/to plan and on budget

Works with EMP leadership to ensure planning databases are accurate and up to date

Ensures inspection readiness of team member’s respective study team (s) and leads teams in preparation for mock/real inspections

Oversees appropriate escalation of portfolio related issues through TA pillars

Oversees and provide direction in obtaining appropriate personnel involvement as compliance issues are identified which require further action or follow-up

Manages resource needs and trade-offs across areas based on priority to meet/exceed portfolio milestones

Facilitates discussions within clinical functions as needed to manage team priorities and address unplanned demands

Ensuring that curriculum maps and training program/courses are maintained appropriately for team members to enable them to provide their job responsibilities. Consult as appropriate on new training programs/courses

Ensuring quality in clinical research activities by promoting consistent use of GCP’s global SOPs and best practices.

Leads and develops training in study-start up processes for team members, identifying areas for process improvements and efficiency gains to aid acceleration and simplification

Stays up-to-date with current body of knowledge of relevant disease states/targets, competitors, and industry trends and best practices.

Actively seeks and leads cross-TA standardization and efficiency projects for EMP

Process improvements:

Generate ideas, leads and/or provides input into new processes and process improvements within the clinical organization to enhance productivity, quality and site/participant experience

Actively support team members to share any new learning opportunities or technologies within or across clinical functions

Encourages team members to utilize metrics data in order to assess the current status of the portfolio, to monitor progress and seek opportunities for improvement

Apply innovation and lessons learned in real time. Enable a culture of continuous improvement to drive efficiency through process improvement, technology and automation, and shared learning.

Participates in process improvement activities within and outside of EMP

Partners with other supervisors to improve processes and clarify steps or handoffs

People Management and Development

Recruit, develop, and retain a diverse and highly capable workforce

Ensure robust individual training plans and timely completion of required training for direct reports.

Support and enable talent identification and career development that reflects an end-to-end mindset and demonstrates judgement-based decision making.

Contribute to succession planning, talent assessment and performance/promotion processes.  Ensure high talent staff are appropriately rewarded and developed.

Model behaviors and establish an environment where performance and results are valued, and where individuals are learning and growing developmentally.

Seek opportunities to reward and recognize individuals and teams.

Manage Team workload based on portfolio prioritization, regional requirements, and individual level of expertise, and address implications to overall resource management and strategies.

Supports and encourages a culture of innovation and the learning that comes from new/novel approaches to clinical development and models inclusivity to ensure diverse voices and ideas are heard and considered

Coach and mentor department personnel, and as needed, cross-functional members, in order to affect development and growth of all team members.

Leadership

Collaborates effectively with colleagues at all levels; able to work with, and deliver, through others.

Skilled at working through ambiguity and effective problem-solving/solution oriented skills to help develop and evaluate molecule level strategies from lead to legacy.

Successful in persuasion, influence, and negotiation skills in a matrix environment.

Fosters spirit of learning agility, strategic thinking and the ability to think differently to incorporate new learning

Contributes to the development of others by being an active source of constructive coaching and feedback to co-workers.

Minimum Qualification Requirements:

Bachelor’s degree from an accredited college or university.

5+years’ experience in the pharmaceutical industry with direct experience of managing clinical studies, ideally in exploratory and biopharmaceutics clinical development

Strong knowledge of regulations and guidelines that apply to the conduct of clinical trials.

Demonstrated ability to work effectively cross-culturally and in a virtual work environment.

Demonstrated ability to influence both internal and external environments appropriately and forge strong working relationships.

Demonstrated problem-solving skills; able to anticipate and recognize systemic problems, diagnose root causes and take corrective actions to prevent recurrence within the team.

Strong self-management, organizational and interpersonal skills and the ability to be flexible in varying environments and with multiple customer groups. Strong leadership and networking skills. Demonstrated people manager experience

Excellent oral and written communication skills; able to communicate clearly and with team members and leadership.

Strong computer skills; skilled at using Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Microsoft Project

Ability to travel (up to 10% expected)

Other Information/Additional Preferences:

Bachelor’s degree in a science or heath-related field from an accredited college or university.

Advanced or Post-graduate degree,

Exploratory and biopharmaceutics clinical development experience preferred

Demonstrated high-level, end-user computer skills (e.g., word processing, tables and graphics, spreadsheets, presentations and templates).

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.

#WeAreLillyUKandIreland

Job details

Seniority
Associate Director
Function
Clinical Development
Therapeutic area
Not listed
Location
Cork, Cork, Ireland
Employment type
FULL_TIME

How this role compares

Computed from every other active Clinical Development role in our database, not just this employer's listings.

We currently track 309 comparable Associate Director Clinical Development roles across 48 biopharma companies.

309Comparable roles tracked
273Currently active
48Companies hiring similar roles
28Countries represented

Salary context

66 of 309 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 Not listed on this posting
Peer group range $90,199 – $315,000 (median $180,250)

Where these roles are based

Top locations among the 309 comparable roles

United States107
India87
China13
Poland11
United Kingdom11
Spain9

+ 22 more countries

Seniority mix

309 of 309 peers have a known seniority level

Manager146
Senior91
Associate Director72

Therapeutic area mix

24 of 309 peers have a known therapeutic area; the rest are genuinely unlabeled, not hidden

Oncology9
Immunology6
Cardiovascular / CVRM4
Neuroscience3
Dermatology & Aesthetics1
Ophthalmology1

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 Cork, Cork, Ireland Associate Director
Same function Same seniority Same country
60%similar
Regeneron Ireland Dublin, Ireland Associate Director
Same function Same seniority Same country
50%similar
Novartis Dublin (NOCC), Ireland Manager
Same function Adjacent seniority Same country
50%similar
Novartis Dublin (NOCC), Ireland Manager
Same function Adjacent seniority Same country
50%similar
Novartis Dublin (NOCC), Ireland Manager
Same function Adjacent seniority Same country
45%similar
AstraZeneca Seoul, Korea, Korea, Republic of Associate Director
Same function Same seniority

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%
Associate Director – Clinical Trials Project Manager - Exploratory Medicine & Pharmacology (EMP)
Lilly · Cork, Cork, Ireland · Associate Director
Function Therapeutic area Seniority Country
50%
GCP Compliance Manager - Global Clinical Operations
Novartis · Dublin (NOCC), Ireland · Manager
Function Therapeutic area Adjacent seniority Country
45%
Associate Director, Clinical Research
AstraZeneca · Da'an Dist., Taipei City, Taiwan · Associate Director
Function Therapeutic area Seniority Country
45%
Associate Director, Clinical Pharmacology
AbbVie · Irvine, CA · Associate Director
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.