Lilly Posted August 16, 2026

Advisor- Project Engineer- Design Lead

Houston, Texas, United States of America FULL_TIME
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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.

The Global Facilities Delivery (GFD) Organization, part of Corporate Engineering and Continuous Improvement, delivers new and renovated capital assets around the world.  Our mission is accomplished through a highly leveraged organization of design, construction and qualification contractors.  Many of the assets delivered focus on medical innovation and delivering innovative solutions to patients.  Some of the assets delivered will support an expansion in supply of existing medicines or making the supply chain more robust. The Design Lead (DL) will serve in the following capacity:

Responsibilities:

Be responsible for the overall design delivery for capital project(s).

Coordinate all design for the Project Manager during all design phases of the project and be responsible in delivering the conceptual design review and basic design review.

Direct the development of the design requirements.

Assist in development and maintenance of the design schedule to meet the project needs.

Participate in the selection of the A/E firms.

Coordinate with A/E firms to develop earned value progress systems to measure progress by discipline (monitor work versus invoice amounts).

Expedite design decisions and coordinate information flow between the design team and system owners.

Be responsible for ensuring the design meets approved intent through interactions between the design firm, design specialists, engineering tech center disciplines, and end user/customer.

Be responsible for design activities and governance, resolving design-related problems.

Examine areas of inefficiency and develop strategies for improvement to direct the design team to meet or improve on the design hours plan.

Review and approve along with the respective Project Manager the key design project personnel (both internal and external resources).

Work with Engineering Tech Center resources and other key project team technical/constructability resources to address and resolve design issues.

Ensure replication is achieved during design when applicable.

Support the Project Manager for value engineering exercises efforts to maximize project opportunities.

Review design-related invoices prior to approval and participate in KPI reviews/assessments.

Participate in the selection of the verification professional services.

Take an active role/be responsible in mentoring and developing others, sometimes external to the organization.

Basic Requirements:

BS in Engineering (Chemical or Mechanical preferred)

Minimum of 12 years of manufacturing and/or engineering experience supporting pharmaceutical or API (active pharmaceutical ingredient) networks

Additional Preferences:

Pharmaceutical process or project engineer experience

Strong project management skills

Ability to effectively facilitate conflict to resolution

Ability to influence all levels of the project and site personnel

Understanding of the capital project delivery process, A/E design activities, and the understanding of the available Lilly technical resources (user reps, Engineering Tech Center resources, and design specialists)

Demonstrated values that are consistent with the Lilly values

Able to frame complex decisions/analyses, facilitate to a decision, and implement according to the plan

Ability to create creditability and influence to align decision agreements between site(s), corporate engineering, A/E firm decision-makers, and stakeholders who have differing opinions

Experience facilitating issue resolution, anticipating scope changes, and implementing projects safely with quality, speed and value

Willingness to relocate and/or travel to locations outside of home state/country and have the demonstrated ability to work from long distances with little supervision

Comfortable maintaining an in-office presence 3-4 days per week

Additional Information:

Travel can be both domestic and international, on average about 25%, depending on the phase of the project

The potential of co-location at the A/E firm or the job site for periods of time could occur based on project needs

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

$129,000 - $209,000

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
Associate
Function
Manufacturing & CMC
Therapeutic area
Not listed
Location
Houston, Texas, 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 421 comparable Associate Manufacturing & CMC roles across 72 biopharma companies.

421Comparable roles tracked
372Currently active
72Companies hiring similar roles
38Countries represented

Salary context

92 of 421 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 $129,000/yr – $209,000/yr
Lowest disclosed · Associate Operator - 2nd Shift · Mylan Technologies, Inc. $30,000/yr – $49,000/yr
Highest disclosed · Regional Manager - Megasys · Merck KGaA $220,000/yr – $250,000/yr
Peer group range $39,500 – $235,000 (median $141,150)

Where these roles are based

Top locations among the 421 comparable roles

United States217
India57
Netherlands17
Switzerland16
United Kingdom13
Singapore11

+ 32 more countries

Seniority mix

421 of 421 peers have a known seniority level

Manager267
Associate128
Intern/Fellow/Postdoc26

Therapeutic area mix

2 of 421 peers have a known therapeutic area; the rest are genuinely unlabeled, not hidden

Rare Disease2

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
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Same function Same seniority Same country
60%similar
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60%similar
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60%similar
Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Inc (USA) Tarrytown, United States Associate
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60%similar
Mylan Technologies, Inc. St. Albans, United States Associate
Same function Same seniority Same country

Notify me about similar jobs

Get an email when we spot other openings like this one – same job function, comparable seniority, roles you'd actually want to see.

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%
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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.