Associate Creative Director

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.

About the job

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.

Organization Overview

At Lilly, we serve an extraordinary purpose. Every day, we make a difference for people around the globe by discovering, developing, and delivering medicines that help them live longer, healthier, and more active lives.

As Lilly's in-house agency, Thread Collective, we fuse data, creativity, and technology to turn bold ideas into work that moves people worldwide. As a true creative engine, we partner across the enterprise, uniting deep brand expertise with integrated insights and modern production to deliver breakthrough ideas with confidence and speed. We deliver human-centric experiences that build trust, deepen understanding, and drive measurable outcomes. Together, we push past “good enough” to achieve creative excellence and operational agility. If you are driven to raise the bar every day, join us as we redefine what a best-in-class in-house agency can do.

Who We Are

Thread Collective, our in-house agency, is elevating creative excellence through sharp ideation, strategic rigor, operational craft, emerging technology, and empowered teams. Emphasizing creativity as a driver of growth, we’re seeking an Associate Creative Director with global agency and pharmaceutical account experience to bridge Lilly and our external creative agencies. In this individual contributor role, you’ll be embedded with agency and brand teams as an extension of Thread Collective rather than a go-between. You’ll consult, educate, and influence agencies on Lilly ways of working and regulatory guardrails while pushing for human, distinctive work, leading handoff to Thread Collective’s studio for pull-through.

What We Are Looking For

Agency-Seasoned Creative Leader, Global creative agency veteran with a portfolio of distinctive, insight-driven, multi-channel campaigns, including TV and video, bold minded, and the credibility to influence agency creative teams without formal authority

Pharma Industry Navigator, Healthcare creative fluent in medical, legal, and regulatory (MLR) review, and workflows, who treats regulatory requirements as the frame for distinctive work

Critic & Educator, Confident communicator who gives rigorous, constructive critique, and models Lilly processes for new-to-pharma agencies

Quality-Driven Brand Steward, Meticulous professional who ensures consistency, quality, and brand alignment in every deliverable, so pull-through work remains aligned across all channels

What You’ll Work On

Serve as the embedded creative leader to agencies new to Lilly from scoping through completion, modeling Lilly ways of working and modulating support as the relationship matures

Help sharpen briefs and consumer insights, pressure-test concepts for MLR viability and distinctiveness with consumer audiences

Give constructive critique that pushes agency work past typical pharma conventions toward human, differentiated ideas

Help define what agencies and Thread Collective each own, execute, consult on, QC, with agencies leading the big idea

Join pre-production and shoots as needed, and guide work back from launch dates to set asset needs and delivery

Verify agency handoff packages, then brief Thread Collective studio teams and oversee pull-through of tactics through final approval

Connect creative to results that turn learnings into reusable standards that meet brand, accessibility, and regulatory guidelines

Guide staff to generate case studies, sizzle reels and other documents promoting Thread Collective partnerships

Basic Requirements

Bachelor’s degree or equivalent experience

10+ years as Creative Director, Associate Creative Director, or equivalent, including global creative agency experience and a portfolio of award-winning work (e.g., Cannes Lions, Effies)

Link to portfolio required

Preferred Qualifications

Pharmaceutical or healthcare marketing experience, including MLR or similar regulatory review

Proven ability to evaluate and elevate creative concepts developed by others

Strong consulting and presentation skills to educate and influence partners at all levels

Working knowledge of TV and video production, from pre-production to final asset delivery

Experience with Adobe Suite, Figma, Microsoft office, Claude, and other relevant apps

Effective capacity management across multiple concurrent agency engagements

Ability to swiftly diagnose process pain points and implement solutions via project planning to successfully manage tight timelines to completion

Agency experience on the Eli Lilly account or other similar pharmaceutical companies

Understanding of healthcare marketing, including the rigorous claims compliance review process

Hands-on experience with annotation, launch-readiness processes, and documentation and cross-functional reviews

Experience moving work between agency and in-house teams, including playbook handoff, and campaign pull-through

Strong collaborative presence with an ego-free approach to driving results through influence versus direct authority

Fluency in brand, content and omnichannel strategy

Other

Position based in Indianapolis; remote work options may be considered. Relocation package provided. Travel up to 15% is expected

Lilly may provide support for or sponsor work authorization or visas for this role for internal applicants only

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

$132,000 - $193,600

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.

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