Lilly Posted August 31, 2026

Director - ADME Project Leadership

Indianapolis, Indiana, 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.

Lilly’s Drug Disposition team is searching for an experienced pharmaceutical scientist to lead the application of absorption, distribution, metabolism, excretion (ADME) science to advance our portfolio. Working on cross-functional teams, our diverse group is multidisciplinary, applying in vitro, in vivo, and in silico approaches to mechanistically study the pharmacokinetics, absorption, and disposition of small molecules, biologics/antibodies, peptides, ADCs, siRNAs, gene therapies, and other complex modalities. You will serve as technical leader within the department and across portfolio cross-functional teams. This role will require engaging in experimental design and data interpretation to deliver the discovery and development portfolio of investigational targets and novel therapeutics. We are passionate about making an impact in the lives of our patients. Consider joining our efforts!

Responsibilities:

Accountable for the delivery of scientifically integrated data packages to guide compound selection, study design, portfolio decisions, and regulatory submissions.

Partner with cross-functional colleagues in both Discovery and Development (eg. Toxicology, Pharmacology, Chemistry, Clinical PK/PD, Clinical Pharmacology, Regulatory, and Medical) to assess drugability and optimize ADME properties to deliver drug candidates to the clinic, as well as to design and support nonclinical and clinical studies, supporting global registration packages.

Lead R&D initiatives to grow and develop ADME/DMPK capabilities across experimental and drug modalities including small molecules, biologics/antibodies, peptides, ADCs, siRNAs, gene therapies, and other complex modalities.

Integrate in vitro, in vivo, and in silico ADME data with Biology and Chemistry understanding to define structure-activity- and structure-property-relationships and deliver favorable molecular and experimental design strategies.

Prepare data packages and develop content in regulatory documents (eg. IB, IND, IMPD, NDA/BLA, etc.) to support global regulatory submissions (including sections 2.6.4./non-clinical pharmacokinetics and 2.7.2./clinical pharmacology) and correspondence as well as represent ADME in face-to-face discussions with regulators.

Guide junior, peer, and upper level scientists in best and modern practices of multi-property optimization through the use of mechanistic ADME principles.

Communicate the value of mechanistic ADME approaches both internally within R&D and externally including regulatory agencies.

Build a strong external network (e.g. academia, consortia) and keep up to date with emerging literature and science in the area.

Basic Qualifications:

Ph.D. degree in Pharmacokinetics, Pharmacology, Pharmaceutics, Biochemistry, or related field with 6 years or more of extensive training in the field of drug metabolism and disposition or clinical pharmacology.

Additional Skills/ Preferences:

Experience in drug discovery and development across a variety of therapeutic areas.

Deep experience with small molecules preferred.

Additional experience with at least one other modality desired, such as biologics/antibodies, peptides, ADCs, siRNAs, gene therapies, and other complex modalities.

Detailed understanding of pharmacokinetics, ADME, drug interactions and proficiency to communicate theory and concepts clearly.

Ability to balance multiple projects and handle competing responsibilities.

Experience with modeling software (e.g. SimCYP, GastroPlus, NONMEM, Matlab, etc.).

Demonstrate strong communication skills with the ability to integrate diverse perspectives, deliver critical messaging, and influence leaders/key partners.

Collaborative team behaviors and aspiration to build and sustain relationships with R&D customers and the wider scientific community.

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

$177,000 - $308,000

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
Director
Function
Drug Discovery & Preclinical Research
Therapeutic area
Not listed
Location
Indianapolis, Indiana, United States of America
Employment type
FULL_TIME

How this role compares

Computed from every other active Drug Discovery & Preclinical Research role in our database, not just this employer's listings.

We currently track 127 comparable Director Drug Discovery & Preclinical Research roles across 35 biopharma companies.

127Comparable roles tracked
124Currently active
35Companies hiring similar roles
11Countries represented

Salary context

64 of 127 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 $177,000/yr – $308,000/yr
Lowest disclosed · Principal Scientist--Pharmacokinetics, Dynamics and Metabolism · Pfizer $106,000/yr – $176,600/yr
Highest disclosed · Senior Director, Toxicology · Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Inc (USA) $242,000/yr – $403,300/yr
Peer group range $141,300 – $322,650 (median $213,875)

Where these roles are based

Top locations among the 127 comparable roles

United States106
United Kingdom4
China4
India3
Germany2
China's Mainland2

+ 5 more countries

Seniority mix

127 of 127 peers have a known seniority level

Principal75
Director38
Senior Director14

Therapeutic area mix

23 of 127 peers have a known therapeutic area; the rest are genuinely unlabeled, not hidden

Oncology10
Immunology6
Cardiovascular / CVRM2
Neuroscience2
Vaccines & Infectious Disease1
Respiratory1
Gastroenterology1

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 Indianapolis, Indiana, United States of America Director
Same function Same seniority Same country
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60%similar
Gilead Sciences, Inc. Foster City, United States Director
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60%similar
Amgen Inc. Cambridge, United States Director
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60%similar
Amgen Inc. Thousand Oaks, United States Director
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60%similar
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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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Lilly · Indianapolis, Indiana, United States of America · Director
Function Therapeutic area Seniority Country
60%
Director, Bioprocess / Process Development – Pivotal Drug Substance
Amgen Inc. · Cambridge, United States · Director
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Biogen · San Francisco, United States · 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.