Lilly Posted August 29, 2026

Post-Doctoral Scientist, Technical Services/Manufacturing Science (TS/MS)

Indianapolis, Indiana, United States of America FULL_TIME
Manufacturing & CMC Intern/Fellow/Postdoc
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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.

Responsibilities

Post-Doctoral Scientists at Lilly are responsible for:

Ensuring reliability of our manufacturing processes and systems

Continuously searching for, developing and implementing improvements

Driving technical projects in a rigorous manner for robust implementation

Maintaining our processes in a state of compliance with US and global regulations

Designing and developing drug processes and delivery systems

The position is a post-doctoral scientist position in the Technical Services/Manufacturing Sciences (TS/MS) organization and is available beginning January 1, 2027.  It provides technical and scientific support within a dynamic manufacturing environment. They will lead the technical development and commercialization aspects for parenteral drug products to ensure process robustness and capability across multiple scales. The successful candidate will be responsible for designing and executing experiments to advance product and process knowledge, process optimization and production technical transfer, as needed.  TS/ MS scientists actively contribute to the organization, and have extensive opportunities for involvement in cross-functional teams. This position allows for development of a comprehensive understanding of the pharmaceutical industry, current Good Manufacturing Practices (cGMP), regulatory requirements, and the essential role scientists play in creating solutions for Eli Lilly and Company and the patients we serve.

Key Objectives/Deliverables:

Understand the chemistry and stability (including oxidation/degradation pathways) of peptides and biomolecules.

Develop appropriate laboratory-scale models to assess manufacturing changes.

Understand the scientific principles required for bioproduct manufacturing of drug substances and drug products, including the interaction of molecule/solution chemistry with process equipment, drug product containers, and/or delivery systems.

Design, conduct, and analyze statistically designed experiments to deepen process understanding and optimize processing conditions.

Understand scale-up requirements and as needed, partner with the manufacturing sites to conduct appropriate scale-up work.

Provide technical support to process development areas as needed.

Document all work in an appropriate manner.

Mentor lab associates enhance their technical capabilities.

Participate in technology transfer as needed.

Travel 0 – 10%

Basic Qualifications Requirements :

Ph.D. in scientific disciplines of Chemistry, Materials Chemistry, Chemical Biology or closely related field.

Qualified applicants must be authorized to work in the United States on a full-time basis. Lilly will not provide support for or sponsor work authorization or visas for this role, including but not limited to F-1 CPT, F-1 OPT, F-1 STEM OPT, J-1, H-1B, TN, O-1, E-3, H-1B1, or L-1.

Additional Skills/Preferences

Desired Experience:

Functional understanding of organic chemistry as applied to stability of peptides and biomolecules and characterization methods (preferred)

Understanding of first principles that may impact absorption/desorption properties of various materials of construction.

Demonstrated record of scientific achievement

Demonstrated problem solving abilities

Ability to work well independently, as well as in teams

Strong written and oral communication skills

Additional Information

This Post-Doctoral Scientist position is not permanent. It is for a fixed duration of two years, with potential to extend to three years, for a maximum of up to four years. Candidates will have the opportunity to apply for full-time positions after the duration is completed.

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

$58,000 - $123,200

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
Intern/Fellow/Postdoc
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 315 comparable Intern/Fellow/Postdoc Manufacturing & CMC roles across 56 biopharma companies.

315Comparable roles tracked
287Currently active
56Companies hiring similar roles
23Countries represented

Salary context

70 of 315 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 $58,000/yr – $123,200/yr
Highest disclosed · Advisor, Bioanalytical Chemistry · Lilly $168,000/yr – $268,400/yr
Peer group range $54,750 – $218,200 (median $82,050)

Where these roles are based

Top locations among the 315 comparable roles

United States184
France43
Germany19
Belgium12
Ireland11
India9

+ 17 more countries

Seniority mix

315 of 315 peers have a known seniority level

Intern/Fellow/Postdoc170
Associate145

Therapeutic area mix

4 of 315 peers have a known therapeutic area; the rest are genuinely unlabeled, not hidden

Vaccines & Infectious Disease4

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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.

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60%similar
Lilly Indianapolis, Indiana, United States of America Intern/Fellow/Postdoc
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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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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.