Lilly Posted November 9, 2026

Principal - Engineer - Process (Environmental Controls)

Houston, Texas, United States of America FULL_TIME
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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 is constructing an advanced manufacturing facility in Houston, TX, to produce API (Active Pharmaceutical Ingredient) molecules. The site will supply APIs for current and future products, including new modalities. This is a chance to join the startup team for a greenfield manufacturing site. The successful candidate will help build the processes and facility that carry the site into GMP manufacturing operations.

We are seeking a Principal Process Engineer for Environmental Controls to support the API manufacturing business in Houston. This engineer will be responsible for Environmental Controls (ECU) systems in a GMP environment, including tank farm operations, solvent recovery systems and air emissions systems. The role is core to delivering our product pipeline across batch and continuous API production and development.

Responsibilities:

Facility Start-Up

Provide engineering support to the Global Facility Delivery Team (Lilly's global large scale capital delivery team) with a strong focus on right first time and on schedule facility start-up. This includes design reviews, process safety assessments, user requirements, C&Q support, unit operation shakedown and start-up, and facility operational readiness.

Contribute to the integrated operational readiness plan and own the elements assigned to you, such as SOP development, maintenance strategy, automation optimization, pre-startup safety reviews, alarm requirements, and performance qualification requirements and protocol development.

Own the qualified state of equipment for your assigned systems.

Develop and implement unit operation and equipment control strategy to sustain and optimize critical utilities systems in support of manufacturing operations.

Support initial operations training as the equipment and area SME for assigned systems.

Facility Operations

Provide engineering support in critical utilities operations through application of chemical and/or mechanical engineering fundamentals.

Monitor, assess and document equipment performance to maintain ongoing qualification.

Support development and maintenance of the basis of safety for equipment as required.

Apply mechanistic modelling, process simulation and analysis to enhance process understanding and control.

Identify and implement continuous improvement opportunities related to equipment and processes as a core member of the cross-functional process team.

Use root cause analysis techniques to investigate process and equipment issues and deliver robust and sustainable corrective and preventative actions.

Collaborate with maintenance teams to plan and execute scheduled maintenance activities, including equipment calibration and testing.

Basic Qualifications:

Bachelor's degree in engineering.

3+ years of relevant experience in manufacturing operations.

2+ years of experience working in a process safety management (PSM) regulated environment.

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:

Experience in Pharmaceutical or Chemical Manufacturing.

Deep technical interest and understanding in the field of chemical engineering.

Strong analytical and problem-solving skills.

Working knowledge of Environmental Controls systems such as tank farms, solvent recovery, or air emissions abatement.

Exposure to facility start-up, commissioning and qualification, or operational readiness work.

Ability to work on own initiative and as part of a process team consisting of a diverse group of management, production, science and engineering professionals.

Creativity to identify improvement opportunities and the tenacity/initiative to see them implemented.

Guidance/mentoring of others through processes.

Flexibility to meet business needs.

Other Information:

Occasional travel required, 5 to 10%.

Required to be working onsite.

Required to be on-call.

Occasional shift work may apply.

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

$67,500 - $151,800

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
Principal
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 634 comparable Principal Manufacturing & CMC roles across 88 biopharma companies.

634Comparable roles tracked
588Currently active
88Companies hiring similar roles
29Countries represented

Salary context

228 of 634 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 $67,500/yr – $151,800/yr
Lowest disclosed · Senior Technician Calibration - Maintenance · Mylan Technologies, Inc. $37,000/yr – $80,000/yr
Peer group range $58,500 – $288,000 (median $152,450)

Where these roles are based

Top locations among the 634 comparable roles

United States413
India45
Ireland30
Netherlands16
Germany15
China13

+ 23 more countries

Seniority mix

634 of 634 peers have a known seniority level

Senior403
Principal125
Director106

Therapeutic area mix

6 of 634 peers have a known therapeutic area; the rest are genuinely unlabeled, not hidden

Vaccines & Infectious Disease3
Dermatology & Aesthetics1
Respiratory1
Oncology1

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
Merck West Point, Pennsylvania, United States of America Principal
Same function Same seniority Same country
60%similar
Sanofi US Services Inc. Waltham, United States Principal
Same function Same seniority Same country
60%similar
Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Inc (USA) Tarrytown, United States Principal
Same function Same seniority Same country
60%similar
Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Inc (USA) Renss, United States Principal
Same function Same seniority Same country
60%similar
Lilly Indianapolis, Indiana, United States of America Principal
Same function Same seniority Same country
60%similar
Lilly Lebanon, Indiana, United States of America Principal
Same function Same seniority Same country

Notify me about similar jobs

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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 Principal Scientist/Engineer, Medical Device and Combination Products, Analytical
Merck · West Point, Pennsylvania, United States of America · Principal
Function Therapeutic area Seniority Country
60%
Principal Project Engineer
Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Inc (USA) · Renss, United States · Principal
Function Therapeutic area Seniority Country
60%
Automation Engineering, Sr. Principal Engineer – Pharmaceutical Manufacturing - Lilly Medicine Foundry
Lilly · Lebanon, Indiana, United States of America · Principal
Function Therapeutic area Seniority Country
60%
Principal Engineer I, Process Development
AbbVie · North Chicago, IL · Principal
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.