Lilly Posted August 10, 2026

Principal - QA API External Manufacturing Peptides

Indianapolis, Indiana, United States of America FULL_TIME
Quality Principal
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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, 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.

Your floor QA experience is what makes you ready for this role.

Lilly's Active Pharmaceutical Ingredient External Manufacturing (API-EM) organization oversees the production of large molecule and biologics APIs at contract manufacturing sites worldwide

Responsibilities:

Provide QA oversight of external API manufacturing, including batch disposition, deviation management, and change control.

Conduct and support audits to ensure compliance with cGMP regulations and Lilly quality standards.

Review and approve quality documentation, including batch records, validation documents, stability data, and analytical methods.

Partner with internal functions and external manufacturers to resolve quality issues and drive continuous improvement.

Support new product introductions, technology transfers, and quality agreement management.

Lead investigations of quality events, deviations, and OOS results, identifying root causes and implementing CAPAs.

Basic Qualifications:

Bachelor's degree in Chemistry, Biochemistry, Pharmacy, Chemical Engineering, or science related field.

5+ years of pharmaceutical or biopharmaceutical industry experience, with a strong emphasis in QA, preferably supporting API manufacturing and external supply.

Experience supporting GMP manufacturing operations in a QA shop floor environment.

Strong knowledge of cGMP regulations and global quality requirements.

Ability to travel domestically and internationally as needed.

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 and Preferences:

Strong understanding of API manufacturing processes, analytical testing, and quality control principles.

Strong preference for candidates with hands-on experience supporting biologics, large molecule, or peptide (TIDES) drug substance manufacturing.

QA shop floor experience.

Excellent problem-solving, decision-making, and communication skills, with the ability to convey complex quality and technical information effectively.

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

$66,000 - $171,600

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.

#WeAreLilly

Job details

Seniority
Principal
Function
Quality
Therapeutic area
Not listed
Location
Indianapolis, Indiana, United States of America
Employment type
FULL_TIME

How this role compares

Computed from every other active Quality role in our database, not just this employer's listings.

We currently track 248 comparable Principal Quality roles across 58 biopharma companies.

248Comparable roles tracked
235Currently active
58Companies hiring similar roles
30Countries represented

Salary context

72 of 248 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 $66,000/yr – $171,600/yr
Lowest disclosed · Associate Quality Control Chemist, Senior (Data Review) · Merck KGaA $25/hr – $39/hr (≈ $52,000–$81,120/yr)
Highest disclosed · Director Virology · Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Inc (USA) $203,000/yr – $338,400/yr
Peer group range $66,560 – $270,700 (median $134,100)

Where these roles are based

Top locations among the 248 comparable roles

United States144
Ireland16
United Kingdom9
Japan8
Spain8
China7

+ 24 more countries

Seniority mix

248 of 248 peers have a known seniority level

Senior166
Director45
Principal37

Therapeutic area mix

0 of 248 peers have a known therapeutic area; the rest are genuinely unlabeled, not hidden

No peers with a known therapeutic area yet.

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 Lebanon, Indiana, United States of America 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
Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Inc (USA) Renss, United States Principal
Same function Same seniority Same country
60%similar
Lilly Concord, North Carolina, United States of America Principal
Same function Same seniority Same country
60%similar
Lilly Richmond, Virginia, United States of America Principal
Same function Same seniority Same country
60%similar
Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Inc (USA) Renss, United States Principal
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.

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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%
Principal Scientist GMP Environmental Monitoring Lilly Medicine Foundry
Lilly · Lebanon, Indiana, United States of America · Principal
Function Therapeutic area Seniority Country
60%
Senior Principal Microbiologist
Lilly · Concord, North Carolina, United States of America · Principal
Function Therapeutic area Seniority Country
60%
Senior / Principal Associate QA API External Manufacturing
Lilly · Indianapolis, Indiana, United States of America · Principal
Function Therapeutic area Seniority Country
60%
Principal Scientist, PSSM ARD, GMP Analytics, Stability Strategy & Operations
Pfizer · Groton, United States · 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.