Lilly Posted August 28, 2026

Senior Director of Engineering – Facilities and Utilities

Huntsville, Alabama, United States of America FULL_TIME
Manufacturing & CMC Senior Director
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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, we unite caring with discovery to make life better for people around the world. We are a global healthcare leader headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana. Our employees around the world work to discover and bring life-changing medicines to those who need them, improve the understanding and management of disease, and give back to our communities through philanthropy and volunteerism. We give our best effort to our work, and we put people first. We’re looking for people who are determined to make life better for people around the world.

Position Overview:

The Senior Director of Engineering – Facilities and Utilities is responsible for leading site operations related to facilities, utilities, and engineering, ensuring the infrastructure and leadership are in place to support both the site startup and long-term manufacturing operations. This role is part of the Lilly Site Lead Team, contributing to strategic direction, organizational development, and cross-functional coordination.

During the project delivery and startup phase, the Senior Director will:

Guide the development and implementation of systems and business processes required for GMP operations.

Help build the site’s culture and operational readiness.

Collaborate closely with other Site Lead Team members to manage evolving responsibilities and ensure alignment with corporate objectives.

As the site transitions to full-scale GMP manufacturing, the role will evolve to focus on sustaining operational excellence, continuous improvement, and long-term strategic goals.

Key Responsibilities:

Pre-Startup and Startup Phase: 

Be a collaborative, inclusive, and energetic leader, supporting the broader Lead Team.

Build an organization with the capability, capacity, and culture to operate the facility to the highest standards of safety, quality, and operational excellence.

Define site engineering facilities priorities and roadmap; develop and implement systems and processes by leveraging internal expertise and external best practices.

Serve on the site HSE Lead Team to ensure a strong safety focus throughout project delivery and startup.

Act as the end user representative during project delivery, providing input on design, commissioning, and startup to align with both project and long-term site goals.

Develop and adapt the organizational structure to ensure the right resources and leadership are in place for full-scale GMP manufacturing.

Ensure systems are established and executed to achieve a qualified and safe state for equipment, processes, utilities, and facilities.

Build strong technical relationships with corporate functions and champion strategic initiatives at the site level.

Post Startup: 

Lead collaboratively and energetically, supporting the broader Lead Team.

Build an organization with the capability, capacity, and culture to operate the facility at the highest standards of safety, quality, and operational excellence.

Define engineering priorities and roadmap; implement systems and processes using both internal expertise and external best practices.

Ensure safety is embedded throughout project delivery and startup as a member of the site HSE Lead Team.

Represent end-user needs during project delivery, providing input on design, commissioning, and startup to align with both immediate and long-term goals.

Develop and adjust the organizational structure to ensure the right resources and leadership are in place for GMP manufacturing.

Establish and execute systems to achieve a qualified and safe state for equipment, processes, utilities, and facilities.

Foster strong technical partnerships with corporate teams and champion strategic initiatives at the site level.

Requirements: 

Bachelors Degree in Engineering.

10+ years of experience leading teams in the pharmaceutical industry.

5+ years of experience in API manufacturing.

Additional Preferences:

Strong knowledge of cGMPs and their application in manufacturing operations.

Proven ability to build effective relationships across all levels, including close collaboration with the Site Leadership Team.

Demonstrated success in leading end-to-end projects on time, within budget, and to high standards.

Skilled in developing high-performing, engaged teams and fostering a strong, safety-focused culture.

Experience with Process Safety Management (PSM).

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 Network, Black Employees at Lilly, Chinese Culture Network, Japanese International Leadership Network (JILN), Lilly India Network, Organization of Latinx at Lilly (OLA), PRIDE (LGBTQ+ Allies), Veterans Leadership Network (VLN), Women’s Initiative for Leading at Lilly (WILL), enAble (for people with disabilities). Learn more about all of our groups.

Actual compensation will depend on a candidate’s education, experience, skills, and geographic location.  The anticipated wage for this position is

$163,500 - $239,800

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
Senior Director
Function
Manufacturing & CMC
Therapeutic area
Not listed
Location
Huntsville, Alabama, 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 124 comparable Senior Director Manufacturing & CMC roles across 36 biopharma companies.

124Comparable roles tracked
105Currently active
36Companies hiring similar roles
15Countries represented

Salary context

68 of 124 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 $163,500/yr – $239,800/yr
Lowest disclosed · Director - Engineering Design Lead · Lilly $130,500/yr – $191,400/yr
Highest disclosed · Executive Director, CMC Regulatory Science · ModernaTX, Inc. $224,900/yr – $404,600/yr
Peer group range $160,950 – $314,750 (median $218,771)

Where these roles are based

Top locations among the 124 comparable roles

United States87
India9
Netherlands6
Ireland6
Germany3
China3

+ 9 more countries

Seniority mix

124 of 124 peers have a known seniority level

Director86
Senior Director32
Executive/VP6

Therapeutic area mix

1 of 124 peers have a known therapeutic area; the rest are genuinely unlabeled, not hidden

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
Lilly Indianapolis, Indiana, United States of America Senior Director
Same function Same seniority Same country
60%similar
Gilead Sciences, Inc. Foster City, United States Senior Director
Same function Same seniority Same country
60%similar
Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Inc (USA) Renss, United States Senior Director
Same function Same seniority Same country
60%similar
Amgen Inc. Thousand Oaks, United States Senior Director
Same function Same seniority Same country
60%similar
Lilly Huntsville, Alabama, United States of America Senior Director
Same function Same seniority Same country
60%similar
Lilly Huntsville, Alabama, United States of America Senior Director
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.

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%
Sr. Director - Biologics Purification
Lilly · Indianapolis, Indiana, United States of America · Senior Director
Function Therapeutic area Seniority Country
60%
Senior Director Engineering
Amgen Inc. · Thousand Oaks, United States · Senior Director
Function Therapeutic area Seniority Country
60%
Engineering Senior Director, Site Expansion
Lilly · Pleasant Prairie, Wisconsin, United States of America · Senior Director
Function Therapeutic area Seniority Country
60%
Sr. Director, IT Sourcing
CSL Behring L.L.C. · King of Prussia, United States · Senior 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.