Lilly Posted August 17, 2026

Senior/Principal QA Associate - Cell & Gene Therapies, External Manufacturing

Lebanon, Indiana, United States of America FULL_TIME
Quality Principal
Notify me about similar jobs

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 is currently constructing a cutting-edge facility for the manufacture of new modalities including Gene Therapy. At Lebanon, Indiana, this facility will be Lilly’s most technically advanced manufacturing site focused on the delivery of the next wave of innovative products at Lilly. It will include next-generation manufacturing technologies and advanced data collection and analysis platforms that will deliver improvements in safety and quality, and process performance. This is a unique opportunity to be a part of the team for the startup of a greenfield manufacturing site, and the successful candidate will help to design, commission, start up, and maintain the facility for both clinical and commercial supply.  This is an exciting opportunity to help build a state-of-the-art facility and Quality System from the ground up.

The Lebanon Advanced Therapies (LP2) Quality Assurance External Manufacturing Representative is responsible for demonstrating leadership, teamwork, and quality/regulatory knowledge to provide effective quality oversight of contract manufacturers and alliance partners. This oversight covers the process steps of selection, pre-validation/validation, ongoing operations and termination.

LP2 External Manufacturing Quality Assurance maintains communication and working relationships with alliance partners, contract manufacturers, and internal customers. The External Manufacturing QA Representative manages daily contract manufacturing activities and ensures adherence to Lilly GQS and cGMPs through deviation investigations, change control, documentation management, validations, and other relevant responsibilities. This position also supports inspection readiness, product launches, and is accountable for batch disposition, confirming all batches comply with specifications and regulatory requirements.

Responsibilities:

Serve as a liaison between CMs and Lilly, providing quality oversight and serving as the initial point of contact for all quality-related issues

Escalate quality issues at CMs to Lilly QA management.

Assist in the establishment and revisions of Quality Agreements with affiliates and customers

Ensure compliance to Quality Agreements and Manufacturing Responsibilities Documents (MRDs)

Evaluate and disposition drug substance, drug product, and packaging batches ensuring that documented checks have been completed for the Certificates of Testing, Certificates of Environmental Monitoring (where applicable), deviations, changes and batch documentation

Provide quality support of manufacturing operations with holistic review of key activities associated with or impacting the manufacturing processes.

Maintain awareness of external regulatory agency findings which individually or collectively reference the quality of the product

Review and approve documents including, but not limited to, procedures, master production records, change control proposals, deviations, equipment qualifications, analytical methods and computerized system validations

Provide onsite support of manufacturing operations as required

Participate in regulatory inspection preparations with CMs. Provide on-site support during inspections

Participate in APR activities

Participate in Post Launch Optimization Teams (PLOT)

Basic Requirements:

Bachelor's degree in relevant field (preference for scientific or engineering field).

3+ years working in the pharmaceutical manufacturing industry in Quality Assurance roles.

Previous experience providing Quality Assurance oversight of contract manufacturers.

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 Preferences:

Demonstrated knowledge and use of US, EU, Japan and other regulations in the area of pharmaceutical manufacturing

ASQ Certified

Previous facility or area start up experience

Previous experience with gene therapy drug substance processes such as equipment prep, virus prep/banking, inoculation, purification, and/or drug product manufacturing processes such as formulation, filling/visual inspection, and packaging

Previous experience with Manufacturing Execution Systems.

Demonstrated ability to communicate with and influence cross-functional teams including good oral and written communication skills

Demonstrated strong problem solving and decision-making skills

Previous technical writing experience

Technical aptitude and ability to train and mentor others

Additional Information:

Ability to work 8-12 hour shifts on Monday-Friday in the Lebanon, IN office

Position may require travel (10-25%)

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

$65,250 - $169,400

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
Lebanon, 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 249 comparable Principal Quality roles across 64 biopharma companies.

249Comparable roles tracked
225Currently active
64Companies hiring similar roles
29Countries represented

Salary context

62 of 249 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 $65,250/yr – $169,400/yr
Lowest disclosed · Associate Quality Control Chemist, Senior (Data Review) · Merck KGaA $25/hr – $39/hr (≈ $52,000–$81,120/yr)
Peer group range $66,560 – $265,000 (median $131,050)

Where these roles are based

Top locations among the 249 comparable roles

United States134
Ireland15
China11
Spain9
Switzerland9
Singapore9

+ 23 more countries

Seniority mix

249 of 249 peers have a known seniority level

Senior179
Principal37
Director33

Therapeutic area mix

0 of 249 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
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 Richmond, Virginia, United States of America 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.

Or follow a whole field: get every new Quality job in the United States, and choose locations and companies.

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%
Principal Analytical Scientist (Automation)
Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Inc (USA) · Renss, United States · Principal
Function Therapeutic area Seniority Country
60%
Principal Quality Assurance Reviewer
Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Inc (USA) · Renss, United States · Principal
Function Therapeutic area Seniority Country
60%
Principal Scientist R&D & cGMP Preparative Chromatography
Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc (US) · Boston, 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.