Lilly Posted September 28, 2026

Senior/Sr. Principal Engineer, Quality Assurance

Katwijk, South Holland, Netherlands FULL_TIME
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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.

About the Katwijk Site

This position starts with a 12-month contract, with the intention of offering a permanent contract based on mutual fit. (Dienstverband: tijdelijk met uitzicht op vast)

Eli Lilly is investing €2.6 billion in a new state-of-the-art manufacturing facility in Katwijk, Netherlands. This facility will produce oral medicines for cardiometabolic health, neuroscience, oncology, and immunology, incorporating next-generation manufacturing technologies including dock-to-dock automation, paperless manufacturing, and process analytical technology while achieving carbon neutrality and zero waste to landfills.

Responsibilities

The role provides guidance, consultation, and oversight across the design, verification, startup, and ongoing life cycle management of site facilities, utilities, and equipment. It is essential to ensuring cGMP compliance throughout the design, delivery, verification, qualification, commissioning, startup, and life cycle maintenance of site assets, utilities, and processes.

The role also maintains external linkages and supports preparation for pre-approval and general inspections by regulatory agencies.

Key Objectives/Deliverables

Provide cGMP and Lilly Global Quality Standard expertise working with Global Facility Delivery team, site engineering team, Lilly site staff, and selected firm to support the verification and qualification of site facilities, utilities, and equipment, employing Quality by Design (QBD) and Quality Risk Management principals and ensuring the integration of Global Quality System requirements into the design.

Serve as the site subject matter expert for Facility, Utility, Maintenance, and Equipment (FUME) Quality Systems and asset lifecycle compliance.

Provide strategic technical leadership for qualification, verification and maintenance of GMP assets.

Provide technical and quality review and approval of project documents to ensure compliance with Lilly Global Quality Standards as well as project and local quality procedures.

Provide quality oversight for the verification and qualification of manufacturing facilities, utilities, equipment and supporting systems.

Provide coaching, feedback and mentoring to engineering and QA as it relates to execution of quality systems.

Maintain and improve FUME quality systems.

Contribute to and review Annual Product Reviews (APR), Quarterly Product and Process Self-Assessments (QPPA), Asset qualification maintenance system strategies and equipment/computer system periodic reviews, as appropriate.

Conduct gap assessments of global requirements and ensure implementation of the governing standards.

Maintain and improve FUME quality systems.

Assist business partners in the interpretation of regulatory and corporate requirements.

Support the definition and execution of inspection readiness activities as it relates to facility, utilities, equipment, and maintenance.

Lead project initiatives needed in support of the project and Quality function.

Foster a strong quality culture including maintaining open communications and promoting teamwork and employee participation in the work group.

Resolve or escalate any compliance issues to the project, site, and Quality Management.

Basic Qualifications

BS in Engineering or a science-related field or equivalent experience.

8+ years in pharmaceutical quality/engineering with significant FUME quality systems experience and experience supporting API and/or OSD manufacturing operations.

Candidates must have current authorisation to work in the European Union.

Skills

Previous experience with Commissioning & Qualification (C&Q) / Verification and Validation oversight including automation and computer systems validation (CSV).

Experience in API/drug product manufacturing, Oral Solid Dosage (OSD), QA or Engineering. Must have hands-on experience with quality engineering related documentation review/approval.

Previous experience with capital project delivery.

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

Demonstrated strong written and verbal communications skills.

Strong attention to detail.

Proficiency with computer system applications.

Knowledge of cGMPs and quality systems.

Understanding of statistical tools and analysis.

Excellent interpersonal skills and networking skills.

Ability to organize and prioritize multiple tasks, work under multiple priorities and tight time line.

Previous experience in QA, QC, Manufacturing, Engineering, Tech Services or Regulatory Affairs.

Experience with Instrument Qualification activities would be advantageous.

On-site Requirement

This is 100% full-time on-site role.

Travel Requirements

We typically expect travel to be 10-20% during the design and delivery phase for engineering meetings, training, and job shadowing opportunities.

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 does not discriminate on the basis of age, race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, national origin, protected veteran status, disability or any other legally protected status.

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

€60,000 - €99,000

Full-time equivalent employees may also 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 pension plan; vacation benefits; eligibility for healthcare benefits; flexible benefits (if applicable) 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
Katwijk, South Holland, Netherlands
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 498 comparable Principal Manufacturing & CMC roles across 83 biopharma companies.

498Comparable roles tracked
447Currently active
83Companies hiring similar roles
33Countries represented

Salary context

203 of 498 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 Not listed on this posting
Lowest disclosed · Senior Technician Calibration - Maintenance · Mylan Technologies, Inc. $37,000/yr – $80,000/yr
Peer group range $58,500 – $288,000 (median $150,600)

Where these roles are based

Top locations among the 498 comparable roles

United States320
India40
Ireland21
Netherlands18
United Kingdom10
Germany9

+ 27 more countries

Seniority mix

498 of 498 peers have a known seniority level

Senior328
Principal87
Director83

Therapeutic area mix

2 of 498 peers have a known therapeutic area; the rest are genuinely unlabeled, not hidden

Dermatology & Aesthetics1
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 Katwijk, South Holland, Netherlands Principal
Same function Same seniority Same country
60%similar
Lilly Katwijk, South Holland, Netherlands Principal
Same function Same seniority Same country
60%similar
Lilly Katwijk, South Holland, Netherlands Principal
Same function Same seniority Same country
60%similar
Lilly Katwijk, South Holland, Netherlands Principal
Same function Same seniority Same country
50%similar
Amgen Europe B.V. Breda, Netherlands Senior
Same function Adjacent seniority Same country
50%similar
Amgen Europe B.V. Breda, Netherlands Senior
Same function Adjacent 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%
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Function Therapeutic area Seniority Country
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Amgen Europe B.V. · Breda, Netherlands · Senior
Function Therapeutic area Adjacent seniority Country
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NV Organon (Netherlands) · Nld, Netherlands · Senior
Function Therapeutic area Adjacent 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.