Lilly Posted October 10, 2026

Sr. Director - Central Estimating & Planning - GFD

Indianapolis, Indiana, United States of America FULL_TIME
Manufacturing & CMC Senior Director
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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.

JOB POSITION OVERVIEW:

The Sr. Director, Central Estimating & Planning sits within the Capital Portfolio Operations (PortOps) team in Global Facilities Delivery (GFD), part of Manufacturing & Quality, and reports to the AVP, Capital Portfolio Operations. This role owns the capital estimate from initial concept through project closeout for GFD's capital portfolio of approximately $65 billion, and is accountable for establishing the estimating and planning strategy that delivers predictable and accurate cost outcomes across that portfolio. Scope includes basis of estimate, basis of schedule, estimate and schedule validation, contingency and allowance setting, and benchmarking. This role is accountable for developing the team’s structure, defining the hiring plan, hiring and onboarding estimators, and establishing the team’s operating processes for this function. The role works across a large number of senior stakeholders, including Network AVPs, program directors, Finance, and GPCO, and is expected to influence decisions through others where it does not hold direct authority. Estimating strategy is owned by this role and is aligned with the project controls framework and tools established by the Global Portfolio Controls Office (GPCO).

RESPONSIBILITIES:

Responsibilities are expressed as owned capability areas:

Owns the capital estimate from initial concept through project closeout, maintaining estimate continuity across each project phase and funding gate.

Establishes and maintains the estimating and planning strategy for the capital portfolio, with defined targets for estimate accuracy and cost predictability, and reports performance against those targets.

Owns basis of estimate, estimate plan, and estimate validation across the capital portfolio.

Owns basis of schedule, schedule design plan, and schedule validation across the capital portfolio.

Owns CSRA (contingency and allowance setting) for the capital portfolio.

Validates cost and schedule changes that escalate to the executive level.

Owns benchmarking of estimates and schedules against industry and internal data.

Builds the Central Estimating & Planning function: defines the hiring plan and recruits, hires, and onboards a team of estimators; plus, plans for surge capacity contract estimating support.

Establishes team structure, operating processes, and ways of working for a newly built team, consistent with methodology and tools established by GPCO.

Aligns estimating strategy and practice with the project controls framework and tools established by GPCO.

Manages estimate and schedule positions with multiple senior stakeholders who have competing priorities, including Network AVPs, program directors, and Finance, and defends those positions in governance forums (CPMO, PASC, SteerCos).

Pulls in subject matter experts from GPCO and other PortOps functions as needed to support estimate and schedule development.

BASIC QUALIFICATIONS:

This position requires a combination of technical or project management education, direct experience delivering capital projects, and strong analytical and communication skills.

Bachelor's degree in Engineering, Construction Management, or a related field.

10+ years of experience in cost estimating on large capital projects, including estimating individual projects with a total installed cost greater than $1 billion, and experience managing a team with direct reports.

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.

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS:

Experience estimating individual projects or programs with a total installed cost of $5 billion or greater.

Demonstrated ability to influence decisions through others and manage multiple senior stakeholders with competing demands.

Experience standing up or scaling an estimating or project controls function, including hiring and onboarding staff.

Previous experience in pharmaceutical manufacturing or pharmaceutical capital project delivery.

Proficient in cost estimating and scheduling methods and tools (e.g., AACE methodology, Primavera P6, Oracle Unifier).

Certified Cost Professional (CCP), Certified Estimating Professional (CEP), or PMP certification.

Proven ability to operate effectively within GMP-regulated pharmaceutical environments.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

Position Location: Indianapolis, IN

Travel Percentage (%): 30%

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

$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
Indianapolis, Indiana, 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 179 comparable Senior Director Manufacturing & CMC roles across 48 biopharma companies.

179Comparable roles tracked
166Currently active
48Companies hiring similar roles
16Countries represented

Salary context

89 of 179 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 · Deputy Project Controls Director - Huntsville · Lilly $67,500/yr – $173,800/yr
Highest disclosed · Executive Director, CMC Regulatory Science · ModernaTX, Inc. $224,900/yr – $404,600/yr
Peer group range $120,650 – $314,750 (median $229,300)

Where these roles are based

Top locations among the 179 comparable roles

United States129
Ireland10
Netherlands7
India6
Germany5
United Kingdom4

+ 10 more countries

Seniority mix

179 of 179 peers have a known seniority level

Director115
Senior Director56
Executive/VP8

Therapeutic area mix

4 of 179 peers have a known therapeutic area; the rest are genuinely unlabeled, not hidden

Vaccines & Infectious Disease2
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
Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Inc (USA) Renss, United States Senior Director
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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%
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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.