Lilly Posted October 13, 2026

Sr. / Principal Material Expert – MSAT (m/f/d)

Alzey, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany FULL_TIME
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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.

Titel:

Sr. / Principal Material Expert – MSAT (m/f/d)

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.

At Lilly in Germany, we are currently planning and building a high-tech production facility in Alzey (Rhineland-Palatinate), which will expand our production of injectable drugs from 2027 and employ up to 1,000 specialists. To make the most of our innovative production site, we are looking for motivated reinforcements who, together with us, will ensure the supply of Lilly medicines in Germany, Europe, and worldwide, in line with the three Lilly values of "Excellence," "Integrity," and "Respect for People."

In this role you will be part of the TS/MS (Technical Services / Manufacturing Science) team (also known as MSAT or MS&T). The TS/MS team is the technical owner of the process, from tech transfer and validation through commercial lifecycle management. Our decisions on control strategy, lifecycle, and process robustness shape how this greenfield parenteral site runs for the next decades, with direct visibility to site leadership and Lilly's global technical network.

Key Objectives / Deliverables:

Responsible for maintaining a safe work environment, working safely and accountable to support all HSE corporate and site goals.

Act as a site subject matter expert and provide deep scientific and technical expertise for high-risk materials (including primary/critical secondary packaging components), raw materials, and GMP consumables used in the drug product manufacturing process.

Understand, justify, and document the state of qualification of components with data that evaluates the capability of the manufacturing process to meet its stated purpose.

Evaluate the impact of changes at suppliers to the product/process.

Lead/support technical projects to improve process control, capacity, quality, yield, and attribute measurement as related to materials and components.

Act as expert for Container Closure Integrity topics and own related investigations and improvement projects

Perform Extractable and Leachable Assessments for new products and related manufacturing materials

Establish and maintain technical documents and specifications for materials and components.

Create, maintain, and perform applicable periodic review of materials and consumables.

Provide technical support for all start-up activities (e.g. tech transfer, process validation, change controls, deviations).

Prepare, review, approve, and provide technical support for preparation of relevant technical documents, as required, such as: change controls, regulatory submissions, deviation investigations, validation protocols and summary reports, processing records, procedures, PFDs, VMPs, APRs, QPPAs, etc.

Provide manufacturing input on regulatory submissions and other pertinent regulatory topics related to product contact materials and container closure.

Support risk management activities as it pertains to materials and components.

Serve as technical interface to the Lilly TSMS network

Act as SME during audits on all topics related to materials

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Expected Qualifications:

BS or MS in Microbiology, Biology, Biochemistry, Biochemical Engineering, Chemical Engineering, or other related scientific discipline

Good understanding of GMP and manufacturing processes

Experience with material criticality assessments and specification management

Strong interpersonal and collaboration skills

Ability to analyses complex data and solve problems

Fluent in German and English

Additional Preferences:

Familiar with Container Closure Integrity concepts and testing

Experience with elastomer components and glass container (failure modes, testing, product interactions, specifications)

Experience with project start-ups and process implementation

German language skills can help in this role

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What to consider:

Role is Monday through Friday site-based (Alzey) with the ability to travel to Indianapolis and other global Lilly sites as required.

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 -  €121.000

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
Alzey, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany
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 683 comparable Principal Manufacturing & CMC roles across 89 biopharma companies.

683Comparable roles tracked
620Currently active
89Companies hiring similar roles
34Countries represented

Salary context

265 of 683 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 $154,900)

Where these roles are based

Top locations among the 683 comparable roles

United States452
India38
Ireland33
Netherlands23
Switzerland14
Germany14

+ 28 more countries

Seniority mix

683 of 683 peers have a known seniority level

Senior431
Principal137
Director115

Therapeutic area mix

9 of 683 peers have a known therapeutic area; the rest are genuinely unlabeled, not hidden

Vaccines & Infectious Disease4
Oncology3
Respiratory1
Dermatology & Aesthetics1

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
Boehringer Ingelheim Ingelheim, Germany Principal
Same function Same seniority Same country
60%similar
Boehringer Ingelheim Ingelheim, Germany Principal
Same function Same seniority Same country
50%similar
AbbVie Ludwigshafen, RP Senior
Same function Adjacent seniority Same country
50%similar
BioNTech Mainz, Germany Director
Same function Adjacent seniority Same country
50%similar
BioNTech Mainz, Germany Director
Same function Adjacent seniority Same country
50%similar
BioNTech Mainz, Germany Director
Same function Adjacent seniority Same country

Notify me about similar jobs

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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 Expert Packaging (m/w/d) (Ingelheim, Germany, Rheinland-Pfalz)
Boehringer Ingelheim · Ingelheim, Germany · Principal
Function Therapeutic area Seniority Country
50%
Director Manufacturing Sciences & Technology (Mainz, RP, DE, 55116)
BioNTech · Mainz, Germany · Director
Function Therapeutic area Adjacent seniority Country
50%
Director External Supply Organization (Mainz, RP, DE, 55131)
BioNTech · Mainz, Germany · Director
Function Therapeutic area Adjacent seniority Country
50%
Director Global Supply Chain Compliance (Mainz, RP, DE, 55131)
BioNTech · Mainz, Germany · Director
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.