Senior Advisor – Discovery ADME Project Leader

Job Title: Senior Advisor – Discovery ADME Project Leader 

Organization Overview 

Lilly is a global healthcare leader headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana. Our 50,000 employees around the world work to discover and bring life-changing medicines to those who need them. At Lilly, the Discovery Investigative ADME, Toxicology and BioAnalytical Research team focuses on pre-clinical discovery using cutting-edge science and technology approaches to treat diseases with poor treatment options. 

Position Summary 

We are seeking an experienced, accomplished drug hunter as a Discovery ADME Project Leader.  The ideal candidate will provide deep mechanistic understanding of drug disposition, PK, and translational science, plus the ability to integrate biology, chemistry, and modeling.  Experience with Small Molecule Discovery and in project teams with Beyond-Rule-of-Five and pan-modality chemo-types is advantageous.  The successful candidate will bring exceptional scientific depth and acumen as an integral member of the project team to create bold Target Product Profiles, help establish design strategy and expectations, partner globally and cross-functionally and ensure teams are advancing The Right Molecule to The Right Study at The Right Time (our three R’s). 

Geography for this position is open to Indianapolis IN, Louisville CO or Boston MA. 

What You Will Do 

• Keep Safety as a priority. 

• Develop and execute integrated preclinical ADME strategies aligned with discovery stage, target product profile (TPP), design hypotheses being tested, and regulatory expectations. 

• Integrate ADME and pharmacology to enable translational simulations and modeling to support dose selection, design of PK/PD, efficacy and safety studies. 

• Define stage-, modality-, and issue-appropriate screening, decision funnels (in silico, in vitro, in vivo to translational modeling). 

• Guide compound design and optimization through data-driven design principles (clearance, permeability, solubility, DDI risk, transporter liabilities). 

• Serve as the ADME strategy and science single-point-of-accountability on cross-functional program teams, translating ADME findings into actional design and test hypotheses. 

• Collaborate closely with Medicinal Chemistry, DMPK, Toxicology, Pharmacology, and other Discovery Functions to drive high quality candidate selections.  Contribute to go/no-go decisions using quantitative PK/PD, IVIVE, and mechanistic interpretation. 

• Represent ADME in portfolio governance discussions and leadership reviews. 

• Implement procedures, assay innovation, and automation where appropriate.  Drive innovation in data reporting, knowledge management, and decision frameworks.  Seek and leverage AI and agentic tools where possible to pipeline data, interpret data and share results. 

• Maintain inspection-ready documentation and alignment with regulatory expectations. 

• Mentor, teach and grow junior scientists and contribute to functional capability building. 

Qualifications 

• PhD  in Pharmaceutical Sciences, pharmacokinetics, Pharmacometrics, Systems Pharmacology, Preclinical or Clinical Pharmacology, Drug Metabolism, Toxicology, Chemical Biology, or scientific field or 10+ years relevant experience.

• You have minimally 3+ years of post-graduation industry experience in a drug discovery environment, driving discovery teams and experience in the life cycle/flywheel (Design, Make, Test, Analyze) of a discovery project. 

• 3+ years experience in ADME/PKPD

Preferred Qualifications:

• Medicinal chemistry, and Toxicology principles is advantageous.  
• Exceptional written and verbal communication skills; ability to successfully navigate ambiguity and/or global cross-functional collaborations. 
• Demonstrated ability to translate complex technical concepts into strategic value for senior leadership and cross-functional partners. 

Lilly is dedicated to helping individuals with disabilities to actively engage in the workforce, ensuring equal opportunities when vying for positions.