Director - Identity Operations Service

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.

About the Role

We’re looking for an Identity Operations Service Lead to bring fresh perspectives and bold solutions to our team. In this role, you’ll be instrumental in shaping how our organization provides secure, appropriate, and timely access to enterprise resources and be a catalyst to drive our Identity and Access Management strategy.

The Identity Operations Service Lead is a leadership role responsible for the strategic direction and technology roadmap of the team that operates the company’s 24/7 identity platforms and services. This role will focus on the vision, tooling, and processes that shape how Identity operations run today and evolve tomorrow. This role will work closely with the Associate Director of Identity Operations who leads the day-to-day execution of operations, to deliver operational excellence across our Identity ecosystem. This role will lead the US portion of our distributed team and be a senior escalation point when incidents demand it.

Responsibilities

• Team Leadership & Management (US Operations Team)
  • Directly lead and develop the US-based Identity Operations team, including hiring, coaching, career development, and performance management.
  • Partner with the Associate Director of Identity Operations to ensure the US team operates as part of an aligned global operations organization.
  • Foster a culture focused on security, innovation, automation, continuous learning, and operational rigor.
  • Identify critical skill gaps on the US team and develop strategies to attract, retain, and upskill talent.
  • Cultivate a diverse and inclusive team that fosters different perspectives and backgrounds.
• Operations Strategy And Technology
  • Own the strategic vision and multi-year roadmap for Identity Operations helping to drive processes and technology to meet business and security needs.
  • Establish and maintain the framework for operational tooling and architecture.
  • Define technology strategy for the Operations toolset (monitoring, alerting, patching, automation, and orchestration platforms), including lifecycle management, vulnerability management, and vendor strategy for tools supporting Operations.
  • Champion the adoption of automation, agentic AI, and CI/CD practices within Operations to reduce manual toil and drive continuous operational improvement.
  • Propose design improvements to organizational change and problem management processes ensuring rigor and continuous improvement across the operations organization.
  • Influence and provide support for mechanisms to translate incident and problem trends into strategic backlog items and long-term process or technology improvements.
• Major Incident Management
  • Serve as a senior escalation point in support of the Associate Director of Identity Operations for identity service incidents.
  • Provide decision-making support during high-priority incidents and executive-level communication.
  • Partner on post-incident reviews, with a focus on identifying systemic gaps in operations processes, tooling, and governance, and driving those takeaways into the strategic roadmap.
• Collaborator Engagement
  • Partner with the Identity Service leads, Architects, and other Cybersecurity leaders to ensure Operations strategy aligns with the broader identity services strategy.
  • Represent Operations strategy and priorities in cross-functional and leadership forums.
  • Engage with vendors on strategic partnerships supporting Operations platforms and tooling.
• Compliance & Risk Management
  • Ensure Operations governance processes and controls support compliance with regulatory and industry requirements.
  • Own coordination of audit response for the Operations governance domain, partnering with the Associate Director of Identity Operations on execution.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Cybersecurity, Engineering, or a related technical field.
• At least 8 years of demonstrated ability in Identity and Access Management.
• At least 8 years of demonstrated ability in an enterprise IT operational support organization.
• 5+ years of people management experience leading technical teams, ideally in a 24/7 operations environment.
• 3+ years of demonstrated ability defining and driving operations governance, technology strategy, and roadmap planning.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with IT service management (ITIL); ITIL certification preferred.
• Strong knowledge of Identity and Access Management capabilities and technologies (e.g., SailPoint, CyberArk, Microsoft Entra ID, Okta, PKI).
• Proven ability to lead high-performing teams within a global, distributed organization.
• Relevant certifications such as CISSP, CISM, or equivalent preferred.
• Strong eye for business combined with technical depth to influence and drive outcomes.
• Excellent collaborator management, communication, and leadership skills.

Schedule

Remote with travel to Indianapolis - 10-25%. Local candidates will work a flexible hybrid work model, with three days onsite and two days working remotely each week, supporting both collaboration and work-life balance.

Pay

The anticipated wage for this position is $162,000 - $292,600. Full-time equivalent employees also will be eligible for a company bonus (depending, in part, on company and individual performance).

Benefits

• Comprehensive benefit program including eligibility to participate in a company-sponsored 401(k) and 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.
• Well-being benefits (e.g., employee assistance program, fitness benefits, and employee clubs and activities).