Global Automation Project Lead/Advisor - Drug Product

About the role

The Automation Project Lead/Advisor is a senior individual contributor member of Global Process Automation & Control Engineering (GPACE), part of Lilly’s Corporate Engineering Technology Center (ETC), with a primary focus on the Parenteral Drug Network (PDN). This role provides technical expertise, program leadership, and discipline stewardship for automation across the Global Parenteral Network.

Responsibilities

• Provide enterprise-level technical and discipline leadership for automation across the Global Parenteral Network; set the strategic direction for automation standards, architecture, and technology; own and govern tools, engineering standards, master specifications, and best practices for the PDN automation discipline; lead communities of practice and facilitate shared learning; and provide authoritative direction during project conceptual stages and profiling, ensuring design meets intended requirements, considers life cycle cost, and eliminates non-value-add complexity.
• Lead the design and delivery of automation for complex major capital projects across the Global Parenteral Network, providing authoritative project execution directive and governing the Design Delivery Gate Review process; lead and approve delivery strategies, quality assessments, and CSV and C&Q verification plans; resolve technical issues; and partner with GFD, A&E firms, and outsource partners to ensure successful Automation Project Management structures are in place across the PDN portfolio.
• Successfully direct programs involving multiple groups, projects, and locations across the Global Parenteral Network automation portfolio; provide technical mentoring and career development coaching to engineers at all levels within GPACE, including Automation Engineers, Automation Leads, and Automation Program Leads; ability to resolve the most complex technical and project conflicts among senior stakeholders; champion health and safety, diversity and inclusion, ethics, and compliance; and influence throughout the organization to embed automation best practices and raise the collective capability of the PDN automation engineering community.
• Work safely and continually improve both people and equipment safety; champion health and safety, ethics, and compliance in all activities; coach and mentor others within GPACE and at project sites; and demonstrate the ability to work across multiple cultures and organizations, building strong cross-functional relationships with sites, Corporate Engineering, Tech@Lilly, Global Quality, and strategic external partners.

Qualifications

• BS degree in Engineering or related science field
• Minimum 10 years of process automation or process control experience in pharmaceuticals with demonstrated experience in Rockwell Automation platforms
• Experience directing multi-program portfolios across global project and manufacturing teams

Skills

• Experience in Drug Product (Parenteral) manufacturing automation is strongly preferred, including demonstrated expertise across multiple PDN platforms (filling, formulation, freeze drying, cartridge, vial, PFS, equipment preparation)
• Experience governing the Design Delivery Gate Review process and authorization of delivery strategies, SOWs, and CSV/C&Q verification plans
• Experience owning automation standards, master specifications, and best practices for a global parenteral manufacturing network, with a demonstrated track record of driving replication, governance, and continuous improvement across the PDN automation portfolio
• Experience extracting benchmarking information from academia and industry and translating external innovation and technology trends into proof-of-concept demonstrations and strategic direction for the Global Parenteral Network automation program
• Demonstrated experience providing technical mentoring and career development coaching to automation engineers at multiple career levels (Engineer, Lead, Program Lead)