Sr. Director, COO Strategy & Operations - GPS Capabilities

Primary Responsibilities

• Serve as the day-to-day operational lead for the PV Affiliate Centralization initiative, managing the program timeline, milestone tracking, risk escalation, and cross-functional dependencies across a 24+ month phased implementation.
• Coordinate stakeholder engagement activities across twelve identified stakeholder groups, including International Business Unit General Managers, Country General Managers, affiliate PV staff, HR, Legal, Works Councils, and Finance, ensuring alignment with the approved stakeholder analysis and communication cadence.
• Drive change management execution in partnership with HR and organizational development, including workforce transition planning, role mapping, retention strategies, and cultural integration for approximately 40–60 affiliate PV FTEs across EMEA, APAC, LATAM, Canada, Japan, and other international markets.
• Prepare and maintain executive-level program dashboards, status reports, and decision documents for GPS Capabilities leadership, the SVP of Global Patient Safety, and International Business Unit leadership.
• Manage program governance cadence, including steering committee meetings, working group coordination, and escalation protocols to ensure timely resolution of issues and risks.
• Own the GPS Capabilities operations budget, ensuring cost-effective allocation of resources across internal teams, regional hubs, and third-party vendor partners.
• Oversee headcount planning and workforce management for GPS Capabilities, balancing internal staff and outsourced vendors to meet operational, compliance, and regulatory demands.
• Collaborate with Finance and Procurement to forecast resource needs, justify budgetary requirements, and manage vendor contracts and performance for case management and PV operations partners.
• Provide leadership for annual business planning activities, including coordination of timelines, templates, prioritization, and trade-off decisions.
• Drive the creation and execution of the GPS Capabilities strategic roadmap, ensuring alignment with the overarching GPS-wide strategy and long-range business plan.
• Establish priorities and make strategic trade-offs in partnership with the GPS Capabilities leadership team to meet business objectives while managing financial and human resource investments.
• Foster connectivity between GPS Capabilities sub-functions, GPS Operations, Safety Science, CPQA, Tech@Lilly, Regulatory Affairs, Legal, and International Business Units to align strategic goals and execution.
• Support the AVP of GPS Capabilities on strategic initiatives including competitive benchmarking, business case development, and executive board pre-read preparation.
• Monitor external regulatory trends, industry direction, and peer company benchmarks for incorporation into GPS Capabilities strategies and the PV centralization program.

Communication, Reporting, and Leadership Support

• Own the preparation of materials for key meetings, including business reviews, executive briefings, board pre-reads, town halls, and International Business Unit leadership communications.
• Compile and facilitate review of GPS Capabilities key performance metrics and dashboards with the AVP and GPS leadership.
• Manage GPS Capabilities governance meetings (Lead Team, functional town halls, cross-functional working groups) with respect to agenda content, meeting management, action items, and follow-ups.
• Draft executive-level communications on behalf of GPS Capabilities leadership, including stakeholder update emails, strategic narratives, and change communication materials for the PV centralization initiative.
• Manage onboarding plans for new members joining GPS Capabilities and support organizational culture-building initiatives.

Operational Excellence and Continuous Improvement

• Ensure effective support processes are in place to quickly resolve issues, trend proactively, prevent operational disruptions, and identify opportunities to improve team performance.
• Maintain risk management and crisis response strategies, including GPS Business Continuity Plan inputs and scenario planning for the centralization transition.
• Identify and develop strategies to drive adoption of the GPS Capabilities organizational identity, culture, and behaviors across GPS and the broader Lilly enterprise.
• Leverage opportunities to increase awareness of GPS Capabilities’ strategic contributions and reputation across Lilly Research Laboratories, International Business Units, and corporate functions.
• Integrate Team Lilly, Diversity & Inclusion, and GPS-wide improvement initiatives within the GPS Capabilities function.