Senior Director, Lilly Ventures, APAC

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.

Eli Lilly is a leading global pharmaceutical company having achieved unprecedented R&D productivity with launch of twenty new medicines in a 10-year period. To sustain the advancing pipeline, Lilly is expanding efforts to access a constant stream of transformational external innovation, which will fuel and accelerate its premier discovery and development engines.

Lilly Ventures team has established long-term relationships with worlds’ leading Life Science Innovation Focused Funds to gain strong access and visibility to emerging science with a singular objective of Lilly’s portfolio entry. Lilly’s Ventures Investing team has three portfolios, namely, Therapeutics, Technology, and Impact funds, and deploys two investment tools of Fund partnerships and direct investments. This partnership model provides vast network to gain visibility to innovative science wherever and whenever it occurs, while direct investments provide a front-row seat to strategically chosen biotech’s in emerging areas of science.

As an integral group within Lilly’s Catalyze360 organization, Lilly’s Ventures Investing team works seamlessly with Lilly Ventures Science team with a global footprint and partners with Lilly Gateway Labs, best-in-class innovation hubs and ExploR&D with decades of enterprise learning and drug development expertise to serve as an investor and strategic partner to enable global biotech ecosystem.

To support expansion of Lilly Ventures global reach via implementation of Asia Pacific (APAC) strategy, we are seeking a Lilly Venture Senior Director, based in Singapore to be a leading member of the team. Initially, the primary geographic focus will be in Japan, Singapore, and Korea, with expansion into China and potentially India and Australia. This leadership role will focus on seeking Venture partnerships for early-stage science and Enterprise capabilities to accelerate late-stage science for portfolio delivery. This will include partnering within internal and external teams to ensure Lilly as a partner of choice for emerging scientific innovation.

Responsibilities in this critical role include identifying regional and cross-border Life Science Innovation focused Venture Capital firms, fund networks, fund performance and evaluation for Lilly partnership with a robust fund deal-flow for novel therapeutic modalities. In addition, deep knowledge with mapping and developing strategy based on emergent geographic trends in investment, scientific innovation, and overall bio ventures ecosystem is required.

As a member of a broader Catalyze360 Ventures team, the Senior Director role will partner with peers in Indianapolis, San Francisco, Boston, London, and APAC geographies. This role will have access to global ventures initiatives, fund governance structure, and operations. Role mandates sourcing and access to breakthrough science and networking with Lilly global R&D scientific leaders to meet current strategic scientific objectives. Because of the complexity and regional diversity in language and culture, Sr. Director is to have high EQ and strong judgement in technical and confidential discussions. Importantly, an in-depth understanding of the VC ecosystem combined with deep understanding of the drug discovery and development process to support both Lilly and partner(s) with competitive access to efficient approaches and opportunities of strategic interest is critical.

Responsibilities (include but not limited to):

• Building long-term trusted VC relationships and function as Lilly Ventures team representative with our key venture fund partners as well as internal peers and partners.
• Coordinating, triaging, and monitoring a VC deal flow portfolio of budding external project. Communicate the value of this external portfolio to internal partners, prioritizing ventures that have a strategic fit to Lilly and well-timed and effective communication / interface / influence with internal partners and decision makers across Lilly R&D and Business Units
• Meticulous, objective scientific assessment of novel external innovation opportunities including analysis of patents, scientific literature, and be able to lead probing discussions with internal Lilly scientists to identify key issues and have the appropriate expertise to resolve disputes.
• Actively engage and examine the local/regional innovation ecosystem for partnering, licensing and/or acquisition possibilities to augment innovation within Lilly R&D.
• Lead interactions with selected external organizations; represent Lilly strategies and needs to external organizations (companies, investment groups, and academic institutions)
• Mapping of the external competitive landscape and cultivating platforms for growth in new-to-Lilly indications or progressive technologies that could change treatment paradigms.
• Collaborate closely with peers across affiliates to ensure coordination of efforts and consistent communications to senior leadership.
• Exceptional business acumen, broad learning agility, and market knowledge
• Experience working with red CI and maintaining discretion in high-profile situations.

Basic Qualifications

• Ph.D./M.D. with M.B.A. in a subject area related to pharmaceutical drug discovery and development (e.g., Biochemistry, Chemistry, Pharmacology, Physiology, Cell Biology, Molecular Biology or Genetics, and novel modalities across Lilly TAs)
• 5+ years of demonstrated ability in the life sciences VC with global biopharmaceutical industry experience or related fields with a preference for additional experience working with small life science companies and/or venture capital firms.
• Strong scientific pedigree as evidenced by publications, patents, presentations is preferred.

Additional Skills/Preferences

• Outstanding EQ, CQ, problem-solving, analytical, project management, communication and leadership skills, ability to influence other without authority.
• Highly organized with initiative being able to multitask effectively with concurrent processing and implementation of active programs at various stages of evaluation and business discussions.
• Demonstrated expertise in biopharmaceutical drug discovery including familiarity with patents and trends shaping pharmaceutical innovation and business. Cross-functional knowledge of predominant drug discovery subject areas will be helpful.
• Experience of working in a sophisticated global matrix environment as well as leading the APAC regional effort.
• Established relationships across biotech/venture landscape (preferably in the Japan, Singapore, Korea, and/or China geographies) and have proven record to efficiently implement pipeline impacting transactions/projects.
• Demonstrated knowledge across multiple disease areas relevant to Lilly’s business.
• Demonstrated knowledge of the regional biotech and academic ecosystem with strong.
• Solid understanding of innovative technologies, knowledge of drug discovery processes and stages of projects and external deal structures.
• Outstanding interpersonal and negotiation skills and willingness/ability to deal with conflicts.
• Strong interpersonal and leadership skills with ability to represent Lilly at international meetings.
• Strong database, informatics, and digital literacy.

Additional Info:

Primary location is likely to be in Singapore.

Language expectations: At least bilingual with English and one other regional language.

Plan and organize regional visits in collaboration with Global Lilly Ventures and TA scientific leadership.

Ability to travel and work across time-zones.

Position is a blend of virtual workplace with on-site desk and IT support at Lilly sites.

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.

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