Associate Vice President - Aging Research

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. This is hard, urgent, selfless work—but it’s work worth doing. If you’re driven by purpose and ready to bring your best to work that truly matters for patients, we invite you to join us. 

About Lilly

At Lilly, we unite caring with discovery to make life better for people worldwide. As a global healthcare leader headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana, we are committed to advancing innovation in areas of high unmet medical need. Mobility and Healthy Aging (MHA) is a new pillar within Cardiometabolic Research (CMR) built to address age-related loss of function in bone, muscle, joint and the biology of aging itself as a single connected scientific and clinical problem. This role offers the opportunity to shape strategy, drive impactful drug discovery and development programs, and contribute to Lilly's mission of scientific excellence and patient-centered care.

Position Summary

The Associate Vice President, Aging, owns Lilly's aging strategy within Mobility and Healthy Aging and is the senior scientific voice of that strategy both internally and externally. This leader is a deep expert in the biology of aging cellular senescence, proteostasis, mitochondrial dysfunction, chronic inflammation, epigenetic and molecular measures of biological age and brings that expertise to bear on the full breadth of the strategy: which mechanisms Lilly should pursue, which patients and settings it pursues them in, what capability the company needs to prosecute them, and how the aging position connects to the rest of the portfolio.

The role is accountable for the scientific credibility of every aging-directed target and asset in the MHA portfolio and for the harder translational question the field has not answered: how aging biology becomes a medicine with a definable patient population and a measurable endpoint. Because aging becomes visible as loss of function in tissue, this leader is expected to reason fluently across bone, muscle and joint biology, and to seek interventions that act on aging biology while producing benefit that compounds across those tissues. This leader is also expected to collaborate with scientists and leaders across Lilly to explore on new approaches to aging and age-related disorders.

Position Responsibilities

Scientific Leadership

• Own the scientific position of the Aging area: target credibility, mechanism, translational risk and model strategy across internal programs and external opportunities.

• Set and defend the scientific bar for aging-directed target entry and candidate selection, with rigorous separation of well-supported mechanisms

• Serve as the internal scientific authority on biological aging biomarkers, their validation status and their practical utility in development decisions.

• Help build, lead and develop a scientific team as the area grows, and shape the capabilities MHA needs in aging over time.

• Partner with the Bone, Muscle and Joint leads to ground aging mechanisms in tissue-level function, and with other Lilly therapeutic areas where aging biology intersects their portfolios.

• Ensure MHA has the assays, models and translational tools required to prosecute aging targets credibly, including judgment about which existing models are fit for purpose, where aged and functional in vivo systems are needed, and where new capability must be built.

Scientific Recognition and Influence

• Represent Lilly as a recognized scientific voice in aging biology and geroscience with key opinion leaders, academic centers, societies and consortia.

• Serve as the internal reference point on aging science across Lilly - the person research and commercial leadership come to when an aging-related question arises in any portfolio, inside MHA or outside it.

• Lead and participate in advisory boards, scientific sessions and external target reviews/diligence; help shape the field's direction rather than track it.

• Build and sustain the external scientific relationships that give Lilly early visibility into emerging aging science, including within the longevity biotech and investment ecosystem.

Strategy and Portfolio Leadership

• Own and shape Lilly's aging strategy within CMR, with explicit positions on which tissue and disease contexts convert aging mechanisms into approvable medicines, and on where we should and should not play.

• Bring clinical and regulatory judgment to the central constraint of the field: aging is not an approvable indication, and strategy must reflect that from target selection forward.

• Set the scientific frame for external opportunities in aging and support the colleagues who lead business development: define what a compelling opportunity looks like, assess it rigorously, advise on fit relative to internal programs, and ensure clean entry into the portfolio once secured.

• Prepare teams for governance interactions and communicate the strategy clearly to senior management and cross-functional partners.

• Serve on Joint Steering Committees or as board observer to shape the scientific direction of collaborations and new companies.

Basic Qualifications

• PhD or MD required, with a minimum of 10 years of experience in drug discovery and/or development in the pharmaceutical or biotechnology industry.
• Recognized scientific expertise in the biology of aging, demonstrated through a substantial record of peer-reviewed publications, invited presentations, and standing in the aging research community.

Additional Skills / Preferences

• Hands-on experience establishing, validating, and interpreting in vitro aging systems, such as cellular senescence and stress-induced models, replicative aging, primary and iPSC-derived cells from aged or disease donors, organoid and co-culture systems, and omics-based aging signatures (e.g., epigenetic clocks, transcriptomic and proteomic profiles).
• Hands-on experience with in vivo aging models, including naturally aged rodents, progeroid and genetic models, and diet- or injury-based models of age-related functional decline. This includes the ability to design studies that account for age, sex, strain, cohort size, and duration, and to interpret functional, histological, and molecular endpoints.
• Demonstrated ability to judge where the field’s standard readouts (e.g., senescence markers, epigenetic age, lifespan, healthspan measures) are and are not decision-grade, and to distinguish biomarkers of aging from biomarkers of mechanism or clinical benefit.
• Proven ability to develop target-specific flow schemes (screening cascades and critical paths) in the aging space - defining go/no-go criteria at each stage, sequencing in vitro to in vivo assays, selecting translatable pharmacodynamic markers, and building the data package needed to advance a target from hypothesis through candidate nomination and into the clinic.
• Thorough understanding of drug discovery and development, including regulatory and IP considerations, with a proven track record of contributions to INDs and/or NDAs.
• Demonstrated ability to think strategically across targets, patient populations, clinical development, and the regulatory environment. Scientific depth alone is not sufficient for this role.
• Track record of successfully leading, building, and developing scientific and or project teams in an industry setting.
• Established external network across academic aging centers, geroscience consortia and the longevity biotech ecosystem.

• Experience with biomarker strategy and qualification, particularly measures of biological age or functional reserve.

• Familiarity with the regulatory endpoint landscape for function and healthspan, and the practical implications of surrogate endpoint qualification.

• Demonstrated ability to drive results in a fast-paced matrix environment, including in newly formed organizations without established precedent or process.

• Experience translating dense scientific and clinical evidence into decision-grade recommendations for senior research and commercial leadership.

• Passionate learner who embraces new opportunities and entrepreneurial thinking; excellent written and verbal communication skills.

Travel

Up to 25% US/Global travel.

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 is proud to be an EEO Employer and does not discriminate on the basis of age, race, color, religion, gender identity, sex, gender expression, sexual orientation, genetic information, ancestry, national origin, protected veteran status, disability, or any other legally protected status.

Our employee resource groups (ERGs) offer strong support networks for their members and are open to all employees. Our current groups include: Africa, Middle East, Central Asia (AMECA), Black Employees at Lilly (BE@Lilly), Chinese Culture Network (CCN), EnAble, Evolve, Lilly Indian Network (LIN), Organization of Latinx at Lilly (OLA), Pride (LGBTQ+ Allies), Veterans Leadership Network (VLN) and Women’s Initiative for Leading at Lilly (WILL).

Actual compensation will depend on a candidate’s education, experience, skills, and geographic location.  The anticipated wage for this position is

$219,000 - $321,200

Full-time equivalent employees also will be eligible for a company bonus (depending, in part, on company and individual performance). In addition, Lilly offers a comprehensive benefit program to eligible employees, including eligibility to participate in a company-sponsored 401(k); 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; and well-being benefits (e.g., employee assistance program, fitness benefits, and employee clubs and activities).Lilly reserves the right to amend, modify, or terminate its compensation and benefit programs in its sole discretion and Lilly’s compensation practices and guidelines will apply regarding the details of any promotion or transfer of Lilly employees.

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