Sr Operations Manager, AI&R Office

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, everything we do starts with patients. We unite caring with discovery to make life better for people around the world. Headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana, our global team of over 50,000 employees work with urgency and purpose to discover and deliver life-changing medicines, strengthen how health is understood and managed, and support the communities we serve. We bring our best to this work because people depend on it. If you're driven by purpose and determined to make a meaningful difference for patients, we invite you to bring your skill and your commitment to Lilly.

About Technology@Lilly

At Lilly, technology is not a support function. It is how a global medicine company operates, innovates, and delivers. Lilly in Bengaluru builds the capabilities that make this possible, cloud platforms, AI systems, and automation at enterprise scale, all in service of a purpose that makes this technology work genuinely distinctive, from advancing drug discovery to enabling connected clinical trials to keeping a global medicine company running at the standard patients deserve.

Sr Operations Manager, AI&R Office  

At Lilly, we believe in the talent of our workforce. One of the best ways to utilize and develop that talent is to use our existing workforce to fill new and/or open positions. If you are looking for a new position within Lilly, you can view and apply to open roles posted in the internal job posting system. You must meet the minimum qualifications outlined in the job description and have/obtain work authorization in the country the position is located in order to be considered. When applying internally for a position, your current supervisor will receive notification that you have applied to the position. We encourage employees to discuss the opportunity with their supervisor prior to applying.   

Path/Level 

P3 

 
Role Summary  

Run the operational backbone of the AI&R function, spanning across headcount, financials, vendor, reporting, process documentation and internal communications.  

Key Responsibilities 

• Workforce and organisation data. Maintain headcount tracking against approved plan across employees and contractors; keep org charts, role mappings, and position status current; coordinate onboarding and offboarding logistics with HR and hiring managers. 

• Contractor operations. Own the full contractor lifecycle, demand intake, onboarding and system access, extensions, rate and utilisation tracking, offboarding, and compliance with Lilly contingent-workforce policy. 

• Procurement operations. Drive procure-to-pay end to end, including sourcing requests, vendor onboarding and third-party risk review, PO creation, goods receipting, invoice tracking and issue resolution, SOW and renewal timelines. 

• Operational dashboards. Build and maintain the function’s reporting layer covering headcount, spend, vendor and license position, and delivery metrics; keep data current and definitions consistent so numbers hold up under scrutiny. 

• Leadership reporting. Consolidate status from multiple workstreams into leadership-ready reporting,  business reviews, governance decks, executive updates, writing the synthesis rather than forwarding raw submissions. 

• Process documentation. Author and maintain SOPs, RACI matrices, and process maps for how the function operates; drive adoption, review cycles, and continuous improvement of those processes. 

• Knowledge management. Own the information architecture, SharePoint and Teams site structure, document repositories, naming and version conventions, access governance so material stays findable and current. 

• Internal communications and engagement. Produce newsletters, town halls, and leadership updates reaching the whole team; run the leadership operating rhythm (agendas, decision logs, action tracking) and deliver offsites and engagement events. 

• Leader support. Provide targeted support to the Senior Director for priority scheduling and engagement logistics. This is a secondary component of the role 

Minimum Requirements 

• Bachelor’s degree in business, engineering, commerce, or a related discipline. 

• 10+ years in business operations, functional operations, or PMO roles 

• Hands-on procure-to-pay and vendor management experience in an enterprise platform (SAP, Ariba), including software and subscription procurement. 

• Proven experience managing contingent workforce operations at scale, onboarding, tracking, and compliance across multiple suppliers. 

• Ability to build and maintain operational dashboards independently and to define metrics that survive leadership challenge. 

• Strong written English; able to produce leadership-ready narrative and whole-team communications without editing support. 

• Proven discretion with confidential people, financial, and strategy information; sound judgement under ambiguity. 

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS 

• MBA or postgraduate qualification in business, operations, or management. 

• Experience supporting AI, data science, or R&D technology functions — including familiarity with cloud compute, GPU capacity, and data or model licensing commercials. 

• Prior experience in pharmaceutical or life sciences, ideally within a global capability centre in India. 

Additional Information  

• Up to 10% travel, including international  

• Note: When applying internally for a position your current supervisor receives notification that you have applied to the position. We encourage employees to discuss the opportunity with their supervisor prior to applying.  

• Lilly does not discriminate on the basis of age, race, colour, religion, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, national origin, protected veteran status, disability or any other legally protected status.  

• #WeAreLilly  

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.