Senior Director, Focused Ultrasound Drug Delivery

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.

Organization Overview

The Drug Delivery group at Lilly studies physiological barriers across routes of administration to create novel, patient-centric delivery solutions, serving as a center of excellence in injection physiology, device ideation, novel drug delivery technologies across modalities and routes of administration, nanomedicine and targeted delivery, and connected devices/digital biomarkers.

Position Overview

This role anchors a growing technical capability in ultrasound-mediated delivery — spanning focused ultrasound (FUS) for deep-tissue and organ-specific targets as well as non-focused ultrasound approaches where spatial precision is not required for the target bioeffect — including microbubble/nanobubble-mediated bioeffects such as sonoporation and reversible barrier permeabilization, intended to enhance delivery of biologics and gene therapies across a range of deep and superficial tissue targets and emerging routes of administration.

We are seeking a senior technical leader to define and drive the scientific and translational strategy for this platform at Lilly, operating at the enterprise level: setting technical direction across programs, representing Lilly externally with academic, clinical, and regulatory stakeholders, and mentoring the next generation of engineers and scientists. The role carries accountability for translating ultrasound-mediated delivery science from mechanistic understanding into IND- and design-control-ready delivery platforms.

Key Responsibilities

• Define the scientific vision and multi-year technical strategy for ultrasound-mediated drug delivery, aligned with the group’s portfolio bets and enterprise R&D priorities, including build-vs-buy and external innovation decisions (licensing, partnerships, sponsored research).
• Serve as Lilly's internal and external technical authority on ultrasound (focused and non-focused) bioeffects, cavitation dynamics, and barrier permeabilization; lead cross-functional and cross-company teams to translate platform concepts from feasibility through design control, leveraging AI/ML-enabled simulation and data-analysis tools to accelerate technical decision-making.
• Build and leverage an external network of academic collaborators, consortia, and regulatory bodies (e.g., FDA, IEC/AIUM standards efforts); represent Lilly's ultrasound-mediated delivery work in publications, conferences, and regulatory or standards discussions.
• Design and oversee preclinical safety/bioeffect and efficacy study strategy with CRO and academic partners to de-risk IND-enabling and design-control decisions; champion breakthrough approaches and make data-driven, sometimes bold, decisions under scientific and technical ambiguity where no precedent exists.
• Actively mentor and coach engineers and scientists, including staff outside your direct reporting line; identify and help lead scientific or process improvements that draw on diverse thinking across DDCS's broader technical portfolio.
  
  
  

Basic Requirements

• Earned PhD in biomedical/mechanical engineering, bioacoustics, biophysics, or a related field.
• 8 years of relevant industry/translational experience in ultrasound-mediated bioeffects and drug/gene delivery
• Demonstrated depth in FUS physics (cavitation nucleation and dynamics, microbubble/nanobubble contrast agent behavior, and/or mechanisms of sonoporation-mediated permeability).
• Effective, hands-on use of AI/ML-enabled tools (e.g., large language models, computational modeling copilots, literature-synthesis or data-analysis assistants) to accelerate scientific research, technical writing, and translational planning
• Proven ability to lead, mentor, and develop technical talent, including staff outside a direct reporting line
• A publication and/or patent record demonstrating recognized technical contribution in ultrasound-mediated drug or gene delivery; and excellent scientific communication skills across technical/non-technical and internal/external audiences.
• Demonstrated ability to bridge preclinical mechanistic understanding of FUS bioeffects — or a directly comparable physical delivery mechanism — into IND-enabling or design-control-ready translational plans, supported by working knowledge of design controls and quality systems in a regulated industry
  
  
  

Additional Preferences

• Experience building and sustaining external scientific relationships (academic labs, consortia, key opinion leaders); comfort representing an organization's technical position externally.
• Experience with CAD, simulation, or acoustic modeling tools (e.g., k-Wave, COMSOL, or equivalent) is a plus but not required if compensated by deep mechanistic/biological expertise.
  
  
  

Additional Information

• Position Location: Boston, MA
• Travel Percentage (%): 10-15
  
  
  

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

$166,500 - $264,000

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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