Senior Director - AI/ML Model Integration & Orchestration Engineering Lead

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.

Position Description

The Senior Director, AI/ML Model Integration & Orchestration Engineering Lead will serve as the technical lead for integrating and operationalizing AI/ML models within the Catalyze360 platform. This internally focused role is responsible for ensuring models are validated, qualified, and continuously improved through federated learning infrastructure, while also designing agent-orchestrated workflows that enable scalable and seamless end-user experiences.

You will lead efforts to define the internal model contribution process, including readiness criteria, validation pipelines, and release standards. Additionally, you will work closely with Tech @Lilly leads to ensure internal and contributed models are compatible with the federated learning system and production-grade workflows.
 

Key Responsibilities

• Model Integration and Validation

  • Define the internal framework for model contribution, qualification, and release

  • Own and maintain readiness, reproducibility, and validation standards to ensure model performance and integrity

  • Work with internal technical teams to align models with platform infrastructure and scientific requirements

• Workflow Orchestration and User Enablement

  • Design and iterate agent-orchestrated workflows for end-to-end and multi-step molecule evaluations

  • Collaborate with product and UX teams to evolve workflows into intuitive, "one-click" decision-making tools

  • Ensure technical reliability and scalability across workflows deployed in user environments

• Federated Learning Integration and Monitoring

  • Collaborate with Internal Tech @Lilly leads to integrate with federated learning infrastructure

  • Monitor and analyze model performance during federated training cycles, defining strategies for continuous learning

  • Develop feedback loops to inform model retraining and drive scientific performance improvement over time

• Data Harmonization and Training Preparation

  • Lead data harmonization initiatives to ensure external datasets can be effectively used for model training

  • Define preprocessing, metadata alignment, and transformation standards

  • Partner with external data sourcing leads to evaluate training-readiness of incoming data assets

• Cross-Functional Collaboration and Execution

  • Act as the primary technical liaison for internal ML teams contributing models to the platform

  • Collaborate with engineering, data science, and operations teams to ensure reliable execution of model orchestration and integration pipelines

  • Support strategic coordination with product leads to ensure that internal workflows match user needs and scientific objectives

Functional and Technical Expertise

• Expertise in AI/ML model development, evaluation, and production deployment

• Experience with federated learning systems, ML infrastructure, or agent-based orchestration tools

• Deep understanding of validation workflows, reproducibility pipelines, and release readiness criteria

• Strong experience working with biomedical or life sciences data, including data harmonization practices

Influence and Leadership

• Strategic thinker with a track record of building scalable systems for AI/ML integration

• Proven cross-functional collaborator with engineering, product, and science teams

• Able to operate across ambiguity and define frameworks for emerging and evolving systems

• Clear communicator and trusted technical partner for stakeholders across R&D and platform operations

Basic Qualifications

• PhD, MS, or equivalent in computer science, ML, computational biology, or a related technical field

• 5+ years of experience in ML model development, orchestration, or infrastructure strategy within life sciences or platform technology environments

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience in operationalizing contributed models from external sources and aligning them with internal validation and training workflows

• Prior experience designing agentic tools, orchestration pipelines, or ML automation workflows

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 Network, Black Employees at Lilly, Chinese Culture Network, Japanese International Leadership Network (JILN), Lilly India Network, Organization of Latinx at Lilly (OLA), PRIDE (LGBTQ+ Allies), Veterans Leadership Network (VLN), Women’s Initiative for Leading at Lilly (WILL), enAble (for people with disabilities). Learn more about all of our groups.

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

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.

#WeAreLilly