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.
The Associate Director is a strategic leader responsible for overseeing Maintenance, Repair, and Operations (MRO) inventory management, warehousing, logistics, and Global Equipment Disposition. This role is pivotal in driving operational excellence and ensuring seamless integration across all North America sites-both new and existing. The Associate Director will lead the development and optimization of MRO strategies, supporting the growth of new facilities, while enhancing the efficiency and sustainability of established operations. The role also manages asset lifecycle, from optimizing the redeployment, resale, and donation of surplus equipment.
The director provides leadership and administrative management, including direct supervisory responsibilities for a leadership team. Organizationally, the director is responsible for a team of approximately 15 Lilly resources, network partners, and manages an operational budget. This position demands a strong technical acumen, with a focus on leveraging data analytics, advanced technologies, and lean methodologies to drive improvements, cost savings, and compliance across all operations. Leadership in cross-functional collaboration is essential, working closely with manufacturing, engineering, supply chain, finance, HSE, GFD, and environmental teams to ensure that all MRO processes and asset management systems meet industry-leading standards.
Key Objectives/Deliverables: MRO Optimization & Leadership: Oversee and continuously improve MRO inventory management, including warehousing, procurement, logistics, and vendor management. Ensure integration of MRO processes with production and facility maintenance operations across both new and existing North America sites, ensuring scalability, consistency, and operational excellence at all locations.
- The director develops and leads the implementation of work unit objectives that align and support company priorities, organizational and customer business objectives and goals.
- The director develops and leads the execution of business plans that will enable the department to achieve goals and objectives to include one-to-three-year forecasting plans. The business plans include resource, expense and capital projections as well as specific business initiatives for continuous improvement.
- The director executes the PM process to align employee and business objectives, clearly identifies performance expectations, and establishes individual employee development plans. The director provides coaching and feedback throughout the process that encourages success and professional growth.
- The director develops and implements processes that encourage an external focus by building relationships with other companies to benchmark best practices, industry trends, technologies and capabilities. The director creates partnerships with service providers to ensure technical capabilities and services are available that will provide consistent delivery of products and competitive pricing for our customers.
Support for New and Existing Sites: Play a critical role in supporting the growth and operational optimization of both new North American facilities and established sites. Work collaboratively with teams to design and implement MRO strategies at new locations, while refining and enhancing MRO systems at existing sites to improve efficiency, reduce costs, and ensure standardization.
Data-Driven Decision Making: Utilize advanced data analytics to drive operational decisions, predict demand trends, and optimize MRO processes. Leverage technology to enhance real-time tracking and performance monitoring across all sites, enabling proactive decision-making and issue resolution.
Vendor Management & Integration: Lead the selection, management, and optimization of key vendor relationships. Support the integration of new suppliers and service providers into MRO and equipment disposition processes, ensuring optimal performance, cost efficiency, and compliance with organizational standards. Champion the use of technology for enhanced vendor collaboration and supply chain visibility.
Global Equipment Disposition: Oversee all aspects of the Global Equipment Disposition process, including the redeployment, resale, and donation of surplus assets. Ensure asset lifecycle management is aligned with regulatory standards and maximizes value through an effective and compliant disposition strategy.
Compliance & Regulatory Adherence: Ensure adherence to safety, regulatory, and quality standards for MRO operations and asset management processes across all sites. Lead efforts to maintain compliance with industry regulations, corporate policies, and environmental requirements.
- Ensures that all work is performed in a compliant manner utilizing all applicable regulations, procedures, policies, and processes. This includes Red Book, FRAP, Travel, etc.
- Ensures that each member of the department receives and completes the appropriate training and certifications.
- Provides work groups with the appropriate safety equipment and ensures that all equipment is good working order.
- Recognizes safe behaviors and addresses unsafe behaviors.
- Participates in accident and near miss reviews.
Cross-Functional Collaboration: Collaborate closely with manufacturing, engineering, supply chain, finance, HSE, GFD, and environmental teams to align MRO and equipment management strategies with broader corporate objectives. Lead and influence cross-functional teams to foster a unified approach to operational efficiency and cost savings.
Continuous Improvement & Lean Methodologies: Implement and promote lean methodologies and continuous improvement initiatives within the MRO and equipment disposition processes. Drive operational excellence by reducing waste, increasing efficiency, and enhancing overall service levels.
Basic Qualifications:- Bachelor's degree in Engineering, Supply Chain Management, Business Administration, or related field.
- 5-10 years of experience in engineering, facilities maintenance, and/or utilities operations with demonstrated skills and abilities in leadership required.
- Site experience in pharmaceutical facilities operations.
Additional Preferences:- Excellent verbal and written communication skills.
- Proven experience in MRO inventory management, logistics, and global equipment disposition.
- Expertise in supply chain optimization, vendor management, and cost control.
- Strong leadership skills with a track record of successfully managing MRO operations at both new and established sites.
- Ability to collaborate and influence at all levels, including senior leadership and cross-functional teams.
Other Information: - Travel: The role requires occasional travel (10-15%) to North American sites, particularly for new site integration and supporting operational initiatives at established facilities.
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 ( ) 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
$118,500 - $173,800
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 . click apply for full job details