Associate Director- Data Strategy and Operations

Location: IN: Lilly Bengaluru

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.

Position: GOSO Data Strategy & Governance Lead (P3 – Lead Consultant/Associate Director)

Company Overview

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 39,000 employees work to discover and bring life-changing medicines to those who need them, improve disease management, and give back to our communities through philanthropy and volunteerism. We bring our best to our work—and we put people first. We’re looking for individuals who are determined to make life better for people around the world.

Responsibilities

The GOSO Data Strategy & Governance Lead will report to the GOSO DSO Lead and will play a critical role in defining and operationalizing GOSO’s centralized data strategy. This role will ensure strong governance, enable One Data Spine expansion, and support high-quality, trusted data for downstream analytics, insights, and AI-driven capabilities across GOSO.

This role will also lead and mentor a small team, providing coaching, guidance, and skill development to strengthen the overall Data Spine organization.

Key Accountabilities

• Define and operationalize the GOSO-wide data strategy in partnership with Tech@Lilly, GOSO Functional Team (SFO, IC, DT, IBU, Medical) ensuring GOSO Data Platform supports all major GOSO data operational programs
• Establish and enforce data governance standards (quality rules, lineage, metadata, access controls) to reduce data silos and ensure consistent, high-integrity data across functions.
• Translate functional and business requirements into scalable, governed Data Spine implementations that support cross-functional analytics and insight-generation.
• Build and maintain AI-ready, governed data structures on AWS/Databricks to improve data consistency, availability, and readiness for advanced analytics.
• Serve as the primary point of contact for T@L on all data-related/tech initiatives, ensuring aligned priorities, transparent execution, and unified roadmap planning.
• Strengthen stakeholder alignment across GOSO Functions, T@L, and Enterprise Data teams to ensure predictable onboarding of new processes, tools, and data assets into GOSO Data Ecosystem.
• Identify opportunities to enhance data quality, streamline governance workflows, and reduce manual interventions through standardization and automation.
• Develop, mentor, and coach a small team of analysts/engineers, ensuring capability development, role clarity, and succession readiness.

Expected Business Outcomes

• Delivery of high-integrity, well-governed data that supports consistent analyses across IC, SFO, DT, IBU, Medical, and other functional teams.
• Increased readiness and availability of standardized datasets required for advanced analytics and automation initiatives.
• Significant reduction in manual operational effort through governance-led centralization, improved mastering, and process simplification.
• Strong cross-team alignment between GOSO Functional teams, T@L, and Enterprise team, enabling smoother One Data Spine expansion and more predictable project delivery

Basic Qualifications / Technical Skills

• Bachelor’s Degree (preferably in Computer Science, Engineering, Data /AI related fields).
• 10+ years of experience in pharmaceutical commercial data engineering, data platforms and analytics ecosystem
• Strong understanding of data management, data governance, and cloud-based data architectures and pharma commercial ecosystems
• Practical experience with Databricks and AWS services (S3, EC2, RDS, Redshift), Databricks, and data engineering/AI best practices.
• Expertise in SQL and proficiency in R/Python
• Strong understanding of ETL/ELT processes and experience with tools such as AWS Glue/Databricks
• Ability to quickly assess upstream/downstream impacts for data and system changes
• Strong stakeholder management and prior experience operating in a matrixed global environment

Additional Skills/Preferences

• Strong learning agility and strategic thinking.
• Ability to influence without authority and navigate complex stakeholder landscapes.
• Experience leading small teams or mentoring junior resources.
• High motivation with a strong desire to drive quality, standardization, and operational excellence

Equal Opportunity Employer

Lilly is an EEO/Affirmative Action Employer and does not discriminate on the basis of race, gender, protected veteran status, disability, or any other legally protected status.

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.

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