Associate Director - QC Microbiology

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. Lilly is currently constructing an advanced manufacturing facility for monoclonal antibodies, and bioconjugates in Goochland County, Virginia.

This facility is intended to provide capacity for current and future products. This is a unique opportunity to be a part of the leadership team for the startup of a manufacturing site, and the successful candidate will help to build the organization, the facility and the culture to enable a successful startup into GMP manufacturing operations.

Position Overview: The QC Leader of Leaders builds and strengthens the QC leadership pipeline by cultivating Firstline Leaders and technical talent, shaping team capability through strategic hiring, development planning, and a coaching-centered management approach. This role steers multi-team QC operations to meet site production demands while championing operational excellence through global best practice adoption, financial stewardship, and a proactive commitment to compliance and inspection readiness.

This position requires technical knowledge and understanding of business linkages and drivers outside of one's own area, making decisions that impact customer service and the work unit's ability to meet performance objectives while identifying and solving a range of organizational, operational, and technical challenges. The role is accountable for the performance and results of one or more work units, influences internal and external customers and management, forecasts resource needs, manages allocated budgets, and contributes to business or technical plans with a time horizon of up to one year.

Responsibilities : Develop and lead Firstline QC Leaders and technical staff by recruiting and retaining high-quality talent, setting objectives and development plans aligned to departmental goals, providing ongoing coaching and feedback, and fostering a culture of trust, accountability, and continuous learning. Oversee and coordinate QC microbiology operations by proactively managing workloads, adjusting resources across teams, and engaging directly with personnel to address atypical results, equipment malfunctions, and other operational and/or technical issues to ensure production and supply needs are met.

Represent QC microbiology in cross-functional and global forums, share and adopt best practices to drive consistency and operational excellence, ensure inspection readiness through proactive compliance activities, and manage laboratory financial responsibilities including purchase orders and invoice approvals. Execute all Quality Control activities in a timely manner, in compliance with applicable SOPs, methods/protocols, good documentation practices, data integrity standards (ALCOA+), cGMPs, EHS requirements, chemical hygiene, and biosafety guidelines, maintaining an ongoing state of inspection readiness and providing support during audits and inspections as requested.

Identify and escalate atypical results and potential deviations, participate in root cause investigations and corrective/preventive actions, contribute to cross-functional teams and continuous improvement initiatives, and maintain training competencies to ensure only qualified work is performed. Provide primary QC microbiology coverage and technical guidance for the site until the full team is recruited, onboard, and qualified, including making operational decisions and escalating issues to site leadership, as appropriate.

Basic Requirements: Minimum of a bachelor's degree in a science, Engineering, or a related discipline. 5+ years of experience in a microbiology laboratory within a GMP-regulated QC environment. 5+ years of people leadership experience. Additional Skills/Preferences: Proven experience leading and developing first-level supervisors or team leads within a GMP-regulated QC environment, including talent recruitment, succession planning, and building leadership capability across multiple teams.

Demonstrated ability to manage operations across multiple QC work units simultaneously, balancing competing priorities and allocating resources to meet shifting production and supply demands. Experience representing QC in cross-functional and site-level forums, with a track record of influencing stakeholders in Manufacturing, Quality Assurance, and Regulatory to integrate QC considerations into broader site decisions.

Familiarity with laboratory budget management, including forecasting resource needs, managing purchase orders, and tracking expenditures against allocated budgets. Experience applying Lean, Six Sigma, or continuous improvement methodologies to drive operational excellence, standardization, and efficiency improvements across a QC organization.

Proficient in good documentation practices (GDP) and data integrity principles (ALCOA+). Proven ability to communicate and collaborate effectively with cross-functional teams Additional Information: Position Location: US: Richmond VA Travel Percentage (%): Minimal travel (10% or less) is expected after onboarding.

May include on-call support.