ABOUT THE ROLEAs a Design Manager at Lilly, you will lead people, set creative direction, and operate as a strategic partner to the business. You will be in the work, not above it. Design managers at Lilly are expected to contribute directly to the quality of what their teams produce while building the culture, structure, and processes that allow great design to happen consistently at scale. The people benefiting from that work are patients, caregivers, and the scientists trying to help them.
While all design managers at Lilly are expected to lead across both UX and visual craft, this role has a stronger lean toward visual and UI design. We are looking for someone who brings depth in visual systems, design language, and aesthetic direction, and who can model that standard for their team.
CORE RESPONSIBILITIES Great design leadership at Lilly starts here. These are the responsibilities we will expect from you:
- Lead with craft. You are expected to contribute directly to the quality of the work, not just review it from a distance.
- Establish and communicate creative vision that gives your team the strategic clarity to execute with confidence.
- Manage, mentor, and develop designers across levels, owning growth conversations, work quality, and day-to-day direction.
- Operate as a trusted strategic partner to product, engineering, and business stakeholders, positioning design as a strategic function, not a service.
- Evaluate and raise the bar on both UX and UI/Visual deliverables across your team's work. Hybrid craft capability is required at every level of this track.
- Attract, hire, and retain exceptional design talent. Build a team culture of craft excellence, honest feedback, and continuous learning.
- Run effective design operations: workload management, staffing, critique structure, and delivery processes that allow your team to do their best work.
- Set and uphold a high bar for visual quality across LillyDirect experiences, ensuring clarity, accessibility, polish, and system consistency across the portfolio.
- Stay hands-on across the work, contributing design direction and craft at the project level while managing others.
- Establish design direction across a workstream, ensuring teams have the clarity to execute with confidence.
- Operate as a trusted design partner to senior product and business stakeholders, shaping conversations beyond immediate project scope.
- Contribute directly to visual direction and execution while elevating the aesthetic standard across your team's work.
- Drive design system evolution and visual quality standards across your product area, modeling the level of craft you expect from others.
- Set the bar for visual craft in critique, ensuring every touchpoint reflects a coherent, high-quality brand expression.
- Lead hybrid product designers who are expected to operate across both UI and UX, with stronger emphasis on visual craft and execution quality.
Basic Requirements- Bachelor's degree in Design, Human-Computer Interaction, or a related field
- Or high school diploma/GED with 7+ years of equivalent practical experience
- 7+ years of experience in design, including 2+ years in a design leadership or management role
- A strong portfolio demonstrating personal craft depth alongside evidence of team leadership and quality elevation
- Qualified candidates must be legally authorized to be employed in the United States; Lilly does not anticipate providing sponsorship for employment visa status (e.g., H-1B or TN status) for this employment position
Additional Preferences- Hybrid craft capability: the ability to evaluate and give meaningful critique on both UX and UI/Visual work
- A track record of mentoring and developing designers, with evidence of growth in the people you have managed
- Strong communication and stakeholder management skills, with the ability to represent design at senior levels of the organization
Actual compensation will depend on a candidate's education, experience, skills, and geographic location. The anticipated wage for this position is
$141,000 - $246,400
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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