Position OverviewThe Oncology Business Unit (OBU) Medical Affairs organization is building a best-in-class patient advocacy and society relations function across a strategically important portfolio spanning breast cancer, lung and gynecologic malignancies, hematologic and genitourinary cancers, and a growing early-stage pipeline. The OBU is committed to ensuring the patient and provider voice is embedded in every stage of medical strategy, clinical development, and evidence generation.
The Senior Director, U.S. Advocacy and Society Relations is a dedicated advocacy and society relations lead. This individual builds and manages Lilly's corporate relationships with a portfolio of cancer patient advocacy organizations (PAOs), professional medical societies, and related coalitions, ensuring these relationships advance Lilly's innovation readiness priorities and position Lilly as a partner of choice for improving outcomes for people living with cancer.
This position reports to the Associate Vice President, Patient Advocacy and Professional Relations, OBU Medical Affairs, and serves as a primary point of connectivity for disease state team leads and cross-functional colleagues across Clinical Development, Global Medical Affairs, Commercial, Communications, and Government Affairs and Policy.
Position ResponsibilitiesThe Senior Director will support Lilly's goals to accelerate the reach and impact of the OBU portfolio and pipeline by managing a portfolio of patient advocacy and professional society relationships and their associated collaborations, sponsorships, and memberships. This individual will partner with the disease state teams and OBU advocacy leadership to advance innovation readiness strategic initiatives supporting the launch of key late-phase programs, line extensions, and other pipeline assets.
Primary responsibilities include:
Patient Advocacy and Professional Society Relationships- Build and sustain relationships with key cancer patient advocacy organizations and professional groups, identifying partnership opportunities and advocating for programs and policies that support the OBU portfolio.
- Serve as Lilly's relationship owner for key PAOs and manage engagement with professional societies at the organizational level, ensuring Lilly's scientific and medical contributions are appropriately represented in society programming and policy positions.
- Execute the OBU's tiered PAO engagement model, protecting core relationships from year-to-year prioritization volatility while enabling flexible activation at clinical and regulatory milestones.
- Represent Lilly's mission and values through customer engagements, including congresses, meetings, and Lilly-sponsored events.
- Execute memberships, sponsorships, and partnerships to grow brand equity and strengthen relationships, ensuring commitments and benefits are fulfilled.
Integration with OBU Disease State Teams- Serve as the advocacy and society relations partner to disease state team leads, ensuring PAO and society priorities are aligned with franchise medical strategy.
- Advance understanding of the science related to priority oncology disease states and molecules, and build internal understanding of customer priorities, positions on key issues, and other environmental factors relevant to the assigned disease area(s).
- Bring patient and provider community perspectives into clinical trial design, PRO endpoint discussions, and post-approval evidence communication for oncology assets, as appropriate.
- Address barriers to access for the oncology patient community through external relationships and collaborations.
Government Affairs and Policy Connectivity- Partner with Lilly's Government Affairs and Policy team to advocate for policies supportive of key oncology priorities, including clinical trial access, rare disease designations, and coverage policies.
- Keep Lilly's Government Affairs and Policy team informed of emerging PAO perspectives on access, coverage, and pricing, and identify opportunities for coordinated advocacy on oncology-relevant policy issues.
Funding, Governance, and Compliance- Manage sponsorships, memberships, and partnerships for the assigned oncology portfolio in alignment with company policies and OBU advocacy governance.
- Provide input to the OBU patient advocacy budget and annual prioritization recommendations based on disease state team input and external landscape assessment.
- Ensure all advocacy activities and financial relationships with PAOs comply with regulatory, legal, and ethical standards.
Internal Visibility, Communication, and Executive Support- Support executive engagement with key oncology organizations and at scientific congresses.
- Collaborate with the External Engagement team on post-congress event readouts and sentiment intelligence memos to keep internal partners informed of the external landscape.
- Support internal training and awareness to deepen employee understanding of the patient experience in oncology and to educate on patient advocacy best practices.
- Identify innovative opportunities to communicate the impact of oncology patient advocacy efforts to internal and external audiences.
Basic Qualifications- Bachelor's degree.
- 5+ years of experience working in or with patient advocacy and/or professional medical society organizations.
- Ability to travel up to 35%, including occasional weekend travel for major oncology congresses and PAO events.
- Qualified applicants must be authorized to work in the United States on a full-time basis. Lilly will not provide support for or sponsor work authorization or visas for this role, including but not limited to F-1 CPT, F-1 OPT, F-1 STEM OPT, J-1, H-1B, TN, O-1, E-3, H-1B1, or L-1.
Additional Skills and Preferences- Master's or advanced degree in health sciences, public health, public policy, or related field.
- Expertise working in the external environment to build relationships and advance policy or environment-shaping goals.
- Strong communication, leadership, and cross-functional collaboration skills.
- Specific passion for and knowledge of hematologic cancers preferred.
- Specific experience or established relationships in hematologic malignancies and with hematology advocacy organizations and/or professional societies preferred.
- Demonstrated resilience and a strong customer service orientation, with the ability to manage competing priorities and stakeholder expectations.
- Strong strategic thinking skills, with the ability translate strategy and business priorities into implementation tactics.
- Demonstrated relationship-building skills and the ability to influence others and lead without authority.
- Excellent written and oral communication skills; comfortable presenting to senior internal and external audiences.
- Experience working and communicating with executives.
- Proven success understanding, interacting with, partnering with, and influencing the decisions of external stakeholders.
- Experience or familiarity with healthcare policy and government affairs, particularly as it relates to access, coverage, and pricing, preferred.
- Understanding of the oncology policy landscape and its impact on business priorities.
- Extreme learning agility, with strong prioritization, problem-solving, and multi-tasking capabilities.
Additional Information- Domestic travel required (estimated up to 40%); occasional international travel possible depending on oncology congress calendar.
- Remote work is possible; candidate should be open to travel to Indianapolis for business-critical meetings and team engagements.
Actual compensation will depend on a candidate's education, experience, skills, and geographic location. The anticipated wage for this position is
$169,500 - $275,000
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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