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. 

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. 

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 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 (AMECA), Black Employees at Lilly (BE@Lilly), Chinese Culture Network (CCN), EnAble, Evolve, Lilly Indian Network (LIN), Organization of Latinx at Lilly (OLA), Pride (LGBTQ+ Allies), Veterans Leadership Network (VLN) and Women’s Initiative for Leading at Lilly (WILL).

Actual compensation will depend on a candidate’s education, experience, skills, and geographic location.  The anticipated wage for this position is

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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