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.
About Lilly
At Lilly, everything we do starts with patients. We unite caring with discovery to make life better for people around the world. Headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana, our global team of over 50,000 employees work with urgency and purpose to discover and deliver life-changing medicines, strengthen how health is understood and managed, and support the communities we serve. We bring our best to this work because people depend on it. If you're driven by purpose and determined to make a meaningful difference for patients, we invite you to bring your skill and your commitment to Lilly.
About Lilly Research Labs, Bengaluru
At Lilly in Bengaluru, the research function works directly alongside Lilly's global teams to advance the science behind tomorrow's medicines. Whether through product research and development, computational modelling, data-driven experimentation, or the intelligence that shapes Lilly's external innovation strategy, the work here contributes to the pipeline that will determine which life-changing medicines reach patients across the globe.
Purpose of the Job
The External Innovation function which is comprised of the C360, Search and Evaluate and Corporate Business Development teams collectively manage Lilly's ecosystem of partnerships, investments, and acquisitions that accelerate our access to innovative therapies and technologies. The newly established Salesforce CRM platform serves as the source of truth for historical and current partnering conversations and thereby enables line of site across Search & Evaluate, Corporate Business Development, and venture teams.
The System Custodian will work with the System Owner as well as strategic stakeholders to enable the practical functionality and utility of the system to meet the primary needs of the system users. The system owner and custodian will have the primary accountability for platform governance, cross-team coordination, and alignment with broader External Innovation program objectives. Operating at the intersection of business needs and technical operations, the System Custodian ensures that platform capabilities evolve to serve the changing priorities of External Innovation stakeholders while maintaining system health, data integrity, and operational continuity.
The System Custodian works closely with the System Owner (Salesforce SME and technical authority) to translate business requirements into platform direction, drive strategic platform roadmap prioritization, maintain operational oversite and governance as well as coordinate across S&E, CBD, C360 and venture teams to maximize platform value.
Responsibilities
- Platform Governance & Roadmap Authority: Define and maintain governance frameworks, decision-making protocols, and prioritization criteria for platform enhancements, configuration changes, and technical debt; partner with the System Owner to evaluate and approve releases and major system changes in alignment with External Innovation strategy.
- Cross-Functional Stakeholder Coordination: Coordinate platform priorities and release schedules across Catalyze360, Search & Evaluate, and Corporate Business Development teams; resolve competing stakeholder needs and ensure platform direction reflects the broader External Innovation portfolio.
- Stakeholder Engagement & Communication: Maintain structured engagement with External Innovation teams and subject matter experts to surface evolving business needs, communicate platform capabilities and constraints, and translate feedback into actionable platform guidance.
- Platform Operations & Data Integrity: Collaborate with Salesforce administration to define and prioritize configuration changes, reporting enhancements, and system optimizations; establish and enforce data quality standards, metadata governance, and information architecture protocols to ensure reliability for downstream analysis and decision-making.
- Platform Health, Adoption & Continuous Improvement: Monitor adoption trends, platform health metrics, and user satisfaction; identify and escalate risks to uptime, data quality, or regulatory compliance; track business outcomes and drive continuous improvement based on stakeholder feedback and lessons learned.
- Knowledge Transfer & Internal Capability Building: Lead structured knowledge transfer initiatives to document platform architecture, governance decisions, and operational runbooks; build internal Lilly ownership and reduce dependency on external vendors and professional services over time.
- Business Value Realization: Define and track key performance indicators for platform adoption, user experience, and business impact; identify opportunities to increase platform value and communicate progress against strategic objectives to leadership stakeholders.
Basic Qualifications/Requirements
- Bachelor's degree in Life Science, Information Systems, Computer Science, or a related field; Master's degree preferred.
- 7+ years of experience in platform operations, systems governance, or technology-enabled business operations, with at least 3 years managing a Salesforce instance in a post-implementation or operational phase.
- Demonstrated experience translating business requirements from cross-functional stakeholders across multiple business units into documented Salesforce configuration specifications, workflows, or governance policies.
- Proven ability to manage multiple concurrent platform projects to defined timelines and success metrics in a matrixed, international organization.
- Clear written and verbal communication skills, with experience producing documentation and presenting platform guidance to both technical teams and non-technical leadership audiences.
Additional Skills/Preferences
- Salesforce Administrator certification or equivalent hands-on configuration experience, including familiarity with data governance frameworks, metadata management, and platform roadmap prioritization.
- Experience in pharmaceutical, biotech, or life sciences R&D operations, with exposure to external innovation strategies or business development partnerships.
- Background managing vendor relationships and professional services engagements, including scope definition, delivery accountability, and agile or iterative implementation methodologies.
- Demonstrated ability to lead without direct authority — building credibility across organizational levels, influencing peer groups, and driving alignment in ambiguous or fast-changing environments.
- Self-directed and adaptable, with a track record of translating unclear requirements into actionable direction through structured stakeholder engagement and a continuous improvement mindset.
Additional Information
Note: When applying internally for a position your current supervisor receives notification that you have applied to the position. We encourage employees to discuss the opportunity with their supervisor prior to applying.
At Lilly, caring is not only what we do for patients. It is how we work. We believe the people who dedicate themselves to making medicines better deserve an environment that makes their lives better too, one where they are supported, respected, and given the space to do their best work. This is not just a policy. It is who we are.
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 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.
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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