Associate Director – Reliability

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 production of API molecules located in Houston, TX.  This facility is intended to provide APIs for current and future products, including new modalities.  This is a unique opportunity to be a part of the site technical team for the startup of a greenfield 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.

The Associate Director – Reliability provides leadership and direction to the reliability organization supporting Houston API manufacturing, ensuring that reliability deliverables are sufficiently resourced and qualified to support Small Molecule and Oligonucleotide production goals and the site business agenda. The role holder is directly responsible for the reliability technical programs, for the maintenance strategy executed by the maintenance organization, and for the analysis of equipment performance that drives its improvement.

During the project delivery and startup phase (expected 2029–2030), leadership roles will be fluid and dynamic, requiring significant collaboration and resilience as the site scales to full GMP manufacturing operations. Following startup, the role holder is responsible for the day-to-day effectiveness of maintenance support and for planning the function across a six to twelve month horizon.

 

Responsibilities:

The role holder will be, at a minimum, responsible for the following:

• Lead, supervise, and coach the maintenance organization, including maintenance supervisors, planner/schedulers, craft staff, and contract resources, completing performance management and development planning and ensuring staff are qualified, trained, and authorized to perform their assigned work.
• Own reliability staffing, including recruitment, resource planning, capability development, and succession planning, and build the organization, systems, and business processes required to support GMP operations, leveraging existing Lilly knowledge and practices while incorporating external experience and lean principles, and support the project team as they deliver the facility to the site organization.
• Develop and maintain the reliability technical programs, including the reliability roadmap, equipment criticality ranking, asset qualification monitoring, and the preventive and predictive maintenance strategy executed by the maintenance organization, ensuring equipment and facilities are maintained in a compliant and qualified state across the equipment lifecycle.
• Analyze equipment performance, work order history, failure coding, and downtime data to identify chronic and high-impact failures, and apply structured methodologies including Reliability Centered Maintenance (RCM), Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (FMEA), and Root Cause Analysis (RCA) to eliminate them.
• Lead the site asset performance review forum, bringing maintenance, operations, and engineering together to review reliability performance, prioritize improvement initiatives, and sanction changes to maintenance strategy.
• Own the Process Safety Management (PSM) program within the engineering scope, including the mechanical integrity strategy for covered equipment, resource assignment, metrics, and audit and action closure, and nurture a safety culture through personal actions and coaching of the team.
• Provide oversight of reliability related issues and improvement initiatives, review and approve relevant deviations and change controls affecting equipment reliability and qualified state, and provide reliability input to key functional groups and partners.
• Set and reinforce reliability standards in partnership with the engineering function and the Engineering Tech Center, and ensure compliance with corporate reliability performance expectations including the reliability roadmap, leveraging best practices from across the global engineering network.
• Identify, track, and report key indicators of reliability performance, support site governance through participation and leadership in cross-functional meetings and initiatives, and represent reliability in site expense, capital, and resource planning processes in compliance with the Financial Responsibility and Authorization Policy (FRAP).

Basic Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree in Engineering.
• 7+ years of experience in engineering, maintenance and/or reliability in a manufacturing environment.
• 3+ years of management or people leadership experience.

 

Additional Skills/Preferences:

• Previous experience in reliability engineering leadership at an FDA regulated, GMP, and Process Safety Management covered manufacturing site.
• Previous experience with active pharmaceutical ingredient manufacturing, including small molecule or oligonucleotide unit operations.
• Proficient in reliability analysis methods including Reliability Centered Maintenance, Failure Mode and Effects Analysis, Root Cause Analysis, and failure distribution analysis.
• Prior work with predictive maintenance technologies such as vibration analysis, thermography, oil analysis, and motor circuit testing, and with mechanical integrity programs for Process Safety Management covered equipment.
• Proficient in computerized maintenance management systems such as SAP or Maximo as a source of equipment history and failure data.
• Proven ability to build and sustain a team culture focused on a Safety First, Quality Always mindset, and to train, mentor, and develop engineers.
• Proven ability to make independent decisions and influence diverse groups across functions, and to provide innovative solutions that leverage ideas from other functional areas.

Additional Information:

• Occasional access to manufacturing and processing areas where personal protective equipment and gowning are required per applicable procedures.
• This position is associated with a new advanced manufacturing facility currently under construction; startup is expected between 2029 and 2030. During the project design and delivery phase, the role may partner with the corporate Global Facilities Delivery (GFD) organization on facility and equipment delivery, and transitions to a fully site-based function upon project completion.
• During the startup phase, role scope and responsibilities will be fluid and may evolve as the organization, facility, and site culture are built out.
• Position Location: US: Houston TX
• Travel Percentage (%): Travel up to 20% of the time; may include domestic and/or international travel.
• Shift Information: The standard schedule is Monday through Friday, days, with flexibility expected during the project delivery and startup phase. The role holder supports a 24/7 manufacturing operation, including on-call coverage outside standard hours as operations begin.
  

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

$123,000 - $180,400

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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