At Lilly, we unite caring with discovery to make life better for people around the world. We are a global healthcare leader headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana. Our employees around the world work to discover and bring life-changing medicines to those who need them, improve the understanding and management of disease, and give back to our communities through philanthropy and volunteerism. We give our best effort to our work, and we put people first. We’re looking for people who are determined to make life better for people around the world.
We are seeking an exceptional operational leader to help drive the transformation of Lilly’s Global Legal Function, establishing the most forward-thinking, highest-functioning legal department in the world. This vision requires redefining how our 500+ legal & compliance professionals work through intelligent AI integration and automation across all practice areas. The Senior Director of Legal Transformation Operations will translate existing strategies into executable roadmaps and lead sustainable change across our legal organization.
This role requires orchestrating the embedding of hybrid technical-legal experts within each Legal tower while building the operational infrastructure to ensure lasting transformation. The ideal candidate has a consistent track record of turning innovative concepts into driven realities with hands-on technology work, building their own tooling from scratch at some point. They can manage complex customer environments and drive adoption of new technologies and workflows in traditional corporate settings. In this role, you will demonstrate both your critical thinking and operational excellence to transform our legal function into a modern, technology-enabled organization that delivers exceptional value to the business.

BASIC REQUIREMENTS:

• Experience: 7+ years of experience with at least 3 years leading major transformation initiatives. Proven track record of driving technology-enabled change in legal, regulatory, or similarly traditional environments. Experience leading distributed teams and matrix organizations with demonstrated success translating visionary strategies into driven realities.
• Technical Knowledge: Familiarity with technology landscape including AI, automation, and analytics solutions.
• Education: Bachelor’s degree required. MBA, JD, or advanced degree in related field preferred.
• 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 and/or visas for this role.

ADDITIONAL SKILLS/PREFERENCES:

• Leadership & Communication: Exceptional program orchestration abilities with attention to both detail and big picture. Outstanding communication skills with ability to influence without direct authority. Proven track record to navigate sophisticated partner environments and corporate politics.
• Industry Expertise: Prior experience in Big 4 legal transformation consulting or corporate legal operations leadership. Background in Fortune 500 legal departments with global operations. Track record of successful partnerships with technology vendors and consultants.
• Innovation: Experience working within innovation-focused teams or transformation offices. Demonstrated interest in emerging technologies and their application to legal operations. Track record of identifying and scaling successful pilot programs.
• Technical Passion: You love technology and making it accessible to others. You’ve tried coding in the past – even if it didn’t stick – and are comfy talking to deeply technology-focused folks.
• Organizational Change Credentials: Formal training or certification in organizational change management. Experience with both agile and traditional project management approaches. Knowledge of legal-specific change adoption challenges.
• Cross-Functional Insight: Experience collaborating with enterprise PMOs and technology organizations. Understanding of how legal transformation fits within broader digital transformation initiatives. Ability to leverage enterprise resources for legal-specific needs.
• Strategic Vision: A proven ability to balance immediate execution needs with long-term transformation goals. Experience building transformation capabilities that scale with organizational growth. Track record of creating sustainable change that outlasts initial implementation.

• Strategic Execution & Orchestration: Transform innovative concepts and strategies into detailed, phased implementation plans that are flexible enough to tolerate significant changes as technology and resourcing continues to evolve. Orchestrate complex, interdependent workstreams across diverse legal towers and collaborator groups. Partner with the Project Management Office (PMO) to build comprehensive tracking systems and ensure initiative momentum and accountability while proactively addressing systemic blockers before they impact progress.
• Change Leadership & Collaborator Management: Drive adoption of new technologies and workflows within traditionally conservative legal environments. Build and maintain coalitions across legal towers, technology teams, business units, and different functions. Navigate organizational dynamics to maintain

transformation momentum despite challenging priorities while developing communication strategies that build passion and reduce resistance.

• Performance Management & Measurement: Design and implement KPI frameworks to measure transformation impact and return on investment. Establish decision-making processes for initiative prioritization. Create regular reporting cadences for executive leadership and supervise adoption rates, intervening when initiatives fall below target thresholds.
• Operational Framework Development: Create sustainable operational frameworks that ensure transformation gains persist beyond initial implementation. Build feedback loops to continuously improve transformation approaches. Establish best practices for scaling successful pilots across the global legal organization and sharing knowledge with other support functions (e.g. Finance, Human Resources).
• Team & Capability Development: Partner with Legal leaders to identify and develop hybrid technical-legal talent. Collaborate with existing PMO to ensure alignment without duplication of efforts. Champion a culture of innovation while respecting legal department traditions and requirements.
• Cross-Functional Collaboration: Work closely with Legal Operations, IT, and external consultants to align transformation initiatives with enterprise capabilities in the short term. Coordinate with technology partners to ensure solutions meet legal-specific requirements. Serve as the operational bridge between leadership and execution teams.
• Continuous Improvement & Impact: Monitor transformation health metrics and find opportunities to accelerate progress. Scale successful initiatives as the department evolves. Build institutional knowledge to support ongoing transformation efforts.