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The Senior Director, Executive Activation & Content is a senior-level communications leader who serves as the primary writing and advisory partner to a defined portfolio of Lilly’s most senior executives — and as a core architect of the standards, frameworks, and infrastructure that define how executive communications works across the enterprise.
This role requires someone who brings equal parts strategic judgment, writing craft, and organizational leadership to the work. Executive deployment decisions start with the Lilly narrative, and this role is central to ensuring the right voice reaches the right audience at the right moment — so that senior leadership communications reflect the goals and business objectives of Lilly.
Reporting to the Associate Vice President, Executive Communications, the Senior Director, Executive Activation & Content will develop and steward the authentic voice of each executive in their portfolio, producing high-quality content across the full spectrum of formats — from speeches and remarks to thought leadership, LinkedIn, briefing documents, and video scripts. In a lean, high-impact team, this role carries significant writing scope, serving as the senior content resource for the function alongside the AVP. The Senior Director is the editorial standard-bearer for the function, ensuring every piece of executive content reflects the right voice, tone, and narrative alignment — whether produced internally or by agency partners.
The Executive Communications function serves as the enterprise center of excellence for senior leadership communications — setting standards, ensuring narrative coherence, and enabling communicators across the organization. Designed as a multiplier, the function equips communicators who support executives across the leadership team with the tools, standards, and frameworks to do that work consistently. The Senior Director, Executive Activation & Content is a founding contributor to this CoE infrastructure: developing voice guides, playbooks, and shared frameworks that help ensure what each leader says and where they show up reinforces Lilly’s broader narrative and the priorities of the Executive Committee. This is not a role for someone who wants to implement within a defined system — it is a role for someone who wants to help build the system while delivering at the highest level within it.
The ideal candidate is a seasoned communications professional who has operated as a trusted advisor to senior leaders, brings a strong and versatile writing portfolio, and has the judgment and instincts to help set the standard for executive communications across a global enterprise. This person is comfortable at the intersection of strategy and execution, thrives in high-stakes environments, and is energized by the opportunity to shape how Lilly’s most senior leaders communicate with the world.
The position is located in Indianapolis, reporting to the Associate Vice President, Executive Communications.
Key Objectives / Deliverables
- Serves as the primary communications partner and senior writer for a defined portfolio of Executive Committee members — developing and stewarding their authentic voice across all formats and channels, ensuring each leader’s voice, where they show up, and how they are positioned serves Lilly as a whole.
- Produces high-quality executive content across all formats — including speeches, remarks, thought leadership, LinkedIn posts, video scripts, briefing documents, and talking points — serving as the senior content resource for the function alongside the AVP.
- Leads development of long-form thought leadership content, event remarks, and appearance preparation for portfolio executives — ensuring each piece is grounded in the executive’s voice and connected to Lilly’s enterprise narrative.
- Leads a proactive content calendar in partnership with the AVP — anticipating upcoming moments, planning content in advance, and ensuring the function is never reactive when proactive is possible.
- Builds and maintains executive briefing documents, media preparation materials, and talking points in advance of high-stakes moments — equipping leaders to communicate with confidence and consistency.
- Collaborates with the AVP on executive positioning strategy and storyline-to-executive mapping — starting with what executives need to achieve on behalf of Lilly, then driving the deployment plan in partnership with Workforce Engagement, SI&O, and others to ensure the right voice reaches the right audience at the right moment.
- Ensures all executive content ladders to Lilly’s enterprise narrative and core storylines — maintaining coherence across voices, formats, and audiences, whether content is produced internally or by agency partners.
- Serves as the function’s primary point of coordination for agency writing relationships — briefing partners, reviewing output against voice and narrative standards, and ensuring quality and consistency across all externally produced executive content.
- Leads CoE infrastructure development — including voice guides, editorial standards, playbook development, and shared frameworks that equip communicators across the leadership team to support their executives consistently and with quality; works in close partnership with the Senior Associate, Executive Engagement on the governance rhythms and operational infrastructure that bring this work to life.
- Leverages AI-assisted content workflows to accelerate drafting, news synthesis, briefing preparation, and content adaptation — maintaining quality while increasing output capacity across the team.
- Partners with Strategy, Innovation & Operations on channel strategy, social content distribution, and amplification of executive content — providing content that is ready for distribution across owned channels.
- Tracks and monitors the external landscape for portfolio executives — identifying relevant news, industry developments, and audience moments that develop opportunities for proactive executive communications.
Basic Qualifications
- Bachelor’s degree in communications, journalism, English, marketing, or a related field.
- 8+ years of experience in executive communications, corporate communications, or a closely related field, with demonstrated experience supporting C-suite or senior leadership communications.
- 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 / Preference
- Outstanding writing ability across multiple formats — speeches, remarks, long-form thought leadership, briefing documents, LinkedIn, video scripts, and talking points — with a demonstrated ability to capture and sustain executive voice across multiple leaders simultaneously.
- Strong strategic judgment — ability to advise senior executives on communications approach, audience strategy, and message prioritization in complex, high-stakes environments.
- Experience serving as a senior editorial resource for a communications function — setting and maintaining content quality standards, briefing and leading agency relationships, and ensuring voice fidelity across internally and externally produced content.
- Deep familiarity with the external communications landscape — earned media, executive social presence, conference and speaking opportunities, and thought leadership platforms.
- Experience developing CoE infrastructure — voice guides, playbooks, editorial standards, or shared frameworks — that enable communicators beyond a direct team.
- Ability to synthesize complex scientific, business, or policy content into clear, compelling, and human communications that resonate with diverse external audiences.
- Experience with AI-assisted content workflows and tools — or demonstrated aptitude and enthusiasm for adopting AI as a core productivity and quality-enhancement tool.
- Pharmaceutical, healthcare, or regulated industry experience preferred; not required.
- Ability to operate effectively in a small, high-performing team where autonomy, initiative, and cross-functional collaboration are equally important — and where the scope of the role will evolve as the function grows.
Additional Information
- Some domestic travel expected as conditions and business requirements emerge.
- Located in Indianapolis.
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
$154,500 - $226,600
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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