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.
Eli Lilly is a global healthcare leader that unites caring with discovery to create medicines that make life better for people around the world. We’re leveraging cutting-edge technologies and innovative platforms to develop next-generation therapeutic ecosystems, connected devices, data, and analytics to transform patient experiences and improve treatment outcomes.
As a design leader on the LillyDirect team, one of the most ambitious direct-to-patient platforms in the industry. LillyDirect connects people to Lilly’s medicines, care programs, and support services in one seamless experience. We work at the intersection of healthcare, commerce, and human need, and we hold ourselves to the highest standard of clarity, accessibility, and care in every interaction we design.
ABOUT THE ROLE
As a Design Manager at Lilly, you will lead people, set creative direction, and operate as a strategic partner to the business. You will be in the work, not above it. Design managers at Lilly are expected to contribute directly to the quality of what their teams produce while building the culture, structure, and processes that allow great design to happen consistently at scale. The people benefiting from that work are patients, caregivers, and the scientists trying to help them.
While all design managers at Lilly are expected to lead across both UX and visual craft, this role has a stronger lean toward visual and UI design. We are looking for someone who brings depth in visual systems, design language, and aesthetic direction, and who can model that standard for their team.
CORE RESPONSIBILITIES
Great design leadership at Lilly starts here. These are the responsibilities we will expect from you:
- Lead with craft. You are expected to contribute directly to the quality of the work, not just review it from a distance.
- Establish and communicate creative vision that gives your team the strategic clarity to execute with confidence.
- Manage, mentor, and develop designers across levels, owning growth conversations, work quality, and day-to-day direction.
- Operate as a trusted strategic partner to product, engineering, and business stakeholders, positioning design as a strategic function, not a service.
- Evaluate and raise the bar on both UX and UI/Visual deliverables across your team’s work. Hybrid craft capability is required at every level of this track.
- Attract, hire, and retain exceptional design talent. Build a team culture of craft excellence, honest feedback, and continuous learning.
- Run effective design operations: workload management, staffing, critique structure, and delivery processes that allow your team to do their best work.
- Set and uphold a high bar for visual quality across LillyDirect experiences, ensuring clarity, accessibility, polish, and system consistency across the portfolio.
- Stay hands-on across the work, contributing design direction and craft at the project level while managing others.
- Establish design direction across a workstream, ensuring teams have the clarity to execute with confidence.
- Operate as a trusted design partner to senior product and business stakeholders, shaping conversations beyond immediate project scope.
- Contribute directly to visual direction and execution while elevating the aesthetic standard across your team’s work.
- Drive design system evolution and visual quality standards across your product area, modeling the level of craft you expect from others.
- Set the bar for visual craft in critique, ensuring every touchpoint reflects a coherent, high-quality brand expression.
- Lead hybrid product designers who are expected to operate across both UI and UX, with stronger emphasis on visual craft and execution quality.
Basic Requirements
- Bachelor's degree in Design, Human-Computer Interaction, or a related field
- Or high school diploma/GED with 7+ years of equivalent practical experience
- 7+ years of experience in design, including 2+ years in a design leadership or management role
- A strong portfolio demonstrating personal craft depth alongside evidence of team leadership and quality elevation
- Qualified candidates must be legally authorized to be employed in the United States; Lilly does not anticipate providing sponsorship for employment visa status (e.g., H-1B or TN status) for this employment position
Additional Preferences
- Hybrid craft capability: the ability to evaluate and give meaningful critique on both UX and UI/Visual work
- A track record of mentoring and developing designers, with evidence of growth in the people you have managed
- Strong communication and stakeholder management skills, with the ability to represent design at senior levels of the organization
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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
$141,000 - $246,400
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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