Process Team Leader

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.

Job Position Overview

The Process Team Leader – North American Logistics Operations (NALO) is a mid-level managerial role responsible for the integrated leadership of two to three Process Teams at the Plainfield Distribution Center (PDC). Reporting to the Associate Director – Operations, this role holds direct accountability for the performance, development, and operational effectiveness of its assigned teams, spanning Supervisors, Process Engineers, and Coordinator / Planners. The role operates at a level above day-to-day supervision, focused on building team capability, removing systemic barriers, and driving competitive, compliant, and safe distribution performance across NALO.

Responsibilities

• Champion a safety-first culture across all assigned Process Teams — ensuring safe work practices, immediate reporting and thorough investigation of all potential injuries, and full compliance with applicable HSE regulatory commitments — while driving step-change improvement from compliance-based to values-based safety ownership and holding supervisors accountable for safety within their teams.
• Ensure all warehouse activities are compliant with cGMP requirements, Global Quality Standards, DSCSA regulations, and all applicable quality regulatory commitments — overseeing investigation of deviations and effective countermeasures using structured problem-solving (A3 Thinking, Root Cause Analysis, FMEA), maintaining GMP quality plan items, ensuring data integrity and good documentation practices, and engaging technical resources or escalating when issues exceed team capability.
• Ensure that all team members are knowledgeable of and consistently follow the security requirements defined in facility SOPs.
• Own the operational performance of two to three Process Teams — meeting customer service commitments (right product, right patient, right time), ensuring sufficient space, people, and equipment capacity for current and future volumes, monitoring team-level safety, quality, delivery, and cost metrics, partnering with Coordinator / Planners on order flow and capacity, and replicating distribution best practices to drive consistent, competitive performance.
• Ensure budget commitments are met across all assigned Process Teams, develop and drive productivity improvement initiatives for the distribution centers, and ensure team members understand process economics and the financial impact of their decisions on the NALO site scorecard.
• Provide direct leadership, coaching, and performance management to Supervisors, Process Engineers, and Coordinator / Planners — conducting performance check-ins and development plans, recognizing and rewarding strong performance, building supervisory capability at every level, and developing confidence, accountability, and independence across the teams.
• Lead Process Teams through capability planning — systematically identifying current and future skill, technical, and leadership gaps and establishing concrete plans to close them through training, cross-training, development, or talent acquisition — and partner with the training department and HRBP to ensure appropriate curricula, succession depth, and workforce alignment with NALO strategy.
• Drive a culture of continuous improvement and structured problem-solving — ensuring teams consistently apply Lean principles and CI tools, owning and sponsoring key improvement initiatives, removing organizational barriers, leading data analytics reviews and team-level metrics, and ensuring teams contribute to and benefit from NALO-wide CI and benchmarking.
• Serve as the primary interface between assigned Proess Teams and NALO Leadership, Quality, HSE, Engineering, and other cross-functional partners — translating organizational strategy into clear team direction, improving communication and shift-to-shift continuity, and representing the teams in site-level forums, operational reviews, and project teams.

Basic Qualifications

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Bachelor’s degree in Engineering, Operations, Supply Chain, or a related technical field.

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Minimum five (5) years of operations or logistics experience, including demonstrated formal people-leadership responsibility (led direct reports), preferably within the pharmaceutical or another regulated industry, with demonstrated knowledge of cGMPs and distribution regulatory requirements.

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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/ Preferences

• Previous experience leading operations within a cGMP-regulated pharmaceutical distribution or manufacturing environment.
• Proficient in Microsoft Office, including Excel, Power BI, Teams, and Outlook.
• Prior work with SAP, EWM, and / or Warehouse Management Systems (WMS).
• Proven ability to apply Lean principles and continuous improvement methods to deliver measurable process improvements.
• Prior work with structured problem-solving frameworks (A3 Thinking, Root Cause Analysis, FMEA) in an operational setting.
• Proven ability to influence outcomes and align stakeholders across functions without direct authority over all parties.
• Demonstrated leadership and interpersonal skills, with a proven ability to develop, motivate, and hold accountable cross-functional teams.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to clearly convey complex operational and technical information across all levels of the organization.
• Strong organizational and multitasking skills, with the ability to manage multiple priorities and Process Teams simultaneously.

Additional Information

• The role supports operations that run Sunday – Friday across multiple shifts, with occasional Saturdays as needed; availability for off-hours escalation and critical decision-making is expected.
• Work may include exposure to temperature-controlled environments (chill rooms, 36–46°F), active site walkthroughs, and occasional lifting up to 40 lbs.
• Position Location: Plainfield Distribution Center (PDC), Plainfield, Indiana
• Travel Percentage (%): Up to 10%. Occasional travel to Enfield, CT or other Lilly sites may be required.
• Shift Information: Primarily day shift, supporting a multi-shift distribution operation (Sunday – Friday, with occasional Saturdays) across Day Shift and Extended Shift teams.

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

$127,500 - $187,000

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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