AI Architect – Lilly Medicine Foundry (R5-6)

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.

Job Level: (R5-6) – Systems Architect

Job Family: Information Technology

Location: Hyderabad, India

Job Function: Tech@Lilly CTI-MD India

Tech Ladder (Y/N): Y

About Us

This is an opportunity you don’t want to miss!

Lilly is entering an exciting period of growth, and we are committed to delivering innovative medicines to patients around the world. LRL has increasing needs for in-house manufacture of material for clinical supplies and will therefore construct a new campus to manufacture Clinical Trial (CT) Active Pharmaceutical Ingredient (API) to meet needs for an expanding portfolio (more and new areas), to accelerate development timelines, and to enhance supply chain robustness.

The brand-new facility also known as Lilly Medicine Foundry (Foundry) will utilize the latest technology to augment the current clinical supply chain for small molecules (SM), oligonucleotides, peptides, and Antibody Drug Conjugates (ADCs), monoclonal antibodies and bioconjugates, and add new capabilities including mRNA.

The new site will be built using the latest high-tech equipment, advanced highly integrated and automated manufacturing systems, and have a focus on minimizing the impact to our environment.

Role Overview

Lead the technical architecture strategy and implementation for The Lilly Medicine Foundry, establishing the foundational platforms, standards, and architectural patterns that enable AI solutions to scale across the site, PRD and potentially Manufacturing. This role combines deep technical expertise in AI/ML systems with strategic architecture leadership to build enterprise-grade AI capabilities that deliver measurable business value while meeting pharmaceutical industry requirements for security, compliance, and validation.

Reporting to the Director IT – CTI MD, you will provide architectural expertise and reusable platform capabilities to domain teams while establishing technical standards and governance frameworks that ensure consistency, quality, and scalability across the AI portfolio. You will partner closely with Enterprise Architecture, Data & Analytics, Infrastructure, and Security teams to integrate AI capabilities seamlessly into the Foundry’s technology ecosystem.

Primary Responsibilities

AI Architecture Strategy & Platform Design (40%)

Functional AI Architecture & Strategy

• Define and evolve the enterprise AI architecture vision, strategy, and roadmap aligned with the Lilly Medicine Foundry and PRD objectives

• Design reference architectures and architectural patterns for AI/ML systems spanning model development, deployment, monitoring, and lifecycle management

• Establish architectural principles and design patterns that ensure AI solutions are scalable, secure, maintainable, and compliant with pharmaceutical regulations

• Create technology selection frameworks and architectural decision records (ADRs) to guide build vs. buy vs. partner choices

• Drive architectural alignment across Clinical and Commercial AI initiatives to maximize reuse and minimize technical debt

AI Platform Development & Engineering

• Design and build the core AI platform capabilities including MLOps infrastructure, model registry, feature stores, experimentation frameworks, and deployment pipelines

• Architect solutions for AI model lifecycle management including versioning, A/B testing, monitoring, retraining, and retirement

• Establish reusable AI services and APIs that domain teams can leverage to accelerate solution delivery (e.g., NLP services, computer vision, recommendation engines)

• Design integration patterns for AI capabilities with Lilly's data platform, enterprise applications, and development/manufacturing systems

• Architect hybrid cloud solutions optimizing for performance, cost, and regulatory requirements (on-premises, AWS, Azure, GCP)

Generative AI & LLM Architecture

• Design enterprise-grade architectures for Large Language Model (LLM) deployment including prompt management, retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), and fine-tuning pipelines

• Establish patterns for responsible GenAI deployment including content filtering, bias detection, hallucination mitigation, and audit trails

• Architect solutions for domain-specific AI agents and "digital teammates" that augment development and manufacturing workflows

• Design vector databases and semantic search capabilities to enable knowledge retrieval across Lilly's scientific and clinical content

• Evaluate and architect solutions for frontier AI capabilities including multimodal models, agentic systems, and reasoning frameworks

Technical Standards, Governance & Compliance (30%)

AI Governance & Standards

• Establish and maintain AI technical standards, design principles, and engineering best practices for the Foundry AI CoE

• Create architectural review processes and governance frameworks to ensure AI solutions meet enterprise quality and compliance requirements

• Define and enforce technical guardrails for AI development including model performance thresholds, data quality standards, and deployment criteria

• Lead architecture review boards and provide technical guidance on complex AI initiatives across Foundry, PRD, Manufacturing

• Develop AI solution assessment frameworks to evaluate technical maturity, scalability readiness, and production worthiness

Regulatory & Security Compliance

• Design AI architectures compliant with pharmaceutical regulatory requirements (FDA 21 CFR Part 11, EU MDR, GxP, CSV/CSA)

• Architect solutions meeting data privacy and security requirements (HIPAA, GDPR, SOC 2, ISO 27001)

• Establish validation and verification frameworks for AI/ML models used in regulated contexts (clinical manufacturing, product development, commercial manufacturing)

• Design audit logging, traceability, and explainability capabilities to support regulatory submissions and inspections

• Partner with Cyber Security, Legal, and Quality Assurance teams to ensure AI solutions meet enterprise risk management requirements

• Architect secure data handling for synthetic data generation, anonymization, and test data management in development/manufacturing environments

AI Model Risk Management

• Establish frameworks for AI model validation, testing, and performance monitoring in production environments

• Design solutions for detecting and mitigating model drift, bias, fairness issues, and performance degradation

• Architect explainability and interpretability capabilities enabling stakeholders to understand AI decision-making

• Create incident response and rollback procedures for AI system failures or unexpected behaviors

Technical Leadership & Team Enablement (20%)

Architecture Team Leadership

• Build and lead a team of AI/ML engineers, and platform engineers supporting the Foundry AI CoE

• Mentor and develop architectural talent across the organization, raising technical capabilities and architecture discipline

• Coordinate architecture resources across US and international teams ensuring consistent standards and knowledge sharing

• Foster a culture of technical excellence, innovation, and continuous learning within the architecture function

• Represent architecture perspective in AI CoE leadership discussions and strategic planning

Domain Team Enablement & Support

• Provide architectural consulting and technical guidance to Development and Manufacturing domain teams building AI solutions

• Conduct architecture workshops and design reviews helping teams apply architectural patterns and best practices

• Create architecture documentation, playbooks, and enablement materials accelerating domain team velocity

• Partner with enterprise AI and Architecture teams to ensure architectural alignment

• Embed architectural thinking into agile delivery processes without creating bottlenecks

Innovation, Research & Strategic Partnerships (10%)

Emerging Technology Evaluation

• Monitor and evaluate emerging AI technologies, frameworks, and platforms for potential adoption at Lilly

• Conduct proof-of-concepts and technology spikes to validate new approaches before enterprise adoption

• Maintain awareness of AI research trends in academia and industry relevant to pharmaceutical applications

• Represent Lilly's technical perspective in evaluations of AI vendors, partners, and acquisition targets

• Contribute to thought leadership through technical publications, conference presentations, and patent applications

Cross-Functional Collaboration

• Partner with Enterprise Architecture to align AI architecture with overall technology strategy and enterprise standards

• Collaborate with Data & Analytics teams to ensure AI solutions integrate seamlessly with data platforms and governance

• Work with Infrastructure teams to optimize cloud and on-premises resources for AI workloads

• Engage with Development and Manufacturing domain experts to understand business requirements and translate them into architectural solutions

• Support business development team in technical evaluation of partnership opportunities and vendor capabilities

Minimum Qualifications

Essential Experience:

• 5+ years in software architecture, data engineering, or ML engineering roles with at least 2 years focused on AI/ML systems architecture

• Proven track record designing and implementing enterprise-scale AI/ML platforms and MLOps infrastructures

• Deep expertise in modern AI/ML frameworks (TensorFlow, PyTorch, scikit-learn), LLM architectures (transformers, RAG, fine-tuning), and GenAI technologies

• Strong background in cloud architectures (AWS, Azure, GCP) with experience deploying AI workloads at scale

• Experience with MLOps tools and practices (Kubeflow, MLflow, SageMaker, Vertex AI, feature stores, model registries)

• Demonstrated success leading architecture functions in enterprise environments with complex stakeholder landscapes

• Strong understanding of data architecture, data engineering, and data governance in AI contexts

• Experience architecting solutions in regulated industries (healthcare, financial services, or pharmaceuticals preferred)

Preferred Experience:

• Pharmaceutical, biotech, or healthcare industry experience with understanding of clinical development and commercial operations

• Experience with regulatory compliance frameworks (FDA 21 CFR Part 11, GxP, CSV/CSA, HIPAA, GDPR)

• Background in pharmaceutical process development, clinical or commercial pharma manufacturing

• Experience architecting AI solutions for process development, clinical or commercial manufacturing

• Track record building and leading distributed architecture teams across multiple geographies

• Published research, patents, or thought leadership in AI/ML architecture domains

• Advanced degree (MS or PhD) in Computer Science, Data Science, Engineering, or related technical field

• Enterprise architecture certifications (TOGAF, Zachman) or cloud certifications (AWS Solutions Architect, Azure Solutions Architect)

Required Technical Capabilities:

• Deep understanding of machine learning algorithms, model training, evaluation, and deployment methodologies

• Expertise in designing distributed systems, microservices architectures, and API design patterns

• Strong knowledge of containerization (Docker, Kubernetes) and infrastructure-as-code (Terraform, CloudFormation)

• Proficiency in Python and familiarity with modern software development practices (CI/CD, testing, version control)

• Experience with data pipeline orchestration tools (Airflow, Prefect, Dagster) and streaming technologies (Kafka, Kinesis)

• Understanding of security architecture, identity management, encryption, and secure software development practices

• Knowledge of vector databases (Pinecone, Weaviate, Milvus) and semantic search technologies for GenAI applications

Required Leadership Capabilities:

• Strategic thinking with ability to balance innovation, pragmatism, and long-term architectural vision

• Exceptional communication skills—ability to explain complex technical concepts to non-technical stakeholders and executives

• Collaborative leadership style suited to federated delivery models and matrixed organizations

• Strong influencing and negotiation skills to drive architectural standards adoption across independent domain teams

• Systems thinking—ability to see connections across technical domains and optimize for enterprise outcomes

• Comfort with ambiguity and ability to make pragmatic architecture decisions with incomplete information

• Track record mentoring and developing technical talent across engineering and architecture disciplines

Location/Travel:

• Hyderabad, India

• 10% travel globally

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 does not discriminate on the basis of age, race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, national origin, protected veteran status, disability or any other legally protected status.

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