Director / Senior Director, Bone Biology and Osteoporosis Discovery

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.
Location: Boston, MA or Indianapolis, IN
About Lilly
At Lilly, we unite caring with discovery to make life better for people worldwide. As a global healthcare leader headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana, we are committed to advancing innovation in areas of high unmet medical need. With a proven track record in obesity research and a growing focus on healthy aging, we seek an experienced discovery leader to help build a portfolio of transformative therapies that preserve skeletal health and arrest age-related functional decline. This role offers the opportunity to shape strategy, drive impactful drug discovery and development programs, and contribute to Lilly's mission of scientific excellence and patient-centered care.
Position Summary
The Director / Senior Director will serve as the scientific and strategic leader for osteoporosis and bone biology preclinical discovery, responsible for defining, implementing, and continuously evolving Lilly's preclinical discovery strategy in this area. This leader will drive the integration of human biology, translational science, and preclinical models to establish a differentiated and execution-focused discovery framework. The role includes advancing programs from target identification through preclinical development toward early clinical translation, ensuring decisions are guided by robust, decision-enabling data.
The successful candidate will play a central role in shaping the bone pipeline, building critical capabilities, and establishing best-in-class approaches to target prioritization and validation within the Mobility & Healthy Aging portfolio.
Key Responsibilities
Strategy Leadership
- Define and implement the preclinical discovery strategy for osteoporosis, including target discovery, validation and prioritization frameworks, experimental approaches, and decision criteria.
- Leverage human genetics, multi-omics, and patient-derived data to prioritize targets and pathways with strong human evidence.
- Shape strategies that address skeletal health in the context of aging and metabolic disease, including the skeletal effects of weight loss and incretin-based therapies.
- Drive portfolio prioritization, articulating differentiation, risk, and alignment with clinical and regulatory expectations.
- Build and evolve preclinical and translational capabilities (internal and external) to support execution of the strategy.
- Identify, shape, and manage external opportunities, including business development, academic collaborations, and CRO partnerships.
- Ensure alignment of the bone strategy with broader Mobility & Healthy Aging and musculoskeletal portfolio objectives.
Scientific & Project Leadership
- Build and lead an innovative lab focused on novel approaches to identify and validate targets and pathways for osteoporosis and skeletal disease. Bring novel, high-potential targets into the pipeline for therapeutic approaches.
- Lead bone discovery programs, driving target identification, validation, and progression of therapeutic candidates.
- Design and implement end-to-end experimental strategies across in vitro, ex vivo, and in vivo systems, including bone histomorphometry and surgical models of bone repair and regeneration.
- Generate decision-enabling data to support program advancement and portfolio decisions.
Translational Strategy
- Define and implement translational approaches linking mechanisms to clinical outcomes, including biomarker strategies and PK/PD relationships.
- Ensure preclinical programs are designed to enable clear clinical differentiation, incorporating relevant endpoints such as bone density, bone strength, and microarchitecture.
Cross-functional Leadership
- Serve as biology lead on cross-functional teams, partnering closely with discovery chemistry, protein engineering, PK/PD, toxicology, and clinical development.
- Influence decision-making and problem-solving to accelerate program progression.
External Engagement
- Maintain scientific leadership and visibility through publications, presentations, and engagement with the external osteoporosis and skeletal biology community.
People Leadership
- Directly recruit and supervise scientists and provide mentoring, performance management, and career development.
Basic Qualifications
- Ph.D. in bone/musculoskeletal biology, endocrinology, pharmacology, cellular & molecular biology, physiology or biomedical sciences or related field
- Minimum of 10 years of relevant post- Ph.D. experience in academia, industry, or a related field
Additional Preferences
- Deep expertise in osteoporosis and skeletal biology, including bone remodeling
- Hands-on expertise in bone histomorphometry (static and dynamic), including interpretation of cellular and tissue-level remodeling data
- Understanding of mechanosensation and mechanotransduction in bone, including osteocyte biology and load-induced bone adaptation
- Understanding of glucocorticoid-induced bone loss and its mechanisms
- Experience with bone surgical models, such as osteotomy, fracture healing, osseointegration, and periodontitis-associated alveolar bone loss
- Knowledge of muscle-bone crosstalk and the biology linking skeletal muscle and bone function
- Understanding of skeletal aging mechanisms (e.g., cellular senescence, marrow adiposity, and age-related changes in osteoprogenitor function)
- Familiarity with bone health in obesity and metabolic disease, including the skeletal effects of weight loss and incretin-based therapies
- Experience using human genetic and multiomic data to inform target identification and validation
- Demonstrated success in drug discovery, from target identification through preclinical development
- Proven track record of shaping discovery strategy and influencing portfolio decisions
- Strong experience with preclinical in vitro, ex vivo, and in vivo models for osteoporosis
- Experience building new capabilities, platforms, or external collaborations
- Strong cross-functional leadership and scientific communication skills
- Passion for advancing innovative therapies that address unmet needs in skeletal health and healthy aging
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
$153,000 - $264,000
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 empl