About Lilly
At Lilly, we serve an extraordinary purpose. Every day, we make a difference for people around the globe by discovering, developing, and delivering medicines that help them live longer, healthier, and more active lives. 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.
About Thread Collective
As Lilly's in-house agency, Thread Collective fuses data, creativity, and technology to turn bold ideas into work that moves people worldwide. We partner across the enterprise, uniting deep brand expertise with integrated insights and modern production to deliver breakthrough ideas with confidence and speed. We deliver human-centric experiences that build trust, deepen understanding, and drive measurable outcomes.
Role Overview
Thread Collective is seeking an Associate Creative Director with global agency and pharmaceutical account experience to bridge Lilly and our external creative agencies. In this individual contributor role, you will be embedded with agency and brand teams as an extension of Thread Collective. You will consult, educate, and influence agencies on Lilly ways of working and regulatory guardrails while pushing for human, distinctive work, and leading handoff to Thread Collective's studio for pull-through.
What We Are Looking For
- Agency-Seasoned Creative Leader with a portfolio of distinctive, insight-driven, multi-channel campaigns including TV and video, with the credibility to influence agency creative teams without formal authority
- Pharma Industry Navigator fluent in medical, legal, and regulatory (MLR) review and workflows, who treats regulatory requirements as the frame for distinctive work
- Confident communicator who gives rigorous, constructive critique and models Lilly processes for new-to-pharma agencies
- Quality-Driven Brand Steward who ensures consistency, quality, and brand alignment in every deliverable so pull-through work remains aligned across all channels
Responsibilities
- Serve as the embedded creative leader to agencies new to Lilly from scoping through completion, modeling Lilly ways of working and modulating support as the relationship matures
- Help sharpen briefs and consumer insights, pressure-test concepts for MLR viability and distinctiveness with consumer audiences
- Give constructive critique that pushes agency work past typical pharma conventions toward human, differentiated ideas
- Help define what agencies and Thread Collective each own, execute, consult on, and QC, with agencies leading the big idea
- Join pre-production and shoots as needed, and guide work back from launch dates to set asset needs and delivery
- Verify agency handoff packages, then brief Thread Collective studio teams and oversee pull-through of tactics through final approval
- Connect creative to results that turn learnings into reusable standards meeting brand, accessibility, and regulatory guidelines
- Guide staff to generate case studies, sizzle reels, and other documents promoting Thread Collective partnerships
Basic Requirements
- Bachelor's degree or equivalent experience
- 10+ years as Creative Director, Associate Creative Director, or equivalent, including global creative agency experience
- Portfolio of award-winning work (e.g., Cannes Lions, Effies) — link to portfolio required
Preferred Qualifications
- Pharmaceutical or healthcare marketing experience, including MLR or similar regulatory review
- Proven ability to evaluate and elevate creative concepts developed by others
- Strong consulting and presentation skills to educate and influence partners at all levels
- Working knowledge of TV and video production, from pre-production to final asset delivery
- Experience with Adobe Suite, Figma, Microsoft Office, Claude, and other relevant apps
- Effective capacity management across multiple concurrent agency engagements
- Ability to diagnose process pain points and implement solutions via project planning to manage tight timelines
- Agency experience on the Eli Lilly account or other similar pharmaceutical companies
- Hands-on experience with annotation, launch-readiness processes, documentation, and cross-functional reviews
- Experience moving work between agency and in-house teams, including playbook handoff and campaign pull-through
- Strong collaborative presence with an ego-free approach to driving results through influence versus direct authority
- Fluency in brand, content, and omnichannel strategy
Location and Compensation
- Position based in Indianapolis; remote work options may be considered
- Relocation package provided
- Travel up to 15% expected
- Anticipated wage: $132,000 - $193,600
- Eligible for company bonus, 401(k), pension, medical, dental, vision, prescription drug benefits, flexible spending accounts, life insurance, and well-being benefits