Associate Director, Learning Operations and Data Strategy

Role Summary

The Associate Director, Learning Operations and Data Strategy is a techno-functional leader responsible for setting and leading the data strategy, analytics, and visualization efforts across Global Manufacturing and Quality Learning & Development, including all sites. This role combines leadership in data science, business intelligence, and digital transformation, with a focus on operational excellence, strategic growth, and development of a learning culture empowered by analytics. You will be accountable for developing and implementing data strategies that power organizational learning, optimize business operations, and drive data-driven insights for decision-making and performance improvement.

Responsibilities

• Execution of strategy
• Set the vision and complete data strategy, integrating analytics, visualization, and business intelligence across commercial, learning, and transformation teams.
• Drive strategic discussions to identify key opportunities, whitespace, and innovative solutions for data-driven business and learning outcomes.
• Champion analytic capabilities and the expansion of data science-driven business solutions across M&Q with Tech@Lilly.
• Ensure alignment and common understanding of data strategy and learning operations across global teams and key partners.
• Drive integration of systems to deliver integrated, guided execution and Hyper-automation generating insights for evidenced-based decision making.

Project Delivery Ownership

• Serve as a trusted advisor and authority, actively participating in all projects.
• Lead the design, development, and deployment of interactive dashboards, reports, and data-driven learning platforms using Power BI, PowerApps, Tableau, Spotfire, or equivalent tools.
• Develop and operationalize dashboards/critical metrics in support of strategic and tactical plans, ensuring data accuracy, quality, and integrity.
• Present outcomes and recommendations to collaborators at all levels, simplifying complexity and inspiring action.

Operational Excellence & Process Management

• Establish and optimize core business and learning operations, ensuring long-term and short-term goal setting, governance, performance, and risk management systems.
• Implement best project management practices (agile/scrum as needed), both for analytics and system integration.
• Supervise key performance indicators, identify areas for improvement, and drive continuous improvement initiatives in learning operations and data strategy.

Talent Development, People Leadership, and Collaboration

• Network with industry experts, consultants, and external partners to develop, test, and implement new approaches for analytics and learning capabilities.
• Lead without authority, through ambiguity, and influence multi-functional teams to achieve strategic objectives.
• Coach and deploy agile teammates to accelerate initiatives and ensure resourcing in key priority areas.

Data Strategy & Analytics Innovation

• Lead development and execution of comprehensive data strategies to power the employee learning experience, optimize operations, and measure performance.
• Conduct exploratory data analysis, root-cause investigation, and predictive modeling using techniques including machine learning, AI, and NLP.
• Partner with business collaborators and technical teams to ensure data standardization, availability, and quality.
• Integrate working models for analytics capabilities across teams, driving cross-pollination of standard processes and technology adoption.
• Ensure secure and effective data connections through data gateways, and API/cloud integrations.

Employee, and Stakeholder Engagement

• Drive data-driven problem solving to enable focus on top employee challenges, enhancing learning outcomes and business results.
• Derive actionable insights from multiple sources to optimize employee experience and operational effectiveness.
• Demonstrate the value of learning operations and data strategy externally to collaborators, supporting Lilly‚Äôs mission of improving lives.
• Reporting & Relationship Management
• Report to leadership, providing regular updates on strategy, operations, performance, and impact of learning operations and data strategy initiatives.
• Collaborate with Finance, HR, and other business partners on performance tracking and metrics.
• Support the building of organizational skills in data-driven problem solving and digital learning innovation.

Qualifications

• Bachelor‚Äôs degree in business, marketing, computer/data science, or similar field.
• 5 years of relevant work experience with success in leading analytics/data-science teams, ideally in healthcare/pharma.
• Extensive experience in machine learning, AI, NLP, advanced mathematical and predictive modeling, and visual analytics.
• Authorized to work in the United States on a full-time basis.

Preferred Qualifications/Skills

• Master‚Äôs degree in technology, statistics, mathematics, econometrics, operations research, computer science, data science, or related field.
• Strong statistics, data wrangling/cleaning, scalable apps and dashboards development.
• Proficiency in R and/or Python, Power Platform (Power BI, PowerApps), Tableau, Spotfire, and related tools.
• Excellent communication skills and ability to tell data stories to executives.
• Ability to lead without authority, thrive in ambiguity, and drive results through collaboration.
• Experience with Agile/Scrum and advanced analytics platforms (Power Automate, Python/R).
• Knowledge of BI, data governance, security roles, and RLS in Power BI/PowerApps.
• Certification in Microsoft Power Platform (PL-400, PL-600, PL-300) preferred.