Advisor / Sr. Advisor, Cell Engineering - CAR Biology - LGT

Lilly Gene Therapy Position

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.

Join the rapidly expanding Lilly Gene Therapy team at Eli Lilly & Company. We invent, characterize, and advance novel gene therapy platforms for a wide range of clinical applications, working multi-functionally across disease areas and delivery modalities. Our goal is to deliver on the promise of gene therapy for patients worldwide. This role may require up to 10–15% travel for conferences or training.

Responsibilities

• Design, implement, and optimize delivery of transposable element constructs and other genetic payloads into primary human cells, including HSCs, using non-viral platforms. Engineer and iterate on DNA payload architectures to optimize integration efficiency, expression durability, and cytotoxicity
• Develop and validate analytical assays to characterize integration outcomes, genomic insertion site distributions, and long-term transgene expression stability in primary cells
• Support cell engineering functional workflows in collaboration with the broader team, including viability assays and flow-based phenotyping to assess delivery and integration outcomes
• Translate ex vivo delivery findings to inform in vivo delivery strategy; partner with formulation teams on co-delivery of DNA and RNA payloads
• Mentor junior scientists; serve as the primary technical resource for transgene delivery and integration across the team

Basic Requirements

• PhD in Molecular Biology, Cell Biology, Biochemistry, Bioengineering, or a closely related field
• 3+ years of postdoctoral or industry experience

Additional Preferences

• Experience with transposon-based integration systems (Sleeping Beauty, PiggyBac, or equivalent) in primary immune cells, including payload design and ITR configuration
• Hands-on experience delivering DNA constructs into primary human T cells and/or HSCs
• Proficiency in integration analytics: ddPCR VCN, integration site profiling, and transgene expression characterization
• Strong molecular biology foundation: cloning, minicircle or plasmid design
• Experience with LNP or other nanoparticle platforms for nucleic acid delivery
• Experience in high-throughput cloning or screening

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 for further assistance.

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 Network, Black Employees at Lilly, Chinese Culture Network, Japanese International Leadership Network (JILN), Lilly India Network, Organization of Latinx at Lilly (OLA), PRIDE (LGBTQ+ Allies), Veterans Leadership Network (VLN), Women's Initiative for Leading at Lilly (WILL), enAble (for people with disabilities).

Actual compensation will depend on a candidate's education, experience, skills, and geographic location. The anticipated wage for this position is $138,000 - $224,400.