Senior Director, R&D Data Strategy, Operations & Analytics

Location: Indianapolis, IN

Time Type: Full time

Job Description

At Elanco (NYSE: ELAN) – it all starts with animals!

As a global leader in animal health, we are dedicated to innovation and delivering products and services to prevent and treat disease in farm animals and pets. At Elanco, we are driven by our vision of Food and Companionship Enriching Life and our purpose – all to Go Beyond for Animals, Customers, Society and Our People.

At Elanco, we pride ourselves on fostering a diverse and inclusive work environment. We believe that diversity is the driving force behind innovation, creativity, and overall business success. Here, you’ll be part of a company that values and champions new ways of thinking, work with dynamic individuals, and acquire new skills and experiences that will propel your career to new heights.

Making animals’ lives better makes life better – join our team today!

Your Role: Sr Director, R&D Data Operations & Analytics

As the Sr Director, R&D Data Operations & Analytics, you will lead the global execution engine that transforms R&D data into a competitive advantage. You are responsible for leading the effort to define the R&D data governance framework, establish metadata standards, and lead the transition toward a “Data-as-a-Product” mindset; operationalizing the R&D data strategy by leading a high-performing team of specialized Data Stewards and driving the end-to-end dashboard and analytics ecosystem. You will translate complex data ecosystems into clear, actionable insights that empower R&D leaders to make informed strategic decisions. In this capacity, you will ensure that all data operations and pipelines are robust, scalable, and purpose-built to achieve Elanco’s long-term AI and digital transformation goals.

Your Responsibilities:

• People Leadership: Lead and develop a cross-functional team for data strategy, data science and Data Stewards (Clinical, Lab, Regulatory).

• AI Goal Alignment: Partner closely with the AI Strategy Leader to ensure that data operations, ingestion pipelines, and storage architectures are optimized to achieve Elanco’s AI/ML objectives and model performance goals.

• Scalability & Strategy Alignment: Oversight of the R&D data strategy to ensure the strategic roadmap is translated into scalable operational processes that can support global growth and increasing data volumes while aligned with Enterprise goals.

• Strategic Insights: Translate complex R&D data sets into executive-ready narratives, using data visualization to influence strategic R&D investment and operational decisions.

• Analytics & Dashboard Delivery: Oversee the R&D dashboard roadmap, ensuring the delivery of intuitive, high-impact analytics tools that provide real-time visibility into the R&D pipeline.

• Operational Excellence: Serve as the primary point of escalation for data operational issues, ensuring that the R&D data lifecycle is efficient, reliable, and compliant with global standards.

What You Need to Succeed (minimum qualifications):

• Education: Master’s degree in Business Analytics, Data Science, Information Management, or a related scientific field.

• Experience: 10+ years in data-centric roles, with at least 3 years of direct people management experience in a complex, matrixed environment.

• Analytical Leadership: Proven track record of leading analytics teams to deliver actionable insights to senior executives.

• Strategic Communication: Exceptional ability to synthesize technical data into clear, compelling "business stories" for non-technical leadership.

What will give you a competitive edge (preferred qualifications):

• Industry Expertise: Extensive experience in pharmaceutical R&D, clinical operations, or animal health regulated environments.

• AI/ML Familiarity: Strong understanding of data analytics, AI/ML workflows and how data quality, governance, and pipeline health influence AI model performance, reliability, and lifecycle management.

• Change Management: Demonstrated success leading large-scale digital or data transformation initiatives across cross-functional global teams.

Elanco is an EEO/Affirmative Action Employer and 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

Elanco may use automated tools, including AI, to support parts of our recruitment process, such as reviewing applications against job‑related criteria and/or transferrable skills. These tools help ensure a consistent, structured evaluation, but they do not make hiring decisions. All decisions involve a human reviewer. For more information on how we handle personal data, please see our Elanco Workforce Privacy Notice.