Staff Product Designer, TuneLab
Eli Lilly and Company · San Francisco, CA
- On site
- Full-time
- $223,500 / year
- San Francisco, CA
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Staff Product Designer, TuneLab
Eli Lilly and Company · San Francisco, CA
Alex Rivera
Hiring Manager · h•••••@careers.lilly.com
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Hi Alex — I came across the Staff Product Designer, TuneLab opening and wanted to reach out directly. I've spent the last few years doing exactly this kind of work, and Eli Lilly and Company stood out because…
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Job highlights
- Design user experiences for AI drug discovery platform.
- Define product direction through user research.
- Build and own the design system.
- Collaborate with engineering and data science.
- Shape product strategy and user needs.
About the role
Job Title
Staff Product Designer, TuneLabCompany
Eli Lilly and CompanyLocation
Indianapolis, IndianaAbout Eli Lilly and Company
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.Organization Overview
Lilly Catalyze360 is a comprehensive approach to enabling the early-stage biotech ecosystem by democratizing access to infrastructure, expertise, and resources. Through its interconnected pillars—Lilly Ventures, Lilly Gateway Labs, Lilly ExploR&D, and Lilly TuneLab—Catalyze360 strategically removes barriers that traditionally block bold science from becoming life-changing medicines, providing biotechs with flexible combinations of capital, physical lab space, R&D capabilities, AI/ML tools, and decades of enterprise learning. Lilly TuneLab is an artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML) platform that provides biotech companies access to drug discovery models trained on years of Lilly’s research data. Lilly estimates that this first release of AI models includes proprietary data obtained at a cost of over $1 billion, representing one of the industry’s most valuable datasets used to train an AI system available to biotechnology companies. By integrating advanced in silico modelling and federated learning, we connect pioneering machine learning algorithms, substantial computational power, exclusive datasets, and Lilly’s domain-specific knowledge to drive innovation in drug discovery and facilitate access to optimal therapies for patients.Job Summary
TuneLab has powerful underlying AI models and point solutions. The job now is to turn them into something a biotech startup can actually use: a coherent workflow, a clean product experience, and a SaaS offering that scales. We’re looking for a founding Product Designer to own how the product works and feels for external biotech partners. The primary focus is the problem space: who we’re building for, what they actually need, where existing tools fall short, and what’s worth building. The secondary focus is execution—including a design system that accelerates the team rather than becoming a project of its own. At this stage, the biggest risk isn’t building too slowly. It’s building the wrong thing. Your job is to reduce that risk—live close to users, sharpen what’s worth building, and put design in front of engineering so we don’t commit resources to the wrong problems. There’s no design org above you and no design system to inherit. You set the design bar. You’re the senior designer in the room. You’ll work shoulder-to-shoulder with product, engineering, and data science, and report to the Catalyze360 Head of AI Platform and Products.Key Responsibilities
Clarify the problem space
- Live close to biotech users. Learn their workflows, their pain, and the gap between what the AI can do and what they actually need.
- Define—and keep sharpening—who we’re building for, what they’re trying to do, and where existing tools fall short.
- Run lightweight discovery: interviews, prototypes, working sessions. Test what’s worth building before engineering commits.
- Translate findings into clear product direction. The team should leave a discovery cycle knowing what to build next and why.
- Be the strongest user voice on the team. Push back when the spec is wrong.
Design the product
- Own how the product works and feels—flow, interaction, and visual craft.
- Ship working design. You sweat the empty states and the error states; you don’t hand off pixels and walk.
- Build the design system that lets a small team move fast. Opinionated where it pays, lightweight where it doesn’t.
- Pair tightly with engineering. Prototype in code or close to it when that gets the answer faster than a Figma file.
Lift the team
- Mentor designers and design-adjacent peers as the team grows. Make them better at the job, not just better at this product.
- Partner with the Engineering Manager and product on hiring as the team expands. You sell the role and you hold the bar.
- Set the practice—how we research, how we critique, how we ship. What you do becomes the team norm.
Operate effectively inside a large company
- Navigate enterprise infrastructure, security, and compliance requirements without disrupting development progress.
- Work with Lilly’s internal capabilities and partners to leverage what already exists rather than rebuild it.
- Represent design in conversations with external biotech partners when it matters. You can speak credibly to a head of computational biology, a product lead, or a CTO on the other side.
Minimum Requirements
- Bachelor’s degree in Design, HCI, or a related field.
- 8+ years as a product designer, with a track record of shipping software that real external customers used and relied on.
- Demonstrated experience operating as a senior or staff designer on a small team—not just as a senior designer on a large one.
- Portfolio that shows your work end-to-end – from framing the problem to shipping the craft.
- Qualified applicants must be authorized to work in the United States on a full-time basis. Lilly will not provide support for or sponsor work authorization or visas for this role, including but not limited to F-1 CPT, F-1 OPT, F-1 STEM OPT, J-1, H-1B, TN, O-1, E-3, H-1B1, or L-1
Additional Skills/Preferences
Design craft
- Strong product design fundamentals across interaction, information design, and visual craft. You have an opinion about each layer.
- You take a fuzzy problem from research to flow to ship-quality interface without losing the thread.
- You build design systems that earn their keep. They accelerate the team; they don’t become the project.
- You can hold a technical conversation with engineers—about feasibility, tradeoffs, and what’s worth building.
Discovery instincts
- You know how to find the real problem. You’re as comfortable running a customer interview as a critique.
- You ask “what problem are we solving?” before “how do we design it?”
- You bring a point of view to discovery, not just data. You synthesize what you hear into a direction the team can act on.
- You can sit with ambiguity long enough to understand a problem, without letting it drag.
Startup mentality
- You’ve worked in environments where the roadmap wasn’t fully defined and the team was small, and you thrived.
- You create structure and process when needed, but you know when to skip it.
- You take ownership broadly. If something isn’t working, you fix it rather than wait for someone else to.
- Startup experience matters here more than big-tech tenure.
Tools and methods
- Hands-on with AI tools in your design work—prompting, prototyping with code or AI assistance, pulling LLMs into research synthesis.
- You bring new tools and methods into the team rather than waiting for them to arrive. Your toolkit isn’t fixed.
- You stay curious about AI/ML capabilities themselves—what the models can do, where they’re heading—and that curiosity shows up in your design work.
How You Lead
- You lead with judgment. You don’t need a senior title to set direction.
- Low ego, high standards. You’ll learn from someone who knows the area better, and you’ll push back firmly when you don’t agree.
- You communicate clearly across technical and non-technical audiences.
Additional Preferences
- Experience in life sciences, pharma, biotech, or health tech—especially if you’ve designed for scientists, researchers, or clinicians.
- Background designing B2B SaaS or developer tools.
- Prior experience at a startup, or as an early designer in an internal startup within a larger company.
- Experience as a founding designer, or as one of the first designers on a product that found users.
Why This Role
Lilly has built genuinely differentiated AI capabilities for drug discovery. The gap is product: turning that science into something a biotech startup can access, onboard, and build with. That’s what this team is about. As the founding designer, you’ll have unusual leverage. You’ll have real ownership, a short decision chain, and work that matters. The product you help shape can affect how medicines get discovered and developed. That’s not a line in a pitch deck—it’s the actual job.Equal Opportunity Employer Statement
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 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). Learn more about all of our groups.Compensation and Benefits
Actual compensation will depend on a candidate’s education, experience, skills, and geographic location. The anticipated wage for this position is $177,000 - $270,600. 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 employees.Key skills/competency
- Product Design
- User Research
- Design Systems
- Interaction Design
- Visual Design
- Prototyping
- AI/ML Tools
- B2B SaaS
- Biotech
- Startup Mentality
Skills & topics
- Product Designer
- Staff Designer
- UX Designer
- UI Designer
- Design System
- User Research
- Interaction Design
- Visual Design
- Prototyping
- AI
- Machine Learning
- SaaS
- Biotech
- Pharma
- Healthcare
- Indianapolis
- Eli Lilly
How to get hired
- Tailor your resume: Highlight 8+ years of product design experience, shipping software, and senior/staff level work. Emphasize AI tool usage and startup mentality.
- Showcase your portfolio: Ensure it demonstrates end-to-end work, from problem framing to final craft, with a focus on user-centric solutions.
- Research Lilly's culture: Understand their commitment to 'caring and discovery' and their innovative Catalyze360 initiative.
- Prepare for interviews: Be ready to discuss your design process, how you handle ambiguity, and your experience working closely with engineering and product teams.
- Highlight relevant experience: If you have experience in life sciences, B2B SaaS, or as a founding designer, make sure to emphasize it.
Technical preparation
Master design tools: Figma, Sketch, Adobe Creative Suite.,Practice AI design tools: prompting, LLM integration.,Build prototypes with code or near-code.,Develop a strong design system methodology.
Behavioral questions
Describe a time you found the 'real problem'.,How do you handle ambiguity in product development?,Share an experience building a design system.,How do you balance user needs with business goals?
Prefer to apply the usual way?
Not recommended alone — most applicants never hear back. Email the hiring manager first.
Frequently asked questions
- What is Lilly TuneLab and what is this Staff Product Designer role about?
- Lilly TuneLab is an AI/ML platform providing biotech companies access to drug discovery models. The Staff Product Designer role is crucial for defining and designing the user experience of this platform for external biotech partners, ensuring it's usable and valuable. You'll be instrumental in translating complex AI capabilities into a coherent product.
- What kind of experience is Eli Lilly and Company looking for in a Staff Product Designer?
- They seek a designer with at least 8 years of experience, a strong portfolio showcasing end-to-end product design, and a track record of shipping software for external customers. Experience as a senior or staff designer on a small team, and a 'startup mentality' are highly valued, as is hands-on experience with AI tools and a background in B2B SaaS or life sciences.
- What does it mean to have a 'startup mentality' for this role at Eli Lilly and Company?
- A 'startup mentality' means thriving in environments with undefined roadmaps and small teams, creating structure when needed but knowing when to skip it, and taking broad ownership to fix issues proactively. Startup experience is considered more important than tenure at large tech companies for this specific role.
- How important is experience with AI/ML tools for the Staff Product Designer position at Lilly TuneLab?
- Hands-on experience with AI tools in design work, such as prompting, prototyping with AI assistance, and integrating LLMs into research, is highly preferred. Staying curious about AI/ML capabilities and letting that curiosity influence your design work is also a significant advantage.
- What is the compensation range for the Staff Product Designer role at Eli Lilly and Company?
- The anticipated annual salary for this position ranges from $177,000 to $270,600, depending on factors like education, experience, skills, and geographic location. Employees are also eligible for company bonuses and a comprehensive benefits package.
- What are the educational requirements for the Staff Product Designer job at Eli Lilly and Company?
- A Bachelor's degree in Design, HCI, or a related field is required. The role also emphasizes 8+ years of practical product design experience and a strong portfolio over formal education alone.
- Does Eli Lilly and Company sponsor work authorization for this Staff Product Designer role?