Sr. Staff UX Researcher

At Lilly, the work is demanding because patients are waiting. We unite caring with discovery to help make life better for people around the world, knowing that every decision, every detail, and every day matters. 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. This is hard, urgent, selfless work—but it’s work worth doing. If you’re driven by purpose and ready to bring your best to work that truly matters for patients, we invite you to join us. 

Eli Lilly and Company is a global healthcare leader that unites caring with discovery to create medicines that make life better for people around the world. We’re leveraging cutting-edge technologies and innovative platforms to develop next-generation therapeutic ecosystems, connected devices, data, and analytics to transform patient experiences and improve treatment outcomes.

As a member of Design at Lilly, you will be at the forefront of crafting intuitive, accessible, and impactful digital experiences. We work across every function of the organization, applying design thinking to solve complex challenges and create meaningful solutions for patients, healthcare professionals, and the people who care for them. Our team combines user insight with design expertise to ensure the human element is at the core of everything we build.

ABOUT THE ROLE

As a Sr. Staff UX Researcher at Lilly, you will lead complex research initiatives that shape digital products, services, and experiences for patients, healthcare professionals, and other users across the healthcare ecosystem. You will help teams make better product and business decisions by bringing user perspective, behavioral insight, and sound research judgment into the work.

This role goes beyond executing individual studies. You will influence product and experience strategy, identify important evidence gaps, and translate complex research into clear recommendations that help teams understand what matters, what to do next, and why. You will proactively connect insights across studies, products, and user populations to uncover broader patterns and strategic opportunities.

You will partner closely with product, design, engineering, clinical, and business leaders in complex, ambiguous, regulated, and cross-functional environments. You will also help mature the UX research practice by coaching others, strengthening research standards, and developing scalable approaches that improve how teams generate and use evidence.

CORE RESPONSIBILITIES

Great experiences at Lilly start here. These are the responsibilities we expect from UX Researchers across levels:

• Lead complex, multi-stream research initiatives spanning products, platforms, services, or therapeutic areas, ensuring work is aligned to high-impact decision needs.
• Define and shape research strategy by identifying critical knowledge gaps, prioritizing high-value questions, and aligning research efforts to product, business, and user outcomes.
• Translate ambiguous or poorly defined requests into clear decision frameworks, helping teams clarify what needs to be learned, why it matters, and how evidence should be used.
• Select and apply appropriate qualitative, quantitative, or mixed methods based on decision risk, timeline, product maturity, and existing evidence, ensuring methodological fit-for-purpose.
• Establish the appropriate level of rigor for each decision context, balancing speed, depth, and confidence in evidence to support sound product and business choices.
• Design ethical, accessible, and unbiased research approaches that minimize participant burden while ensuring validity, inclusivity, and regulatory compliance.
• Synthesize complex and multi-source data into clear, decision-ready insights, implications, and recommendations that directly influence product direction and experience strategy.
• Connect evidence across studies, products, timeframes, and user populations to identify systemic patterns, unmet needs, and strategic opportunities.
• Influence product, design, engineering, clinical, and business decisions by clearly communicating research findings and their implications to diverse audiences, including senior leadership.
• Serve as a trusted strategic partner to cross-functional leaders, shaping decisions through evidence, framing, and insight rather than formal authority.
• Coach and elevate other researchers and cross-functional partners in research rigor, methodological judgment, synthesis quality, and effective communication of evidence.
• Strengthen organizational research maturity by identifying gaps in methods, tools, standards, and processes, and driving practical improvements that scale impact.
• Develop reusable frameworks, playbooks, templates, and knowledge systems that improve consistency, efficiency, and quality of research across teams.
• Advance responsible adoption of AI and emerging technologies in research workflows, ensuring appropriate human oversight, methodological integrity, and ethical use.

Basic Requirements

• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Human-Computer Interaction, Cognitive Psychology, Anthropology, Sociology, Design, Behavioral Science, or a related field. 
• 8+ years of progressive, hands-on UX research experience supporting digital products, services, platforms, or complex workflows.
• Deep expertise in qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods.
• A portfolio demonstrating methodological rigor, sound judgment, and the decisions your research informed.

• Qualified candidates must be legally authorized to be employed in the United States; Lilly does not anticipate providing sponsorship for employment visa status (e.g., H-1B or TN status) for this employment position

WHAT YOU WILL BRING

• Strong research judgment, including selecting the appropriate level of rigor for a given decision.
• Ability to synthesize complex evidence into clear, actionable recommendations.
• Systems thinking and the ability to connect insights across products, user populations, and business priorities.
• Strong product and business acumen.
• Comfort navigating ambiguity and framing ill-defined problems.
• Ability to influence decisions without direct authority.
• Executive communication and storytelling skills.
• Ability to coach others and elevate research quality across teams.
• Pragmatic mindset that balances rigor with speed and business needs.
• Commitment to ethical research, accessibility, and participant privacy.
• Curiosity and willingness to leverage AI responsibly to improve research effectiveness.

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 (AMECA), Black Employees at Lilly (BE@Lilly), Chinese Culture Network (CCN), EnAble, Evolve, Lilly Indian Network (LIN), Organization of Latinx at Lilly (OLA), Pride (LGBTQ+ Allies), Veterans Leadership Network (VLN) and Women’s Initiative for Leading at Lilly (WILL).

Actual compensation will depend on a candidate’s education, experience, skills, and geographic location.  The anticipated wage for this position is

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.

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