Advisor - Project Planning & Scheduling

Role Summary

The Advisor - Project Planning & Scheduling serves as GFD's enterprise process owner for planning and scheduling across the global capital portfolio. The role is accountable for establishing, governing, and continuously improving standards, methodologies, systems, and performance measures that support schedule development, forecasting, and execution throughout the project lifecycle. Through technical leadership, governance, and assurance, the role ensures consistent application of planning and scheduling requirements across projects, contractors, and business partners while improving schedule quality, predictability, compliance, and project delivery outcomes.

Key Responsibilities

• Serve as GFD's enterprise process owner for planning and scheduling, establishing standards, governance requirements, methodologies, and performance expectations across the capital portfolio.
• Develop, maintain, and continuously improve enterprise planning and scheduling standards, procedures, work instructions, templates, and assurance frameworks.
• Establish scheduling requirements for all phases of project delivery, including project development, engineering, procurement, construction, commissioning, qualification and validation (CQV), startup, operational readiness, and operational handover.
• Define and govern schedule quality requirements, including schedule development, logic integrity, critical path methodology, progress measurement, forecasting, schedule risk analysis, and schedule performance management.
• Lead planning and scheduling assurance activities across the portfolio to verify compliance with enterprise standards and drive corrective actions where deficiencies are identified.
• Establish planning and scheduling requirements for contractors, consultants, and delivery partners and ensure consistent implementation across projects and regions.
• Serve as GFD's senior technical SME for schedule recovery, acceleration planning, scenario analysis, forecasting, and schedule risk mitigation.
• Govern enterprise KPIs and performance measures related to schedule quality, forecasting accuracy, schedule predictability, and project delivery performance.
• Partner with project teams, contractors, and business partners to improve scheduling capability, strengthen project execution strategies, and promote adoption of best practices.
• Build organizational capability through training, mentoring, communities of practice, and continuous improvement initiatives that advance planning and scheduling excellence across the portfolio.

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Engineering, Construction Management, Architecture, Business, Supply Chain, or a related discipline, or equivalent work experience.
• Demonstrated expertise in planning and scheduling for large, complex capital projects, including development, governance, and assurance of integrated schedules, application of critical path methodology, forecasting, schedule risk analysis, and establishment of enterprise scheduling standards and best practices.
• Proficiency with Primavera P6.
• Ability and willingness to travel up to 25%.
• Position is based in Indianapolis, Indiana.
• 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.

Preferred Qualifications

• Professional certification from AACE International, PMI, CMAA, or a similar professional organization.
• Experience serving as a planning and scheduling lead, center-of-excellence lead, or process owner supporting large capital project portfolios.
• Experience supporting integrated project delivery across engineering, procurement, construction, commissioning, qualification and validation (CQV), startup, operational readiness, and operational handover.
• Experience supporting pharmaceutical, biotechnology, life sciences, advanced manufacturing, or other complex industrial capital programs, including contractor scheduling governance and assurance.
• Proficiency with enterprise planning, scheduling, project controls, and project information management systems, including application of integrated master scheduling, schedule assurance, schedule recovery, scenario analysis, KPI management, and portfolio performance reporting.