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 35,000 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.

Overview

Lilly’s Benefit Plan Investment Team (‘PBI’) within Global Treasury, provides critical investment strategy and implementation, fiduciary oversight, controllership, cash management and maintains direct responsibility for regulatory and financial reporting for the U.S. benefit plans. These plans include ~$30 billion of assets and exposures, ~$15 billion in liabilities and the related operations and transactions for Lilly’s U.S. and Puerto Rico employee pension, savings retirement health and active employee welfare plan benefits. These activities are managed through relationships with over 70 external partners that provide investment management, consulting, custodian, trustee, reporting, accounting, legal and other service. The team coordinates with the Lilly Human Resource benefits team and regularly reports up through a fiduciary committee established by the Lilly Board of Directors.

To be successful, the PBI team must coordinate, influence, negotiate and effectively communicate with numerous external parties including:

~55 Institutional Investment Managers across public and private asset classes
an additional ~15 other third parties
Benchmarking firms
Institutional investment management peer groups, advisory organizations, and law firms
Regulatory agencies upon inquiry or audit.

Responsibilities

The Chief Operating Officer is part of the Pension and Benefits Investments leadership team, and is responsible for all operations, financial controls, expense analysis, financial reporting, independent financial statements, tax reporting, ERISA, GAAP, SEC, Tax and regulatory requirements and their related compliance activities. This leader reports directly to the Associate Vice President and Chief Investment Officer for the Lilly Benefit Plans.

Specific Responsibilities Include

Management and development of operations team for excellence.
- Direct supervision, development, career coaching and succession plan for controller and assistant controller in team to deliver financial reporting, financial control, compliance, and regulatory reporting capabilities.
- Development and maintenance of a master calendar and training plan for key operations team processes, including 10K, SOx, benefit plan financials, 5500 regulatory filings, tax filings and related audit deliverables.
- Regular evaluation of third-party operations partners, ensuring mutual feedback and competitive analysis of services/quality/pricing.
- Oversight of all trust expense processing and reporting, including annual benchmarking and trust summary review with fiduciary committee.
- Maintenance of documentation and consistency in records retention practices to ensure fiduciary, financial, and regulatory files are up-to-date, complete, and efficient.
- Review of key reporting/auditing processes and identification of opportunities for automation, linkage, outsourcing (if appropriate).
- Active participation in external peer networks and advisor conferences to bring best practices and efficiency back to the team.

Direct team and participate in Lilly’s corporate reporting, controls, disclosures, and audits
- Oversee and own updates to SOx procedures, 10K and related footnote reporting, compliance, and deadlines. Of note is the Critical Audit Matter assessment, (‘CAM’) given to the asset portfolios by EY, and the increased expectations around the valuation, control, and reporting of the benefit plan assets.

Direct and participate in the creation of financial statements, full audits, tax filings and regulatory disclosures for all 6 benefit plans. Including:
- Oversight of processes, directing of contributors and deliverables for audit, and the communication with stakeholders in these processes.
- Facilitation of the client assistance guides, engagement letter, management representation letter for all audits and 11-K filing of Savings Plan.
- External awareness, expertise, networking, and identification of best practices on requirements, interpretations, and expectations of regulatory authorities.
- Coordination and alignment with HR Benefits, Legal, key service providers, external compilation firm and external auditors (EY).

Develop and maintain a full understanding of ERISA fiduciary, Accounting, Legislative, SEC and IRS compliance expectations and peer best practices through networking, education, and coordination with external experts. Develop a program with deliverables to ensure compliance, including but not limited to the following activities:
- Records retention expectations, timing, and completeness
- Fee reconciliation processes and documentation, including expense reimbursement processes with the company
- Third party vendor contract management/relationship review/negotiation schedule across entire PBI Team
- Policies and procedures reviews and related governance approvals. Benchmarking and evaluation of opportunities for adjustments/additions/simplifications.
- Maintenance and communication of authoritative governance/delegation documentation and communication with all (>70) third parties of any changes. This includes company board, secretary and fiduciary committee actions and related documentation.
- Review and update of access control to third party systems and documentation, key custodial/trustee systems, and third-party portals.
- Direct the 408(b)(2) process across the investment teams.
- Ongoing monitoring of external developments and proposals that have the potential to have material impacts on team operations and leverage third party advocacy groups when necessary to ensure plan or plan sponsor needs, concerns and alternative suggestions are shared with regulators, custodians, auditors, etc.
- Leadership and documentation of deliverables and responses along with close coordination with legal and HR Benefits, during regulatory/IRS/internal audit or other examinations.

Provide fiduciary training/documentation/expertise to all members of PBI at an operational / implementation level. Responsibilities include but are not limited to:
- Partnering with Legal and HR Benefits to design and facilitate biennial fiduciary training of all EBC and FAC members and related staff.
- Own and deliver operations-level fiduciary training to all new PBI Staff
- Own and deliver time tracking training to all new PBI or HR Benefits Staff as appropriate

Develop and facilitate ODD programs for all third parties, including investment management partners
- Review market/fiduciary best practices and develop a program, rotation, and prioritization approach to the initial and periodic reviews of ODD processes for third-party relationships (>70).
- Identify third party ODD experts and conduct periodic deeper exercises through those entities, as appropriate and with support from respective PBI business owner.
- Leverage existing relationships and access to ODD assessments already existing in the market (e.g., Mercer, Northern Trust, and SEI).
- Include cybersecurity preparedness, assessment, mitigation for third party relationships, in partnership with Lilly IT Security, Legal, HR Benefit and the PBI business owner of the relationship.
- Coordinate and align with key WWtP (Lilly’s Working with Third Parties) processes in Lilly to determine priorities and required coverage, as appropriate.

The operations team directly owns select third party relationships, including contract management, quality management, fee evaluation, competitive analysis, and regular due diligence visits as appropriate with:
- Northern Trust as Custodian, Trustee and Reporting Agent for all four trust. This includes oversight of NT’s custody practices, accounting operations, asset pricing practices, account configurations, plan accounting capabilities and reporting.
- Banco Popular as co-Trustee for Puerto Rico Defined Benefit and Defined Contribution Plans
- Aon Actuarial services
- CEM Benchmarking
- EY (independent Auditors)
- Plante Moran (compilation accountant / tax accountant and advisor)

Basic Qualifications

Bachelor’s degree in a business field (e.g., Accounting, Finance, Economics)
CPA is strongly preferred.
Minimum of 8-10 years of progressive experience working with financial statements, reporting disclosures, controllership, and expense control management, demonstrating deep knowledge of GAAP standards and development of internal reporting/operating practices in an accounting or finance role.
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

Additional Skills/Preferences

Experience working with external/internal auditors and/or managing regulatory exams.
Prior supervisory experience
High attention to detail, and strong organizational skills while multi-tasking.
Strong interpersonal communication skills and willingness to speak up and escalate concerns.
Sense of ownership, integrity, and commitment.
Strong proficiency in excel and MS skills, including pivot table development/use.
Exposure to ERISA, employee benefit plans, fiduciary practices, trustee, and custodian management or institutional investing would be helpful.
Familiarity with actuarial concepts and fiduciary governance.
Learning agility and ability to interpret new regulatory drafts/pronouncements, accounting drafts and legal contracts.
Experience with at least some of the following:
- Pension benefit accounting / regulations / tax issues
- Treasury transactions / banking operations / investment management practices
- External relationship/negotiation/contracting
- Fiduciary practices
Ability and interest in coaching and developing others
Moderate travel as needed <10%.
Role is based in Indianapolis.
Minimum 5-year commitment to this role while at Lilly.

Eli Lilly and Company, Lilly USA, LLC and our wholly owned subsidiaries (collectively “Lilly”) are committed to help individuals with disabilities to participate in the workforce and ensure equal opportunity to compete for jobs. If you require an accommodation to submit a resume for positions at Lilly, please email Lilly Human Resources ( Lilly_Recruiting_Compliance@lists.lilly.com ) for further assistance. Please note This email address is intended for use only to request an accommodation as part of the application process. Any other correspondence will not receive a response.

Lilly 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.

Our employee resource groups (ERGs) offer strong support networks for their members and help our company develop talented individuals for future leadership roles. Our current groups include: Africa, Middle East, Central Asia Network, African American Network, Chinese Culture Network, Early Career Professionals, Japanese International Leadership Network (JILN), Lilly India Network, Organization of Latinos at Lilly, PRIDE (LGBTQ + Allies), Veterans Leadership Network, Women’s Network, Working and Living with Disabilities. Learn more about all of our groups.

As a condition of employment with Eli Lilly and Company and its subsidiaries in the United States and Puerto Rico, you must be fully COVID-19 vaccinated and provide proof of vaccination satisfactory to the company (subject to applicable law).

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Senior Director - Chief Financial and Operating Officer of Benefit Plans