Associate Director, Marketing

Job Description

Position Overview

Associate Director, Companion Animal Marketing, Parasiticides will support and drive commercial growth for our parasiticide portfolio in the United States, partnering across Brand, Digital, Field Sales, Commercial Operations and external agencies. The Associate Director Parasiticides role requires deep direct-to-consumer (DTC) marketing capabilities with broad multi‑channel commercial experience (veterinary channel, distribution, e-commerce and retail) and people leadership responsibilities. The reports to the Director, Parasiticides Marketing and will be an integral member of the brand and cross‑functional teams.

At our company's Animal Health, you’ll join a team that’s passionate about the human–animal bond and committed to caring for animals across the full spectrum of care—from prevention and protection to treatment and lifelong well-being. Our culture is grounded in science and fueled by collaboration: we work side-by-side with veterinarians, customers, and partners to help preserve and improve the health, well-being, and performance of animals worldwide. If you’re energized by bold thinking and want to make a meaningful impact, you’ll thrive in an environment that stays agile, visionary, and responsive to what animals and the industry need next.

Key responsibilities include but are not limited to:

• Campaign strategy & execution (DTC)

  • Lead development, planning and execution of consumer-facing campaigns across paid, owned and earned channels (creative brief development, audience segmentation, messaging, channel mix).

  • Own campaign measurement and optimization: set campaign KPIs, work with analytics to monitor performance and iterate to maximize ROI.

  • Manage media planning and buying end-to-end (channel selection, budget allocation, vendor negotiation, performance reporting).

• Agency & vendor management

  • Select, onboard and lead creative, media and performance agencies; manage scopes of work, timelines, quality and budgets.

  • Serve as the primary internal partner for agency partners and external vendors, providing clear direction, feedback, and approvals.

• Multi-channel marketing & commercialization

  • Develop and execute channel-specific strategies for e-commerce and retail to align with overall brand objectives.

  • Partner closely with retail team, sales leadership and other partners to enable synchronized tactics that drive awareness, consideration and adoption in consumer audiences while emphasizing the importance of veterinary care.

  • Support e-commerce. home delivery and retail initiatives (site merchandising, promotions, digital shelf, partner integrations) to drive conversion and repeat purchase.

• Brand & product marketing

  • Contribute to leadership of portfolio brand planning including positioning, messaging, strategies and value propositions for parasiticide brands and pipeline products.

  • Lead direct-to-consumer creative development and ensure compliance with legal, regulatory and scientific review processes.

  • Participate in cross-functional launch teams to help ensure commercial launch excellence.

  • Build portfolio as well as product strategies & marketing plans to leverage products within a brand, while extending leverage and advantage across the companion animal portfolio

• Financial & project management

  • Contribute to achievement of portfolio and business unit gross and net revenue targets annually

  • Manage an allocated marketing budget including A&P and Gross to Net spend working closely with Finance to track monthly expenses and meet company targets.

  • Contribute to a leveraged business unit P&L through understanding leverage drivers, including optimizing product margin

  • Oversee project timelines, deliverables and cross‑functional dependencies to ensure timely execution.

• Measurement & insights

  • Define success metrics and partner with analytics/insights teams to measure campaign, channel and product performance; identify and implement corrective actions.

  • Assess market research needs and use competitive and market intelligence to inform strategy.

• People leadership

  • Lead and develop a small marketing team (direct reports), set clear objectives & priorities, coach for performance, implement development plans, and build cross-functional collaboration skills.

  • Foster an inclusive, high-performing team culture and manage resource allocation to meet business priorities.

Qualifications (required)

• Bachelor's degree in marketing, Business, Communications, or related field.

• Minimum 7 years of relevant marketing experience with demonstrable consumer-facing (DTC) campaign development and execution.

• Proven experience in media planning and buying, including working with media agencies and managing media budgets.

• Experience marketing across multiple channels including direct-to-veterinarian programs, distribution partnerships, e-commerce and retail.

• Demonstrated experience managing agencies and external vendors (creative, media, performance).

• Prior people management experience (direct reports) or clear evidence of leadership capability.

• Strong project management skills, with the ability to manage multiple initiatives and cross-functional stakeholders in a matrixed organization.

• Strong communication skills (written, verbal, presentation) and ability to translate technical content into customer friendly messages.

• Solid financial acumen: experience managing budgets and tracking ROI.

• Willingness to travel up to 20–25% as needed.

Preferred qualifications

• Experience in animal health, veterinary channel marketing, or pharmaceutical/consumer healthcare marketing.

• MBA or advanced degree preferred.

• Experience working with field-based brand teams or sales representatives.

• Familiarity with marketing measurement tools and analytics platforms (e.g., Google Analytics, programmatic/demand-side platforms, CRM tools).

• Additional background in veterinary science or animal health is a plus.

Behavioral competencies

• Strategic thinker with a bias for action and an owner mentality.

• Excellent professional judgement, decision-making and problem-solving capabilities, with the ability to act decisively using evidence-based reasoning

• Strong collaborator who thrives in a matrix organization.

• Customer-centric mindset with the ability to balance long-term brand building and short-term performance.

• Effective people leader and coach, who can develop talent and drives accountability.

Required Skills:

Adaptability, Brand Building, Brand Management, Content Creation, Corrective Action Management, Creative Briefs, Creativity, Cross-Functional Collaboration, Cross-Functional Leadership, Customer Insights, Decision Making, Digital Consumer Engagement, Digital Marketing, E-Commerce, Google Analytics, Marketing Planning, Market Research, Market Segmentation, Omnichannel Marketing, Product Launches, Product Management, Project Management, Strategic Planning, Strategic Thinking, Vendor Contract Negotiations

Preferred Skills:

Current Employees apply HERE

Current Contingent Workers apply HERE

US and Puerto Rico Residents Only:

Our company is committed to inclusion, ensuring that candidates can engage in a hiring process that exhibits their true capabilities. Please click here if you need an accommodation during the application or hiring process.

As an Equal Employment Opportunity Employer, we provide equal opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment and prohibit discrimination on the basis of race, color, age, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, protected veteran status, disability status, or other applicable legally protected characteristics.  As a federal contractor, we comply with all affirmative action requirements for protected veterans and individuals with disabilities.  For more information about personal rights under the U.S. Equal Opportunity Employment laws, visit:

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We are proud to be a company that embraces the value of bringing together, talented, and committed people with diverse experiences, perspectives, skills and backgrounds. The fastest way to breakthrough innovation is when people with diverse ideas, broad experiences, backgrounds, and skills come together in an inclusive environment. We encourage our colleagues to respectfully challenge one another’s thinking and approach problems collectively.

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U.S. Hybrid Work Model

Effective September 5, 2023, employees in office-based positions in the U.S. will be working a Hybrid work consisting of three total days on-site per week, Monday - Thursday, although the specific days may vary by site or organization, with Friday designated as a remote-working day, unless business critical tasks require an on-site presence.This Hybrid work model does not apply to, and daily in-person attendance is required for, field-based positions; facility-based, manufacturing-based, or research-based positions where the work to be performed is located at a Company site; positions covered by a collective-bargaining agreement (unless the agreement provides for hybrid work); or any other position for which the Company has determined the job requirements cannot be reasonably met working remotely. Please note, this Hybrid work model guidance also does not apply to roles that have been designated as “remote”.

The salary range for this role is

$142,400.00 - $224,100.00

This is the lowest to highest salary we in good faith believe we would pay for this role at the time of this posting. An employee’s position within the salary range will be based on several factors including, but not limited to relevant education, qualifications, certifications, experience, skills, geographic location, government requirements, and business or organizational needs.

The successful candidate will be eligible for annual bonus and long-term incentive, if applicable.

We offer a comprehensive package of benefits.  Available benefits include medical, dental, vision healthcare and other insurance benefits (for employee and family), retirement benefits, including 401(k), paid holidays, vacation, and compassionate and sick days. More information about benefits is available at https://jobs.merck.com/us/en/compensation-and-benefits.

You can apply for this role through https://jobs.merck.com/us/en (or via the Workday Jobs Hub if you are a current employee). The application deadline for this position is stated on this posting.

San Francisco Residents Only: We will consider qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records for employment in compliance with the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance

Los Angeles Residents Only: We will consider for employment all qualified applicants, including those with criminal histories, in a manner consistent with the requirements of applicable state and local laws, including the City of Los Angeles’ Fair Chance Initiative for Hiring Ordinance

Search Firm Representatives Please Read Carefully 
Merck & Co., Inc., Rahway, NJ, USA, also known as Merck Sharp & Dohme LLC, Rahway, NJ, USA, does not accept unsolicited assistance from search firms for employment opportunities. All CVs / resumes submitted by search firms to any employee at our company without a valid written search agreement in place for this position will be deemed the sole property of our company.  No fee will be paid in the event a candidate is hired by our company as a result of an agency referral where no pre-existing agreement is in place. Where agency agreements are in place, introductions are position specific. Please, no phone calls or emails. 

Employee Status:

Regular

Relocation:

Domestic

VISA Sponsorship:

Yes

Travel Requirements:

25%

Flexible Work Arrangements:

Not Applicable

Shift:

Not Indicated

Valid Driving License:

No

Hazardous Material(s):

N/A

Job Posting End Date:

05/20/2026

*A job posting is effective until 11:59:59PM on the day BEFORE the listed job posting end date. Please ensure you apply to a job posting no later than the day BEFORE the job posting end date.