Exec. Dir. , Data Strategy

Job Description

Role Summary

This individual is responsible for ensuring Human Health (HH) has an industry‑leading strategy and approach to sourcing, creating, and activating commercial data assets that inform business‑critical decisions and actions across US business units (Oncology, Vaccines, Pharma, Respiratory, Rare Disease). This leader will create, own, and implement the HH US data asset strategy and innovation agenda across commercial data domains (HCP, consumer, payer, patient, account, engagement, and related sources). The role maximizes the return on HH’s substantial annual investment in third‑party data and unlocks value from first‑party, unstructured data assets while ensuring compliance with applicable US privacy and regulatory requirements.

Position Responsibilities

• Treat data as a strategic asset to empower the organization to drive innovation, make informed decisions, and create competitive advantage for HH US.

• Shapes HH US data strategy and innovative solutions across core capabilities & business units for inline and pipeline products.

• Partner across DHH, broader HH, Information Technology (IT), Commercial, Research & Development, Market Access, Legal, Privacy, and other stakeholders to extract maximum commercial value from data assets.

• Own accountability for managing US data privacy and compliance risks associated with data access and use, ensuring alignment with HIPAA, CCPA/CPRA (as applicable), contractual requirements and internal policies.

• Maintain a deep understanding of the US commercial data landscape (1st, 2nd and 3rd party assets spanning HCP, consumer, payer, patient, account, etc.) and assess the relative commercial value of each asset.

• Continuously scan the US market for new data assets, partnership opportunities (publishers, payers, health systems, technology vendors), and emerging commercial data technologies.

• Oversee US data needs assessments by gathering input from analytics and business stakeholders, identifying gaps versus the ideal state, prioritizing gaps and building execution plans.

• Lead acquisition of new external assets, formation of partnerships to co-create assets, and internal initiatives to capture additional US first party data where needed.

• Lead data innovation initiatives to enable better utilization of our investments and to create value through new innovative ways to utilize, create and deliver marketing and sales insights.

• Identify, operationalize and enable ‘out of the box’ solutions to transform ‘data to insights’ aligned to the L3 framework to meet the needs of various business units and market activation teams.

• Collaborate closely with US market activation teams, Global Marketing Engagement, Central Data & Analytics office, Digital Data Product Teams, Commercial data solutions and Other DHH and HH teams to ensure correct technical implementation and measurable value realization.

• Establish and maintain productive working relationships with US and global data vendors; responsible for vendor selection, contracting input, performance oversight and portfolio management.

• Implements “Privacy and Compliance by design” frameworks from Enterprise functions across internal and external datasets, ensuring alignment with global regulations (e.g., GDPR, HIPAA) and contract standards

• Build and deliver training and change programs to promote responsible data use and adoption across US commercial teams.

• Lead and maintain partnerships with SP data aggregation and integration partners to identify best in class practices. Responsible for SP data aggregation and integration work for our company's portfolio. Work closely with Central Data and Analytics organization to enable ingestion and onboarding of data, implement the appropriate data quality frameworks, the right data models and ensure the data makes it to through the medallion architecture to the right data products, to serve the various DHH, IT and HH prioritized use cases.

• Enable the right data strategy and partnership to enable data onboarding from various patient services programs – Patient services programs, Patient hub...

• Responsible for partnering with large cross functional teams to maximize the value created, delivered and realized from the data investments in the US.

• Responsible for the data procurement, contract management, financial planning for all data investments made in the US to support our company's HH division.

Behavioral Competencies Required

•       Strategic understanding of our business portfolio and ability to anticipate data gaps/opportunities for our product portfolio

•       Strategic planning and prioritization of demand and innovation aligned to TA needs, LROP requirements, and platform evolution

•       Able to drive risk mitigation strategies and represent a Digital/Analytics org in Legal, Privacy, and Global Ethics forums

•       Able to lead large and high performing cross functional teams in matrixed organizations

•       Need to be an excellent collaborator, proactive planner and strategic thinker that can execute flawlessly with the greatest levels of operational excellence and financial discipline.

Functional Competencies Required

• Experience in working with enterprise/central data functions and unstructured data to support key programs and initiatives (e.g., Marketing, Sales, Account Management, Market Access, Content, Engagement/Activity, Alliances)

• Understanding of how data layers support downstream use cases in brand, forecasting, and patient support

• Hands-on experience with Enterprise data strategy, data management, developing data platforms & analytical solutions, including FAIR, consented, & payer data integration

• Deep expertise in commercial pharma data domains with extensive experience in applied data and insights using real world data assets

• Experience with global data strategy, product engineering, and digital innovation programs

• Proven success in attracting, nurturing and developing talent.

• Familiarity with agile product development, API orchestration, and data privacy requirements (e.g., HIPAA, GDPR)

 

Experience Requirements

15+ years in data strategy, governance, engineering, data products, or consulting in pharma or life sciences

Educational Requirements

Master’s or PhD in Quantitative Business Analytics, Quantitative Sciences, Engineering or Operations Research, Pharm D, Medical Sciences;

MBA or innovation/entrepreneurial certification preferred

Required Skills:

Academic Quality Improvement Program (AQIP), Biopharmaceutical Industry, Biopharmaceutics, Business Strategies, Communication, Contract Management, Data Management, Data Quality Control, Financial Planning, Governance Management, Leadership, Oncology, Operational Excellence, Privacy Compliance, Quality Management, Risk Management and Mitigation, Risk Mitigation Strategies, Strategic Planning, Technical Advice, Vendor Selection, Waterfall Model

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.

Learn more about your rights, including under California, Colorado and other US State Acts

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

$227,300.00 - $357,900.00

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:

No

Travel Requirements:

10%

Flexible Work Arrangements:

Hybrid

Shift:

1st - Day

Valid Driving License:

No

Hazardous Material(s):

NA

Job Posting End Date:

12/30/2025

*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.