MSD

Senior Specialist, PMO Support /Scrum Master

USA - New Jersey - Rahway Full time

Job Description

The Senior Specialist – Scrum Master & PMO Support is responsible for supporting Agile delivery across the S/4HANA PMO workstreams while also supporting core PMO activities, including strategic planning, governance, change management, and communication support. The role ensures Agile principles and practices are effectively applied to drive team performance, collaboration, and continuous improvement, while keeping delivery aligned with overall program objectives, timelines, and governance. The position also contributes to change, communication, and training activities to support stakeholder readiness and successful adoption of S/4HANA.

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Key Responsibilities

· Scrum Master & Agile Facilitation: Lead and facilitate Agile ceremonies (such as daily stand-ups, sprint planning, backlog refinement, reviews, and retrospectives), coach team members on Agile principles and practices, and foster a culture of continuous improvement, transparency, and collaboration across S/4HANA PMO workstreams.

· Backlog Management & Delivery Alignment: Partner with Product Owners and key stakeholders to maintain a clear, prioritized backlog, ensure work items are well-defined and ready for execution, and align sprint goals and outcomes with overall S/4HANA program objectives and milestones.

· Risk Management: Proactively identify and remove impediments impacting team delivery, monitor team progress using appropriate metrics and tools, and support the identification, escalation, and mitigation of risks and issues within and across PMO workstreams.

· PMO Governance & Reporting Support: Support core PMO activities by maintaining accurate status reporting, RAID (risks, assumptions, issues, dependencies) logs, and other governance documentation, and provide clear visibility into sprint outcomes, delivery status, and key decisions for program leadership and governance bodies.

· Cross-Team Coordination & Dependency Management: Collaborate with other Scrum Masters, PMO leads, and workstream owners to manage cross-team dependencies, coordinate joint planning where needed, and help ensure integrated, end-to-end delivery across the S/4HANA program.

· Change Management Support: Contribute to the development and execution of change management activities by helping assess change impacts, supporting stakeholder readiness efforts, and working with change management leads to integrate key messages and behavioral expectations into team ways of working.

· Communication & Stakeholder Engagement: Support program and PMO communication efforts by providing input to communication plans, ensuring timely and clear updates to stakeholders, and reinforcing key messages related to priorities, milestones, and ways of working within assigned teams.

· Training & Readiness Support: Assist with planning and coordinating training and readiness activities for impacted teams by aligning training needs with program timelines, supporting logistics and materials preparation, and helping monitor readiness indicators and adoption progress within supported workstreams.

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Required Skills & Experience

· 5+ years of combined experience in:

  • PMO or program/project management support, and

  • Agile delivery / Scrum Master or similar roles

· Experience supporting large-scale transformation programs (preferably ERP or S/4HANA).

· Understanding of Agile frameworks (e.g., Scrum, SAFe) with hands-on experience facilitating Agile ceremonies and coaching cross functional teams.

· Demonstrated experience working within a structured PMO or program governance environment, including status reporting, RAID management, and milestone tracking.

· Experience supporting large-scale transformation programs, preferably including ERP implementations.

· Working knowledge of organizational change management concepts and approaches, with experience partnering with change and communications leads.

· Excellent verbal and written communication skills, with the ability to facilitate meetings, drive alignment, and engage stakeholders at multiple levels.

· Strong analytical and problem-solving skills with the ability to identify impediments, propose options, and drive resolution.

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Preferred Qualifications

· Certified Scrum Master (CSM), SAFe Scrum Master (SSM), or equivalent Agile certification.

· PMP, PgMP, or related project/portfolio management credentials.

· Experience with SAP S/4HANA or other large ERP transformation programs.

· Experience in life sciences or other highly regulated industries.

· Familiarity with portfolio and reporting tools (e.g., Power BI, Tableau, or equivalent dashboards).

Required Skills:

Agile Methodology, Agile Metrics, Backlog Management, Change Agility, Collaborative Development, Communication, Driving Continuous Improvement, Enterprise Agile Delivery, Identifying Risks, Measurement Analysis, Portfolio, Programme, and Project Support, Program Management, Risk Evaluation And Mitigation Strategy (REMS), Risk Management, Scrum (Agile), Security Risk Analysis, Sprint Planning, Stakeholder Engagement, Stakeholder Relationship Management, Team Management, 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:

EEOC Know Your Rights

EEOC GINA Supplement​

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

$117,000.00 - $184,200.00

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:

No relocation

VISA Sponsorship:

No

Travel Requirements:

10%

Flexible Work Arrangements:

Hybrid

Shift:

Not Indicated

Valid Driving License:

No

Hazardous Material(s):

n/a

Job Posting End Date:

03/6/2026

*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.