Job Description
Director, Advanced Marketing Analytics & Optimization- RRD
The Director, Advanced Marketing Analytics & Optimization- is responsible for leading Marketing Effectiveness & Optimization across the US Rare Disease and Respiratory Commercial and DHH organizations, serving as a strategic analytics leader and trusted advisor to Business Unit and enterprise stakeholders. The Director drives the application of advanced analytics, predictive and prescriptive models, and GenAI-enabled solutions to optimize customer engagement, sales force effectiveness, promotion resource allocation, and marketing investments.
The role bridges strategy, analytics, digital platforms, and execution, translating complex business priorities into scalable, data-driven solutions that improve commercial performance. Accountable for end-to-end workflow automation, capability development, and adoption of modern platforms, this leader ensures analytics are actionable, understandable, and embedded into day-to-day decision-making. The Director builds and leads high-performing teams, partners closely with E2E marketing and cross-functional leaders and continuously evolves analytics methodologies to deliver measurable business impact.
The preferred candidate should have intellectual curiosity, entrepreneurial spirit, consultative mindset, strong understanding of healthcare & pharma marketing. The person should be able to identify the data, analytics and research needs to define, enable, and inform commercial strategies of our brand and business leaders. The selected candidate should have a good understanding of US data landscape, commercial analytics capabilities, and technology. This person should have demonstrated the ability to create structure, break down unstructured problem statements into solvable chunks, articulate what needs to be answered through new pieces of research and what needs to be addressed through secondary data driven analytics. The candidate should have strong Rare Disease and/or specialty, cardiovascular, respiratory expertise/therapeutic area knowledge.
This role will require interfacing and collaborating with many teams. The candidate should demonstrate consistently strong leadership skills. The preferred candidate should have led cross functional teams in their prior roles, demonstrated the ability to develop talent and create a strong team culture that brings the best out of everyone in the team. The person will have a growth mindset and embody a culture of continuous learning. Effective communication skills are essential for a candidate to be successful in this role.
Individuals in this role should have shown the ability to mentor, coach, and lead teams (direct line management and indirect management of individuals with a dotted reporting line). The individual will develop the next generation of leaders within DHH (Digital Human Health) It is critical for the candidate to create a team culture where team members are focused on ‘things that matter’, empowered to act with urgency, actively innovate and are supported through continuous learning and feedback process. The chosen candidate should be a leader that strongly believes and embraces diversity, equity, and inclusion in the workplace. Individuals with prior experience leading high performing teams is highly desired.
**Primary Job Functions: **
Engage with disease aligned teams and leaders across the US commercial organizations to understand their strategic priorities across the commercial value chain. Can translate priorities into business needs and enable interconnected problem solving.
Be a thought leader and strategic partner for commercial teams and senior marketing leaders. Engage, influence and, if needed, challenge business partners as an equal partner. Establish and manage close relationships with partners and stakeholders within DHH, marketing, sales, business operations, medical and finance.
Lead other Associate Directors, Senior Specialists and Specialists with direct line management responsibility. The candidate should be able to lead their own teams and cross-functional insights Pods, comprised of cross-functional stakeholder groups across DHH and other parts of the organization.
Articulate how the work, done till date, ties to business priorities, identify unmet needs and gaps that needs to be addressed. Develop a plan to address the additional needs and/or gaps to enable brand and commercial strategy by working with the functional leaders across the Digital Human Health (DHH) organization.
Expertise in Data & Analytics: Serve as a subject matter expert in Commercial Optimization, customer segmentation, targeting, predictive models & prescriptive analytics and as trusted advisor to inform commercial customer engagement decisions.
Optimize: Drive the implementation of new analytics methodologies to optimize personal and non-personal resource management decisions for the brand and in support of the larger portfolio.
Collaborate: Work closely with stakeholders and expert analytics leaders to translate priorities into business needs and enable interconnected problem solving, aligned to business goals.
Communicate Effectively: Simplify complex analytical methods for diverse audiences and ensure clear understanding of investment decisions across teams.
Innovate: Lead utilization of modern platforms and technologies (e.g. Prescriptive Analytics, GenAI, Agentic frameworks). Develop proofs of concept (POCs) to pilot and scale new analytics capabilities and technologies. Own end-to-end workflow automation to improve speed, scalability, and decision enablement. Champion adoption of new analytics methodologies and tools across the organization
Work with marketing leadership to prioritize the work that needs to be done considering the capacity availability within DHH
Understand the key takeaways from work done till date (across DHH) and enable insight syndication.
Travel may be required (<35%).
**Education: **
- Undergraduate degree in related discipline is required.
- MBA or Master’s or Doctorate degree in Decision Science, Marketing, Engineering, Public Health, Biological Sciences, Nursing, Pharmacy, Mathematics, Economy, Statistics, Computer Science, Medical Sciences is preferred.
**Knowledge and Skills: **
- Minimum of 12+ years of marketing insights and strategy support and expertise in delivering complex analytical projects in the pharmaceutical/biotech industry using brand analytics, market research and/or large patient or physician databases for US
- Minimum 3+ years in leading commercial insights teams
- Deep expertise in marketing effectiveness, promotion optimization, and advanced analytics.
- Proven experience influencing senior leaders with data-driven insights.
- Experience with analytics platforms, cloud technologies workflow tools and GenAI-enabled solutions.
- Demonstrated ability to lead teams, scale capabilities, and drive change in complex organizations.
- Experience and/or deep knowledge in respiratory and chronic diseases
**Work location: **Upper Gwynedd, PA or Rahway, NJ (role is hybrid and chosen candidate is expected to be in the office at least 3 days/week)
**Required Skills: **
Brand Strategy, Business Analysis, Capability Development, Commercial Analytics, Commercial Strategies, Customer Engagement, Customer Segmentation, Customer Service Improvement, Data Science, Demand Management, Digital Analytics, Digital Platforms, Innovation, Marketing, Marketing Leadership, Requirements Management, Sourcing and Procurement, Stakeholder Relationship Management, Strategic Planning, Workflow Automation
**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
The salary range for this role is
$173,200.00 - $272,600.00
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:
25%
Flexible Work Arrangements:
Hybrid
Shift:
1st - Day
Valid Driving License:
No
Hazardous Material(s):
N/A
Job Posting End Date:
06/3/2026
***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. **