Director, Strategic Planning

Merck Merck · Pharma · PA

This role leads a team responsible for shaping a future where strategy and execution operate as a unified system, transformation is delivered at scale with speed, and new capabilities such as AI and automation redefine how work is done. The Director will provide direction, coaching, and prioritization across a portfolio of strategic initiatives while ensuring strong execution, talent development, and enterprise impact.

What you'd actually do

  1. Lead and manage a team of Associate Directors, providing direction, prioritization, and coaching to drive high performance and consistent delivery across transformation initiatives
  2. Own a portfolio of transformation initiatives aligned to enterprise strategic priorities, ensuring end-to-end delivery from strategy through deployment and value realization
  3. Translate enterprise strategy into a coherent transformation roadmap, aligning initiatives to business outcomes and sequencing for maximum impact
  4. Oversee pilot design, execution, and scaling, ensuring insights are codified into repeatable playbooks for enterprise adoption
  5. Ensure effective deployment of capabilities across brands and business units, driving adoption, change integration, and measurable value realization

Skills

Required

  • Bachelor’s Degree
  • Minimum of 10+ years of related Industry Experience
  • Minimum 5+ years Transformation or Strategic Planning Experience
  • Experience leading cross-functional teams and initiatives
  • Established People Manager with ability to lead across a matrixed organization
  • Demonstrable Change Management experience or a combination of professional certification(s)
  • Demonstrable experience executing comprehensive transformational change plans across a broad group of stakeholders/functions (HQ, field, COEs, strategic partners, executive sponsors, etc.) to work collaboratively and achieve success
  • Comfortable working in white space and managing multiple workstreams simultaneously
  • Experience working with external vendors to execute on transformational projects
  • Strong executive presence and communication skills
  • Strong understanding of compliance-related concepts and application in all job-related functions

Nice to have

  • Master’s Degree
  • Direct customer experience (i.e. Sales, Marketing)
  • Established business owner (i.e. P&L, Financial trade-offs)
  • Knowledgeable in systems thinking, design thinking and organizational behavior
  • Experience with digital, AI, or data-driven transformation preferred

What the JD emphasized

  • AI-enabled commercial model
  • AI and automation redefine how work is done
  • AI-enabled workflows