Sr. Spclst, D&a Strategy

Merck Merck · Pharma · PA

This role is for a Senior Specialist in Business Insights & Analytics for US Oncology within Merck's Digital Human Health team. The primary focus is on developing and communicating data-driven insights to inform commercial strategies, launch plans, and achieve commercial objectives. The role involves translating business needs into analytical plans, collaborating with cross-functional teams, and staying current with industry trends, including the application of GenAI. While the role requires an understanding of AI and its potential applications, it is not a core AI/ML development role but rather a user and strategic integrator of AI-driven insights within a commercial context.

What you'd actually do

  1. Translate business needs and priorities to build analytical plans that answer business questions by providing actionable insights. Effectively communicating advanced analytics to stakeholders to inform business decisions.
  2. Communicate & collaborate effectively with cross functional teams with competencies in market research, forecasting, commercial analytics, data science, customer engagement, data strategy, population health, competitive insights, marketing operations, medical & clinical backgrounds.
  3. Stay current with industry trends and advancements in analytical methodologies to bring new ideas forward (including application of GenAI) that will enhance analytic capabilities of the organization.
  4. Contribute to innovative experiments, specifically to idea generation, idea incubation and/or experimentation, identifying tangible and measurable criteria to make meaningful improvements to the business processes and strategies.
  5. Derive actionable business insights from various data sources, develop clear data story, and communicate effectively to business stakeholders.

Skills

Required

  • 3+ years of relevant experience delivering complex analytical projects in the pharmaceutical, biotech, consulting, or healthcare industry.
  • Knowledge in mining patient medical claims/EMR data with a strategic mindset and proven record of being able to produce actionable business insights that drive positive commercial results.
  • Self-motivated, proactive mindset, and ability to work independently.
  • Effective interpersonal skills, communication skills, and stakeholder management, including experience collaborating in a matrixed organization and ability to align stakeholders on data-driven decisions.
  • Strong business acumen and consultative skills, with proven ability to comprehend business processes and commercial strategies in detail and translate these into detailed business standards/questions that power analytics.
  • Effective organizational and project management skills to work effectively across the organization and manage a team of business analysts and data scientists efficiently and effectively.
  • Innovative thinking with affinity toward experimentation and appropriate risk-taking, including curiosity about how agentic AI and automation can enhance commercial analytics and insight generation.
  • Awareness of the opportunities, limitations, and responsible use of AI (including agentic AI) in a regulated environment (e.g., data privacy, validation of AI-generated outputs).
  • Prior hands-on experience working with healthcare data especially EMR/EHR, Claims Data (i.e. IQVIA APLD) and various data offerings.
  • Business Analysis
  • Data Science
  • Demand Management
  • Innovation
  • Requirements Management
  • Sourcing and Procurement
  • Stakeholder Relationship Management
  • Strategic Planning

Nice to have

  • Domain knowledge in oncology, specifically as it relates to data analytics.
  • MBA, MS or PhD degree is a plus.

What the JD emphasized

  • experience in oncology & technology (AI, agentic etc.)
  • demonstrated record of producing actionable insights from analytics
  • good understanding of US data landscape, commercial analytics capabilities, and technology, including application of GenAI to drive effectiveness
  • define and translate objectives and business questions into analytical problems that require advanced and scalable solutions
  • Knowledge in mining patient medical claims/EMR data with a strategic mindset and proven record of being able to produce actionable business insights that drive positive commercial results.
  • Awareness of the opportunities, limitations, and responsible use of AI (including agentic AI) in a regulated environment (e.g., data privacy, validation of AI-generated outputs).