Associate Director, D&A Strategy

Job Description

The Associate Director, US Marketing Engagement will develop and communicate data-driven, actionable insights that strengthen commercial strategy and customer engagement. The role will partner closely with US Marketing and cross-functional stakeholders to translate business priorities into integrated insight plans, identify opportunities across the patient journey, and inform launch and in-line brand decisions.

The individual will serve as a strategic analytics partner and may contribute independently or lead work across insight and analytics teams. The role will help define business questions, determine the appropriate combination of secondary-data analytics and research, and deliver clear recommendations that enable effective HCP segmentation, targeting, engagement, channel, and performance strategies.

The ideal candidate brings intellectual curiosity, an entrepreneurial and consultative mindset, strong knowledge of the pharmaceutical and healthcare environment, and demonstrates ability to create structure from ambiguous business questions. Success requires effective stakeholder leadership, compelling communication and storytelling, disciplined project management, and a commitment to continuous learning.

Additional Key Responsibilities:

• Act as a strategic insights and analytics partner to Marketing and other cross-functional stakeholders, with primary focus on HCP strategy and engagement. 
• Translate brand priorities and complex business needs into clear analytical plans, decision frameworks, and actionable recommendations. 
• Develop an integrated understanding of HCP needs, behaviors, adoption of drivers, barriers, treatment patterns, and engagement preferences using multiple data sources. 
• Inform segmentation, targeting, customer journey, channel, message, and field engagement strategies through analytics and insight generation. 
• Lead or coordinate analytics projects from problem definition through delivery, ensuring high-quality, timely, compliant outputs and clear stakeholder communication. 
• Integrate and triangulate secondary data, market research, digital analytics, promotional activity, and field insights to generate a cohesive business perspective. 
• Partner with HHDDA capabilities, including data strategy, data solutions, visualization, forecasting, measurement, marketing and sales operations, and advanced analytics, to deliver fit-for-purpose solutions. 
• Develop clear, leadership-ready narratives and visualizations that connect analytical findings to business implications and recommended actions. 
• Define success measures and support performance tracking to assess whether HCP strategies and customer engagement approaches are achieving intended outcomes. 
• Identify analytical capability gaps and emerging methods and bring forward practical ideas that improve HCP insight generation and decision support. 
• Contribute to innovation and experimentation by defining measurable hypotheses, test designs, and learning agendas where appropriate. 
• Build trusted relationships across stakeholder groups and positively influence decisions in a complex matrix environment. 
• Provide guidance and mentorship to analysts and project team members on analytical quality, stakeholder engagement, and storytelling with data. 

Knowledge | Skills:

• Strong understanding of the pharmaceutical commercial model and the role of HCP insights in brand, launch, and customer engagement strategy.
• Demonstrated ability to synthesize complex quantitative and qualitative information into concise, actionable business recommendations.
• Experience using healthcare and commercial data, including patient-level claims, prescription, HCP, affiliation, promotional, digital, and market research data.
• Ability to formulate decision-oriented business questions, evaluate data fitness, and select analytical approaches that are appropriate to the business context.
• Knowledge of HCP segmentation and targeting, customer journey analytics, omnichannel engagement, promotional response, and performance measurement concepts.
• Experience managing complex, multi-stakeholder projects and balancing multiple priorities while maintaining quality and timeliness.
• Excellent communication, facilitation, and storytelling skills, with the ability to engage colleagues across functions and levels of seniority.
• Strong business acumen, critical thinking, and judgment; able to navigate ambiguity, identify trade-offs, and recommend a practical path forward.
• Collaborative leadership style, high integrity, and demonstrated ability to build trust, encourage two-way communication, and achieve results through partnerships.
• Working knowledge of analytical and visualization tools; hands-on proficiency with AI platforms, SQL, Python, R, SAS, or related tools is preferred.
• Familiarity with advanced analytics, machine learning, experimental design, marketing effectiveness measurement, and test-versus-control approaches is an advantage.

Education:

• Bachelor's degree in mathematics, Economics, Computer Science, Statistics, Decision Science, Marketing, Engineering, Public Health, Business, or a related field is required.
• MBA, MS, MPH, PhD, or another relevant advanced degree is preferred.
• A minimum of 5 years of relevant experience delivering complex insights, analytics, strategy, or measurement work in the pharmaceutical, biotechnology, healthcare, or consulting environment is required.
• Demonstrated experience supporting commercial or brand decisions through HCP-focused analytics and insights is required.
• Experience partnering with Marketing, Sales, Digital, Market Research, Data Strategy, or other commercial functions is strongly preferred.
• Prior experience supporting products at launch or across different stages of the product life cycle is preferred.

Skills & Competencies:

• Strategic thinking and business translation
• HCP strategy, customer analytics, and insight generation
• Executive communication and storytelling with data
• Client, stakeholder, and project management
• Cross-functional leadership and influence without direct authority
• Analytical rigor, critical thinking, and problem solving
• Integrated insight development across multiple data sources
• Innovation, experimentation, and continuous improvement
• Ability to operate effectively in a fast-paced, matrixed environment

Required Skills:

Business Acumen, Business Analysis, Business Decisions, Collaborative Leadership, Competency Management, Customer Engagement, Data Science, Demand Management, Engagement Strategies, Financial Acumen, Influencing Without Authority, Innovation, Insight Generation, Key Performance Indicators (KPI), Lateral Thinking, Leadership Reporting, Matrix Management, Performance Metrics, Requirements Management, Sourcing and Procurement, Stakeholder Relationship Management, Strategic Analysis, Strategic Planning, Strategic Thinking

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.

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The salary range for this role is

$156,900.00 - $247,000.00

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:

1st - Day

Valid Driving License:

No

Hazardous Material(s):

N/A

Job Posting End Date:

10/14/2026

*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.