Executive Director, Engineering

Job Description

Digital is the multiplier that will allow Development Sciences and Clinical Supply (DSCS) to deliver better experiments faster, enable more efficient filing and launch, build more robust supply chains, and support higher-confidence decisions across the portfolio. The DSCS Digital Technologies (DDT) organization is tasked with pioneering and deploying innovative digital technologies that drive the acquisition, automation, and utilization of data to enhance the insights, efficiency, and quality of DSCS processes and methods.

As part of our Digital Transformation aspirations, this role will set the strategic direction and execute an operating model for DSCS insight and decision science, establishing the capability that translates Business Intelligence and Agentic Intelligence into actionable insight and decision support. This leader will define and govern the business-process insight layer across DSCS, connecting upstream and downstream data, forecasting, and performance signals with Discovery, Preclinical Development, and Translational Medicine (DPTM) and Global Clinical Trial Operations (GCTO). The role will directly support the Global Clinical Supplies organization by improving business-process planning, forecasting, execution, supply visibility, and decision-making, while embedding these capabilities as part of an end-to-end development-to-clinical-supply strategy.

Key responsibilities

• Forecasting & decision science strategy: establish the enterprise forecasting, scenario planning, and decision science capability for capacity, equipment utilization, supply, and resource trade-offs; enable senior leaders to make faster, higher-confidence portfolio, network, and investment decisions.

• Executive and portfolio performance insight: define the DSCS KPI and performance-management framework, ensuring executive dashboards and portfolio insights create clear line of sight to strategic priorities, risks, constraints, and decision points.

• Enterprise insight experience standards: govern the semantic, metrics, and visualization standards that make decision-support products consistent, intuitive, and trusted across standard dashboards, custom solutions, and leadership-facing materials.

• Value-chain integration: lead the business-process data, forecasting, and insight interfaces with DPTM and GCTO, aligning definitions, hand-offs, shared KPIs, and decision rhythms across the development-to-clinical-supply value chain.

• Global Clinical Supplies digital enablement: serve as a senior digital partner to Global Clinical Supplies, shaping and delivering business-process digital solutions that strengthen planning, forecasting, supply visibility, execution tracking, and operational decision support, while remaining distinct from pure scientific evaluation of the underlying data.

• Strategic partnership with Business Intelligence and Agentic Intelligence: partner with Business Intelligence and Agentic Intelligence leaders to shape analytics-ready data products, agentic decision-support capabilities, shared standards, and reusable insight products without duplicating ownership of the underlying data platforms or AI enablement functions.

• Governance, compliance, and trust partnership: partner with the DSCS governance, compliance, and trust organization to ensure insight and decision-support products meet data-integrity, regulatory, GxP, FAIR, and responsible AI expectations, while maintaining clear ownership, quality, and accountability for business-process decision support.

• Organizational leadership: lead a small, high-impact team of data engineers and data analysts within a broader multidisciplinary decision science organization; manage budget, insourced capacity, and strategic partners; develop talent and influence senior stakeholders across DSCS and partner organizations.

Required qualifications

• Advanced degree in chemical engineering, process systems engineering, data science, computer science, quantitative sciences, or a related discipline; Ph.D. or equivalent senior technical leadership experience is strongly preferred.

• 15+ years of progressive leadership experience spanning CMC development, pharmaceutical development, clinical supply, manufacturing, advanced analytics, AI, or enterprise data products, with demonstrated ability to operate across scientific, technical, digital, and business-process domains.

• Demonstrated experience establishing forecasting analytics, portfolio insight, scenario planning, and decision-support capabilities for clinical supply planning, manufacturing network strategy, resource forecasting, CMC investment decisions, or operating performance management.

• Proven ability to define and implement data and analytics roadmaps, unified data model architectures, sustainable data pipelines, FAIR-aligned data products, reusable insight capabilities, and trusted business-process decision-support solutions in partnership with business intelligence, agentic AI, governance, clinical supply, product development, and technical operations leaders.

• Senior leadership experience building and leading multidisciplinary data science, analytics, CMC, or digital teams in complex matrix environments, including responsibility for significant budgets, external partners, strategic roadmaps, and executive stakeholder alignment.

• Strong understanding of CMC regulatory expectations, data integrity, cGMP, GxP, FAIR principles, and responsible AI expectations, with the ability to partner effectively with dedicated governance, quality, regulatory, and compliance organizations.

Preferred qualifications

• Executive-level understanding of the CMC, drug substance, drug product, analytical, and clinical supply value chain across multiple modalities, including small molecules, biologics, and ADCs.

• Experience operating across the development-to-clinical-supply value chain, including effective partnership with Discovery, Preclinical Development, Translational Medicine, Global Clinical Supplies, and Global Clinical Trial Operations.

• Background in process systems engineering, modeling, simulation, portfolio analytics, or operational research, with the ability to translate technical methods into enterprise business-process decision support.

• Familiarity with modern enterprise digital ecosystems, including Microsoft Power Platform, Power BI,

Required Skills:

Cross-Functional Leadership, Detail-Oriented, Digital Transformation, Engineering Standards, Enterprise Data, Ethical Compliance, Forecasting, Forecasting Models, Innovation, Managing Ambiguity, Operating Models, Personal Initiative, Pharmaceutical Development, Product Formulation, Responsible AI, Technical Advising, Technical Leadership

Preferred Skills:

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Current Contingent Workers apply HERE

US and Puerto Rico Residents Only:

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The salary range for this role is

$210,400.00 - $331,100.00

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

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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:

Domestic/International

VISA Sponsorship:

Yes

Travel Requirements:

25%

Flexible Work Arrangements:

Hybrid

Shift:

1st - Day

Valid Driving License:

No

Hazardous Material(s):

n/A

Job Posting End Date:

08/13/2026

*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.

Requisition ID:R410468