Associate Director, Cybersecurity Engineering

Merck; Rahway (NJ); Hybrid; USD 142,000 - 224,000; Full time

Job summary

Merck seeks a Privileged Access Management (PAM) Team Lead to own the strategy, engineering delivery, and governance of our privileged access and secrets management. The role leads a global engineering team and partners with IAM, architecture, cybersecurity, and business stakeholders to advance Zero Trust and reduce risk.

You will drive PAM roadmap, standards, and posture metrics, mentor engineers, and collaborate with Product Owners to align with OKRs and capacity.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent in Computer Science, Information Systems, or related field.
• 10+ years in cybersecurity or IAM, with 7+ years in PAM.

Responsibilities

• Own and execute the enterprise PAM roadmap aligned with cybersecurity strategy and Zero Trust objectives.
• Define and maintain PAM standards and governance practices with security, risk, and architecture teams.
• Develop and present PAM posture, risk metrics, and remediation plans to leadership and audit stakeholders.
• Partner across teams to prioritize PAM adoption and expand privileged access controls.

Skills

PAM leadership

Zero Trust

Agile & Jira

Communication

Security governance

Education

Bachelor’s degree or equivalent

Tools

Delinea PAM

CyberArk

BeyondTrust

HashiCorp Vault

Jira

Active Directory / Entra ID

Kubernetes

Job description

Job Description

Privileged Access Management (PAM) Team Lead (R4 - Associate Director)

Role Summary

The Privileged Access Management (PAM) Team Lead owns the strategy, engineering execution, service health, and continuous improvement of our company's privileged access and secrets management capabilities. The role leads a global PAM engineering team and partners with the IAM Product team, architecture, cybersecurity, and business stakeholders to advance Zero Trust and meet business, regulatory, and operational needs. This role combines people leadership, engineering delivery, technical strategy, and governance to reduce cyber risk and strengthen enterprise identity security.

Key Responsibilities

• Own and execute the enterprise PAM roadmap aligned with our company's cybersecurity strategy, Zero Trust objectives, and identity security initiatives.
• Define and maintain PAM standards and governance practices in partnership with security, risk, and architecture teams.
• Develop and present PAM posture, risk metrics, and remediation plans to leadership, governance, and audit stakeholders.
• Partner across teams to prioritize PAM adoption, expand privileged access controls and remediate risk.

Engineering

• Lead the design and delivery of enterprise PAM and secrets management capabilities.
• Modernize privileged access through risk-based, least-privilege, and just-in-time access models.
• Translate PAM strategy into scalable designs, standards, and patterns across all environments.
• Lead evaluations of new PAM technologies based on need, risk, architectural fit, and cost.
• Oversee remediation of PAM vulnerabilities, control gaps, audit findings, and technical debt.

People Leadership & Collaboration

• Lead daily PAM engineering activities, drive execution, remove delivery barriers, and develop team capabilities.
• Promote Agile ways of working and continuous improvement.
• Mentor and influence the team’s personal and professional development.

Product & Delivery Management

• Partner with the IAM Product Owner to manage the backlog aligned with OKRs and team capacity.
• Be accountable for the health, stability, and continuous improvement of PAM services.
• Partner with stakeholders to ensure capabilities meet business and security needs while reducing risk.

Education Requirement

• Bachelor’s degree (or equivalent experience), preferably in Computer Science, Information Systems, or a related field.

Required Skills & Experience

• 10+ years of experience in cybersecurity or Identity and Access Management (IAM), including at least 7 years focused on Privileged Access Management (PAM).
• Experience leading and developing security engineering teams within a large, global organization.
• Strong understanding of enterprise PAM and secrets management platforms (e.g., Delinea, CyberArk, BeyondTrust, and/or HashiCorp Vault).
• Hands‑on knowledge of PAM solutions supporting Windows, UNIX/Linux, and databases.
• Experience delivering solutions using Agile methodologies and collaborating with Product Owners using tools such as Jira.
• Excellent communication skills, with the ability to effectively translate complex technical concepts, risks, and recommendations for technical and non-technical stakeholders.

Preferred Experience & Skills

• Hands‑on experience with identity platforms such as Active Directory, Microsoft Entra ID, cloud identity services, and/or HashiCorp Vault.
• Hands‑on knowledge of PAM solutions operating in multi‑cloud environments (AWS, Azure, and GCP) and Kubernetes platforms.
• Familiarity with ServiceNow for incident and change management processes.
• Experience automating administrative and operational tasks using PowerShell or similar technologies.
• Strong understanding of cybersecurity fundamentals, secure SDLC practices, Zero Trust principles, and cloud-native security controls.
• Knowledge of industry standards and frameworks such as NIST, ITIL, and modern identity security practices.
• Experience working in healthcare, life sciences, or other highly regulated industries.
• Industry-recognized certifications such as CISSP, Security+, or comparable credentials.

Required Skills

• Application Security
• Cloud Security
• Cybersecurity Operations
• Data Protection
• Delivery of Security Applications
• Design Applications
• DevOps Coaching
• Influence
• Information Security
• SLA Management
• System Designs
• Technical Advice
• Zero Trust Identity

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.

Requirements

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:

EEOC Know Your Rights

EEOC GINA Supplement

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

$142,400.00 - $224,100.00

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.

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.

Employee Status

Regular

Flexible Work Arrangements

Hybrid

Job Posting End Date

10/8/2026

• 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

R419125