Associate Director, Data Governance & Responsible AI

Merck & Co.; North Wales (Montgomery County); Hybrid; USD 129,000 - 203,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Annual bonus

Long-term incentive

401(k) plan

Healthcare benefits

Hybrid work

Job summary

Merck & Co. is seeking an Associate Director, Governance, Risk and Compliance for Data, Data Products and Digital Solutions in a hybrid role at our North Wales, PA location.

You will lead governance, privacy, and responsible AI practices across the data lifecycle, partnering with privacy, legal, and tech teams to embed controls and standards. The ideal candidate brings 6+ years in data governance, compliance, and AI governance within regulated settings, with strong communication skills and the

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree required.
• 6+ years in data governance, compliance, privacy, risk or AI governance.
• Strong communication to both technical & non-technical audiences.
• Experience with data governance, data products, digital solutions, and Agentic AI-enabled programs.
• Ability to develop policies, standards, SOPs, and governance processes.
• Knowledge of data management: quality, metadata, security/privacy, MDM.
• Ability to identify and manage governance, compliance, privacy, and risk issues.
• Collaborative, influential across cross-functional teams.
• Ability to drive change and adoption of governance practices.

Responsibilities

• Lead governance and compliance across data, data products, and digital solutions end-to-end.
• Develop and maintain policies, standards, guidance, and controls for data and AI use.
• Partner with business, privacy, legal, and compliance to embed governance in delivery processes.
• Support responsible AI with transparency, accountability, and oversight of AI use cases.
• Assess risks, track issues and remediation; drive continuous improvement of controls.
• Provide training to promote governance awareness and adoption.
• Support data quality, stewardship, metadata, and documentation practices.
• Contribute to governance reporting, audit readiness, and enterprise risk management.

Skills

Data governance

Privacy

Risk management

AI governance

Cross-functional collaboration

Policy development

SOP development

Stakeholder communication

Governance frameworks

Documentation

Education

Bachelor's degree

Master's degree / MBA

Tools

Agentic AI-enabled programs

Job description

Merck & Co. is seeking an Associate Director, Governance, Risk and Compliance for Data, Data Products and Digital Solutions in a hybrid role at our North Wales, PA location.

You will lead governance, privacy, and responsible AI practices across the data lifecycle, partnering with privacy, legal, and tech teams to embed controls and standards. The ideal candidate brings 6+ years in data governance, compliance, and AI governance within regulated settings, with strong communication skills and the