Associate Director, Media Capabilities and Agency Lead

PR Girl Manifesto; Pennsylvania; Hybrid; USD 142,000 - 224,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Annual bonus

Long-term incentive

Benefits package

Job summary

Merck seeks an Associate Director, Media Capabilities and Agency Lead to advance our digital marketing capabilities. You will steer media channel strategies, manage agency relationships, and drive governance and optimization across brands.

The role blends strategic leadership with hands-on collaboration across Marketing, Media, and Finance to unlock value from partnerships and ensure compliant, high-impact media investments.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of experience in media channel planning, media buying and agency management.
• Strong understanding of media operations, buying strategies, and ad tech.
• Proven ability to drive strategic initiatives and collaborate across teams.

Responsibilities

• Establish yourself as media capabilities lead and agency governance point for brands.
• Educate stakeholders on channel strategy, capabilities and best practices.
• Oversee agency relationships and drive value-based media contracting.
• Lead multiple projects, ensure compliance with guidelines and measurable results.

Skills

Agency relationship management

Channel management

Omnichannel marketing

Strategic thinking

Cross-functional leadership

Strategic planning

Education

Bachelor's degree

Job description

# Associate Director, Media Capabilities and Agency LeadMerckNorth Wales, PAFull-TimeOct 24, 2026Marketing## Job Description**Job Description**Your role as Associate Director, Media Capabilities and Agency Lead, carries the vital responsibility of advancing our company's digital marketing capabilities. If you possess expertise in media channels, partnerships, ad tech and agency management and have a passion for driving innovation, best practices and operational excellence and value in these areas, this position is ideal for you. Our company's Media team brings together media intelligence, enterprise scale, strategic partnerships, compliant channel best practices, data and technology to make better investment decisions, unlock greater value from our direct partnerships and Agency relationship, and continuously advance how our company's connects with customers. The Lead will provide strategic media consultation to assigned brands and business teams, serving as a trusted advisor on channel best practices, governance, reviews, approvals, and media investment decisions. This role will also lead partnership management across key internal and external stakeholders, fostering alignment, transparency, accountability, and long-term value creation. Additionally, the Lead will oversee agency relationships for assigned brands and advance value-based media contracting approaches in partnership with Finance and Procurement. You will work closely with the rest of the Media Team and collaborate with Marketing, Architects, BU Engagement Leads, Media Agency as well as a variety of other stakeholders and partners/vendors at our company and externally. **Primary Responsibilities:*** Establish yourself as an Media Capabilities Lead and Agency Governance Point for assigned brands. Address media channel best practices and governance, agency relationship, media operations, workflow bottlenecks and media value accountability.* Continuously assess and challenge media operations approaches and processes and identify improvement opportunities, resolve systemic issues, and drive operational excellence.* Lead assigned channel expertise in collaboration with Channel Guidance teams, maintaining current, in-depth knowledge of the evolving marketplace, defining enterprise best practices, and supporting governance reviews and approvals.* Educate and advise internal stakeholders on channel strategy, capabilities, and best practices, translating marketplace developments into actionable recommendations and shaping a forward-looking channel innovation roadmap.* Serve as the internal partnership lead for priority and emerging media partners, overseeing strategic roadmaps, joint business plans, capability evaluations, pilots, innovation opportunities, and delivery against agreed commitments.* Strengthen agency accountability and transparency by establishing clear expectations, monitoring delivery and performance, escalating risks, and ensuring agency recommendations are rigorous, evidence-based, and aligned with our company's priorities.* Connect brand-level needs with media capabilities, identifying opportunities to scale successful approaches, reduce duplication, and maximize the value of our company's collective investments, intelligence, data, technology, and partnerships.* Oversee multiple efforts and projects at once.* Ensure compliance with legal and regulatory requirements, processes, guidelines and principles. **Education Minimum Requirement:*** Bachelor's Degree. **Required Experience and Skills:*** 5+ years of demonstrated experience in media channel planning, media buying and Agency Management. In depth specific channel expertise is preferred.* Have strong understanding of Media operations, buying strategies in variety of channels, measurement approaches and advertising technologies.* Proven ability to drive strategic initiatives from start to finish, with focus on collaboration, streamlined ways of working and achieving results.* Proactive, independent thinker and collaborator.* Demonstrated experience in managing vendor/agency relationships.* Exceptional communication and relationship management skills - deep, cross-functional collaboration is required.* Ability to build strong relationships and collaborate effectively with leaders and peers.**Required Skills:**Agency Relationship Management, Business Alignment, Business Decisions, Channel Management, Channels Strategy, Collaborative Leadership, Cross-Functional Project Management, Customer Insights, Digital Consumer Engagement, Digital Marketing, Ideation, Leadership Reporting, Omnichannel Marketing, Partnership Management, Relationship Management, Strategic Alignment, Strategic Alliances, Strategic Planning, Strategic Thinking, Strategy Development**Preferred Skills:**Digital Media StrategyCurrent Employees apply HERECurrent 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:EEOC Know Your RightsEEOC GINA SupplementWe 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 primary location for this posting is:USA - Pennsylvania - North Wales (Upper Gwynedd) Where required by law, the compensation range for this role is provided below. The salary range for the primary location of this role is:$142,400.00 - $224,100.00 This range reflects the Company's reasonable expectation of the base salary applicable to this role at the time of 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 . RegularDomesticNo10%HybridNot IndicatedNon/a11/6/2026### About MerckAt Merck, known as MSD outside of the United States and Canada, we are unified around our purpose: We use the power of leading-edge science to save and improve lives around the world. For more than 130 years, we have brought hope to humanity through the development of important medicines and vaccines. We aspire to be the premier research-intensive biopharmaceutical company in the world – and today, we are at the forefront of research to deliver innovative health solutions that advance the prevention and treatment of diseases in people and animals. We foster a diverse and inclusive global workforce and operate responsibly every day to enable a safe, sustainable and healthy future for all people and communities.