Associate Director, Strategy Realization & Transformation Enablement

Merck & Co.; North Wales (Montgomery County); Hybrid; USD 142,000 - 224,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Hybrid work arrangement

Annual bonus

Long-term incentive

Comprehensive benefits package

Job summary

Merck & Co. seeks an Associate Director of Strategy Realization & Transformation Enablement to govern the transformation program, translating strategic priorities into actionable roadmaps and ensuring disciplined execution with measurable outcomes.

The role collaborates with senior leaders to align workstreams, track progress, and communicate with stakeholders. This position supports a hybrid work model, a robust benefits package, and opportunities for leadership impact within a global

Qualifications

• 7+ years of professional work experience.
• Proven knowledge in Program Management and Project Management.
• Ability to operate effectively in ambiguous, fast-paced environments.
• Demonstrated team collaboration to advance a common goal.
• Experience with agile ways of working and test-and-learn approaches.
• Strong stakeholder management and executive communication skills.
• Analytical mindset with ability to translate data into insights.
• Experience leading and managing complex, cross-functional projects.

Responsibilities

• Lead planning and coordination for complex transformation initiatives with clear objectives and milestones.
• Translate strategic priorities into practical execution plans and integrated roadmaps.
• Support governance, sponsor updates, leadership reviews, and decision logs.
• Prepare executive-level materials summarizing progress, risks, and dependencies.
• Act as an integrator across workstreams to align with broader goals.
• Define, track, and report progress against transformation objectives and KPIs.
• Partner with change management to monitor readiness and adoption risks.
• Develop leadership-ready communications linking activity to strategy and value.
• Mature TMO toward portfolio orchestration and executive decision enablement.

Skills

Program Management

Executive communication

Cross-functional collaboration

Agile project management

Data-Driven decision making

Managing ambiguity

Change management

Portfolio management

Strategic planning

Executive reports

Education

Bachelor's Degree

Master's Degree (preferred)

Job description

Associate Director, Strategy Realization & Transformation Enablement

The Associate Director, Strategy Realization & Transformation Enablement is responsible for supporting TMO governance of the overall transformation program, helping ensure strategic priorities are translated into actionable plans, integrated roadmaps, disciplined execution rhythms, and measurable business outcomes.

This role sits at the intersection of strategy, program management, operating model transformation, and executive enablement. The Associate Director will partner with senior leaders, capability owners, functional teams, project leads, and change partners to ensure transformation work is organized, governed, sequenced, communicated, and progressing against agreed objectives.

The role requires strong judgment, executive communication, cross-functional influence, and the ability to bring structure to ambiguity while helping the organization stay focused on outcomes, value realization, and sustained adoption of new ways of working.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead planning and coordination for complex transformation initiatives, ensuring workstreams are organized around clear objectives, milestones, timelines, dependencies, and outcomes.
• Translate strategic priorities into practical execution plans, integrated roadmaps, and governance-ready materials.
• Support transformation design and mobilization by helping define scope, ways of working, stakeholder alignment, meeting cadences, and operating rhythms.
• Establish and support governance forums, sponsor updates, leadership reviews, decision logs, escalation paths, and accountability mechanisms.
• Prepare executive-level materials that summarize progress, risks, decisions, tradeoffs, dependencies, and areas requiring leadership attention.
• Act as an integrator across workstreams, capabilities, functions, and programs to ensure transformation initiatives are connected, sequenced, and aligned to broader goals.
• Identify and manage cross-program dependencies, sequencing considerations, capacity constraints, risks, and prioritization needs.
• Maintain integrated plans, RAID logs, milestone trackers, dependency maps, status reports, and leadership dashboards.
• Define, track, and report progress against transformation objectives, milestones, KPIs, adoption measures, and expected business outcomes.
• Partner with change management teams to monitor readiness, stakeholder engagement, adoption risks, and organizational capacity to absorb change.
• Develop clear, concise, leadership-ready communications that connect transformation activity to strategy, outcomes, decisions, and value.
• Help mature the TMO from program coordination toward portfolio orchestration, strategy realization, value insight, and executive decision enablement.

Qualifications

Education Minimum Requirement

• Bachelor's Degree required.
• Master's Degree preferred.

Required Experience and Skills

• 7+ years of professional work experience.
• Proven professional knowledge and experience in Program Management and Project Management.
• Ability to operate effectively in ambiguous, fast-paced environments.
• Demonstrated ability to work in a team environment to advance a common goal.
• Experience with agile ways of working and test-and-learn approaches.
• Strong stakeholder management and executive communication skills.
• Analytical mindset with ability to translate data into actionable insights.
• Demonstrated experience leading and managing complex, cross-functional projects.

Preferred Experience and Skills

• 3+ years of commercial experience, ideally in marketing/promotions, commercial operations, or sales.
• Consulting or client services experience.
• Experience with digital, AI, or data-driven transformation preferred.

Required Skills: Ability to Coordinate, Adaptability, Agile Project Management, Business Agility, Business Alignment, Business Consulting Services, Business Decisions, Change Management, Data-Driven Decision Making, Developing Proposals, Digital Transformation, Employee Performance Evaluations, Environmental Scanning, Executive Presence, Executive Reports, Feasibility Studies, Management Consulting, Managing Ambiguity, Market Research, Pharmaceutical Market, Portfolio Management, Progress Monitoring, Project Management, Resource Allocation {+ 9 more}

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.

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.

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.

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

Relocation: No relocation

VISA Sponsorship: No

Travel Requirements: 10%

Flexible Work Arrangements: Hybrid

Shift: Not Indicated

Valid Driving License: No

Hazardous Material(s): N/A

Job Posting End Date: 09/9/2026

Requisition ID: R412908