Director, Business Unit Engagement

MSD Malaysia; North Wales (Montgomery County); Hybrid; USD 191,000 - 300,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical benefits

401(k) retirement plan

Paid holidays & vacation

Hybrid work arrangement

Job summary

Merck is seeking a Business Unit Engagement Director to coordinate CEI strategy across Brand and CEI functions. This role partners with senior brand leadership to drive adoption of new CEI capabilities and align plans with brand objectives.

The position requires 7+ years in biopharma commercial or related operations, with a proven ability to influence without direct authority and deliver executive‑level summaries. Hybrid work is available.

Qualifications

• BA/BS required; advanced degree preferred.
• Experience in biopharma commercial or commercial operations is essential.
• Proven ability to influence without direct authority and align cross-functional leaders.

Responsibilities

• Lead cross-functional planning sessions to align CEI delivery with brand priorities.
• Track milestones and results across CEI and coordinate annual planning cycles.
• Maintain knowledge of Commercial Ops capabilities across Marketing Ops, Field Enablement, Patient Engagement, Market Access, and data functions.
• Bridge brand needs to capability owners and ensure clean handoffs.
• Assess capability utilization and realign resources with brand priorities.
• Socialize new capabilities and processes within brand teams to drive adoption.
• Prepare executive readouts for BU Leadership Team with clear summaries of cross-functional dynamics.
• Collaborate with Strategy, ST&C and Brand Activation Leads on capability rollouts.
• Coordinate with BIL to update on brand priorities and flexible resource reuse.
• Support capability adoption scorecards and measure impact per brand.
• Ensure alignment of CEI initiatives with strategic objectives across the BU.

Skills

Advertising Campaign Dev

Brand Management

Client Facing

Creative Campaign Dev

Creativity

Data-Driven Decisions

Ethical Standards

Global Marketing Communications

Marketing Strategy

Pricing

Product Launches

Product Lifecycle Mgmt (PLM)

Networking

Sales Support

Strategic Thinking

Education

BA/BS

Advanced degree

Job description

Job Description

The Business Unit Engagement organization operates as the strategic partner with the Business Units and Commercial Excellence & Innovation (CEI) organization. The BU Engagement organization is responsible for synchronizing BU and CEI planning, investment and measurement, ensuring successful adoption of new CEI capabilities in the business unit and driving coordinated customer engagement plans across functions. The Business Unit Engagement Director (BUED) serves as the day-to-day brand team contact for CEI. The Director is the central point of coordination for CEI to ensure brand objectives are effectively met and that CEI OKRs / plans accurately reflect the unique needs of the business. The BUED also drives the scaling of transformation initiatives within their respective BU or brand. This individual will report to the Executive Director, Business Unit Engagement Leader and sit on their leadership team.

Key responsibilities

• Deeply knowledgeable about the brand strategy, opportunities and challenges to ensure CEI understanding and prioritization of key deliverables/initiatives
• Deeply knowledgeable about the day-to-day business activities being driven by CEI functions, without direct responsibility for the teams executing those activities
• Chair recurring cross-functional planning sessions and Brand-CEI marketplaces to align brand priorities, CEI delivery outcomes, and OKRs / planning / forecasts for Brand-CEI
• Consistently track major milestones and key results across CEI in both formal and informal planning sessions, playing a lead role in facilitating core planning cadences for CEI (annual planning, TBRs, etc.)
• Maintain working knowledge of the full Commercial Ops capability set across Marketing Ops, Field Enablement, Patient Engagement, Market Access, and digital and data functions
• Connect brand team needs to the right capability owner within Commercial Ops, ensuring handoffs are clean and well-briefed
• Assess capability utilization and deployment for assigned brands, identifying where capabilities are underused or misaligned with brand priorities
• Partner with Strategy, Transformation & Change (ST&C) and Brand Activation Leads to plan and sequence capability rollouts into assigned brand teams, balancing adoption urgency with brand readiness
• Prepare brand teams for new capability introductions by socializing the change, mapping workflow impacts, and addressing concerns before rollout
• Co‑own capability adoption scorecards with ST&C teams, tracking adoption and measurable impact for each brand
• Partner with Business Integration Lead (BIL) to provide BIL with updates on brand priorities and to align on the use of the Associate Director, Brand Activation Lead, who will be a flexible resource between the BUED and BIL

Education Minimum Requirement

Required: BA/BS Preferred: Advanced degree

Required Experience and Skills

7+ years in biopharma commercial (marketing, field, market access), and/or commercial operations functions

Required Competencies

• Proven ability to lead without direct authority over execution teams, earning credibility through strategic judgment and capability literacy
• Comfort navigating competing priorities across brand leadership, commercial operations function leads, and Business Integration, with the ability to broker alignment without creating unnecessary escalation
• Experience socializing new capabilities, processes, or ways of working into brand teams
• Ability to prepare and deliver executive-level readouts for BU Leadership Team forums, distilling complex cross-functional dynamics into clear, actionable summaries
• Deep understanding of the pharmaceutical go-to-market model, including HCP engagement, patient support programs, payer dynamics, and the regulatory environment that shapes commercial execution

Preferred Experiences and Skills

• Excels when addressing ambiguity, working outside existing processes or structures
• Ability to establish networks across stakeholders to drive influence and alignment

Required Skills

• Advertising Campaign Development
• Brand Management
• Client Facing
• Creative Campaign Development
• Creativity
• Data-Driven Decision Making
• Ethical Standards
• Global Marketing Communications
• Marketing Strategy Implementation
• Pricing Strategies
• Product Launches
• Product Lifecycle Management (PLM)
• Professional Networking
• Sales Support
• Strategic Thinking

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.

Our company is a global health care leader with a diversified portfolio of prescription medicines, vaccines and animal health products. The difference between potential and achievement lies in the spark that fuels innovation and inventiveness; this is the space where we have codified our legacy for over a century. Our success is backed by ethical integrity, forward momentum, and an inspiring mission to achieve new milestones in global healthcare.

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.

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.

The salary range for this role is $190,800.00 - $300,300.00 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
• Relocation: Domestic
• 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: 10/2/2026

*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.