Director, Business Unit Engagement

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

Benefits offered by this job

401(k)

Paid holidays

Job summary

MSD is seeking a senior leader to drive the Business Unit Engagement (BUED) function, acting as the central link between CEI and Brand teams. The role ensures CEI capabilities are adopted, aligning with brand objectives and OKRs across functions.

You will oversee planning cadences, capability rollouts, and executive-level readouts, influencing strategic decisions and resource allocation with a focus on the biopharma go-to-market model.

Qualifications

• 7+ years in biopharma commercial or related functions.

Responsibilities

• Chair cross-functional planning sessions to align brand priorities, CEI delivery outcomes, and OKRs.
• Track milestones and key results across CEI in planning and forecasting cycles.
• Coordinate capability rollouts with Strategy, Transformation & Change and Brand Activation Leads.
• Prepare brand teams for new capability introductions and address concerns pre-rollout.
• Co‑own capability adoption scorecards with ST&C teams and ensure measurable impact for each brand.
• Provide updates to Business Integration Lead to align on resource use.

Skills

Brand strategy

Cross-functional leadership

Advertising campaigns

Marketing strategy

Data-driven decision making

Strategic thinking

Go-to-market

Executive communications

Education

BA/BS

MBA

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, such as Masters in Business Administration

Required Experience and Skills

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

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.

Salary

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.

Benefits

• medical, dental, vision healthcare and other insurance benefits (for employee and family)
• retirement benefits, including 401(k)
• paid holidays
• vacation
• compassionate and sick days

Job Attributes

• 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
• San Francisco Residents Only
• Los Angeles Residents Only
• US and Puerto Rico Residents Only

Search Firm Representatives Please Read Carefully

Merck & Co., Inc., Rahway, NJ, USA, also known as Merck Sharp & Dohme LLC, Rahway, NJ, USA, does not accept unsolicited assistance from search firms for employment opportunities. All CVs / resumes submitted by search firms to any employee at our company without a valid written search agreement in place for this position will be deemed the sole property of our company. No fee will be paid in the event a candidate is hired by our company as a result of an agency referral where no pre‑existing agreement is in place. Where agency agreements are in place, introductions are position specific. Please, no phone calls or emails.