Director, Commercial Data - Animal Health

Merck; Rahway (NJ); Hybrid; USD 140,000 - 230,000; Full time

Job summary

Merck is seeking a Customer MDM Business Lead to own the business aspects of Customer Master Data Management across the Commercial organization. You translate strategy and market needs into master data requirements, governance decisions, adoption plans, and measurable value realization.

The role collaborates with global, regional, and market teams to ensure trusted customer data, clear decision rights, and market readiness. Strong governance and cross-functional leadership are essential.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree and 10+ years in the industry.
• Master Data Management principles, governance, and data lifecycle.
• Experience in commercial processes: CRM, marketing, sales operations.
• Ability to drive value realization and ROI from data investments.

Responsibilities

• Lead business partnership for Customer MDM across Commercial orgs.
• Define data requirements, governance rules, and decision rights.
• Drive adoption, market readiness, and governance across markets.
• Coordinate cross-functional efforts with IT, Privacy, Compliance, Legal.

Skills

Brand Messaging

Business Metrics

Customer Data Management

Data Integrity

Digital Marketing

Direct Marketing

Financial Acumen

Global Leadership

Market Development

Operating Models

Pricing Strategies

Product Ownership

Strategic Alignment

Strategic Planning

Value Realization

Education

Bachelor's degree

Job description

Job Description

The Customer MDM Business Lead is accountable for the business side of Customer Master Data Management.

The role owns the business leadership required to make Customer MDM effective across the Commercial organization, translating Commercial strategy, market needs, and business priorities into master data requirements, governance decisions, adoption plans, and measurable business value. It requires a leader who can work across global, regional, and market stakeholders, manage significant dependencies, and keep the organization focused on practical outcomes: trusted customer data, clear decision rights, market readiness, and value realization.

Key Responsibilities

Business Partnership & Strategy

• Serve as the primary business lead and strategic partner for Customer MDM across the Commercial organization.

• Translate Commercial strategy, business priorities, and market needs into clear customer master data requirements.

• Build alignment across global, regional, and market stakeholders to support decision-making, funding, prioritization, and adoption.

Customer Data Governance & Quality

• Define and maintain business rules, policies, standards, and decision rights for customer master data.

• Establish data quality expectations, KPIs, and business controls to ensure customer data is trusted and fit for use.

• Drive data quality at the source by clarifying accountability in systems of record and upstream business processes.

• Chair the Customer Data Governance Council and use it to drive decisions, issue resolution, prioritization, and escalation where needed.

Business Process Ownership & Value Realization

• Act as the business process owner for Customer MDM, ensuring that processes, ownership, governance, and technology capabilities work together.

• Define and communicate the business value of quality customer data, including sales force effectiveness, commercial execution, marketing campaign accuracy, customer engagement, reporting and analytics, and customer satisfaction.

• Prioritize markets, business units, and use cases based on ROI, commercial impact, data readiness, and organizational readiness.

Change Management & Market Readiness

• Lead global change management and market readiness for Customer MDM rollout and continuous improvement.

• Act as business sponsor for adoption, alignment, and sustained usage of Customer MDM capabilities.

• Coordinate readiness activities with markets and business units, including stakeholder engagement, communication, business validation, training needs, and adoption feedback.

Cross-Functional Leadership

• Partner with Commercial, IT, Data & Analytics, Privacy, Compliance, Legal, and regional teams to ensure Customer MDM supports business objectives, regulatory expectations, and appropriate handling of consent, retention, access, and data usage questions.

• Translate dependency and decision needs across business, data, technology, privacy, and compliance stakeholders so issues are resolved at the right level.

• Escalate privacy, compliance, legal, or policy decisions to the appropriate accountable owners while ensuring Customer MDM requirements and processes reflect agreed guidance.

Role Requirements

• Stakeholder leadership experience: Proven ability to build trusted relationships across global, regional, market, Commercial, IT, Privacy, Compliance, and Data & Analytics stakeholders, including engagement with both sponsors and working teams.

• Master Data Management expertise: Deep understanding of master data management principles, governance models, data quality practices, stewardship frameworks, and customer data lifecycle management.

• Commercial domain knowledge: Strong understanding of commercial business processes, including customer engagement, sales operations, marketing, CRM, territory management, and commercial analytics.

• Governance and decision-making leadership: Experience leading cross-functional governance forums, driving alignment, resolving conflicts, and establishing clear decision rights across stakeholder groups.

• Business and data understanding: Strong ability to connect business process, data ownership, source-system behavior, governance requirements, and adoption dynamics to identify root causes and practical solutions.

• Business transformation experience: Proven experience leading enterprise-scale transformations involving process standardization, organizational change, technology adoption, and operating model evolution.

• Value realization mindset: Ability to define business outcomes, establish measurable success metrics, and demonstrate ROI from data and process investments.

• Global influence and complexity management: Experience working across global, regional, and market organizations, balancing standardization with legitimate local needs and driving outcomes through influence in matrixed environments where direct authority is limited.

• Data and technology literacy: Strong understanding of CRM platforms, customer data ecosystems, analytics, integration concepts, and the role of MDM platforms.

Success Measures

• Clear and adopted business rules for customer master data.

• Improved data quality at source systems and reduced recurring data issues.

• Effective governance cadence with timely decisions and issue resolution.

• Market readiness plans in place for prioritized rollouts.

• Visible business value linked to commercial effectiveness, campaign accuracy, analytics readiness, and customer experience.

• Strong stakeholder alignment across Commercial, markets, IT, Data & Analytics, Privacy, Compliance, and Legal, with clear escalation paths for policy or regulatory decisions.

Minimum Required Education

• Bachelor's degree and 10+ years industry experience

Required Skills

Brand Messaging, Business Metrics, Customer Data Management, Data Integrity, Digital Marketing, Direct Marketing, Financial Acumen, Global Leadership, Market Development, Operating Models, Pricing Strategies, Product Ownership, Strategic Alignment, Strategic Planning, Value Realization

Additional location(s)

Additional location(s): Please note the salary range above applies to the Primary Location of the position. Where a role has other listed locations, different compensation guidelines may apply. You may find the salary ranges for additional locations below. If the salary range is not listed for the location you are applying to, our Talent Acquisition team will provide further information to you relevant to your location.

UK Salary Range - 81,900GBP to 139,200 GBP

Additional location(s) Compensation Information

UK Salary Range - 81,900GBP to 139,200 GBP

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

10/26/2026

***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.

Requisition ID

R421144