Director, Digital Process & Data Analytics, Global Data Management and Standards - Hybrid

Merck; Rahway (NJ); Hybrid; USD 180,000 - 240,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Hybrid work arrangement

Job summary

Merck & Co., Rahway, NJ, seeks a Director, Digital Process & Data Analytics (DPDA) to lead the Operational Reporting & Insights function. The role shapes strategy, drives adoption of advanced reporting technologies, and develops talent across the organization.

The position requires setting standards for self-service analytics, owning the roadmap, and translating insights into portfolio priorities.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science, Statistics, Pharmacy, Nursing, Biological Sciences, or a health care–related discipline and minimum of 10 years experience in a relevant field with at least 3 years people management.
• Advanced Degree (Masters or Doctorate) in the same fields and minimum of 8 years experience in the relevant field with at least 3 years people management.

Responsibilities

• Define and drive the clinical/operational reporting strategy across products, roles, and geographies; set standards and adoption plans for purpose built apps, self-service analytics, and other products.
• Lead the roadmap and governance for solution delivery—owning requirements, data readiness, development, testing, release, and maintenance—to ensure scalable, high value solutions with broad organizational adoption; aligns platform strategy with relevant cross functional partners.
• Establish mechanisms to surface portfolio level trends, risks, and opportunities; deliver executive ready narratives and visualizations that guide strategic decisions and resource allocation.
• Translate insights into portfolio level priorities and experiments; frame caveats and assumptions to align on acceptable risk and success criteria.
• Implement an intake and prioritization framework for ad hoc analytics aligned to strategic priorities; ensure timely, accurate responses and convert recurring asks into scalable self-service solutions.
• Direct the organization’s participation in industry benchmarking; synthesize insights into performance targets and investment decisions.

Skills

BI Reporting & Visualization

Data Literacy

Data Governance

SDLC & Product Dev

Executive Storytelling

Education

Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science/Statistics/Pharmacy/Biological Sciences or health care–related discipline

Advanced Degree (Masters/Doctorate) in relevant discipline

Tools

Qlik Sense

Power BI

ThoughtSpot

Tableau

Job description

Job Description

The Director, Digital Process & Data nalysis (DPDA) (M-track) leads the Operational Reporting & Insights function at an organizational level. This role helps shape strategy, drive adoption of advanced reporting technologies, and foster talent development.

Responsibilities

Solution delivery and product / data support:

• Define and drive the clinical/operational reporting strategy across products, roles, and geographies; set standards and adoption plans for purpose built apps, self-service analytics, and other products
• Lead the roadmap and governance for solution delivery—owning requirements, data readiness, development, testing, release, and maintenance—to ensure scalable, high value solutions with broad organizational adoption; aligns platform strategy with relevant cross functional partners
• Establish mechanisms to surface portfolio level trends, risks, and opportunities; deliver executive ready narratives and visualizations that guide strategic decisions and resource allocation.
• Translate insights into portfolio level priorities and experiments; frames caveats and assumptions to align on acceptable risk and success criteria.
• Implement an intake and prioritization framework for ad hoc analytics aligned to strategic priorities; ensure timely, accurate responses and convert recurring asks into scalable self-service solutions.
• Direct the organization’s participation in industry benchmarking; synthesize insights into performance targets and investment decisions.
• Define and governs metrics and standards to ensure consistent reporting; uses adoption and value metrics to refine standards and priorities.
• Responsible for oversight of enablement and change management support for solutions
• Align refresh and data source priorities with business needs; defines usage and reliability KPIs to guide governance. Establishes communication norms for changes and incidents; promotes preventive practices that improve reliability

Process, compliance, & capability building:

• Set principles for access policies, workspace structures, and permission models in partnership with technical owners.
• Build capability and consistency: set development and documentation standards, mentor and upskill the team, and ensure best practices in stakeholder engagement across initiatives.
• Create a continuous learning and innovation agenda; evaluate and operationalize new technologies and reporting methods to improve time-to-insight and business impact

People management skills:

• Set clear objectives aligned to organizational goals; assign work and set priorities.
• Conduct regular check-ins and annual reviews; coach for performance; provide recognition.
• Develop career plans; create growth opportunities and promotion cases; ensure appropriate training and mentoring.
• Lead recruiting and hiring; manage sensitive employee relations matters in partnership with HR.
• Balance workloads to support value-added work and work–life sustainability; anticipate obstacles and adjust plans.
• Coordinate contingent resources across geographies; ensure role clarity and effective handoffs.
• Manage an operating budget and optimize spend against priorities.
• Align teams around a clear direction; facilitate team/functional meetings.
• Embrace ELS principles and serve as a role model to their team
• Drive enterprise leadership skills in the team
• Champions organizational change; drives adoption of new operating models and digital capabilities across global functions
• Support staff in the resolution of unique operational challenges through direct engagement, facilitation, mentoring, and expert problem-solving techniques.
• Demonstrated success managing large, diverse, and geographically distributed teams

Technical skills:

• Business intelligence (BI) reporting and visualization tools: Experienced in setting domain wide standards for dashboard usability, consistency, accessibility, and adoption across reporting tools (e.g., Qlik Sense, Power BI, ThoughtSpot).
• Data literacy and storytelling: Deep understanding of data literacy best practices, including defining storytelling guidelines, executive readout formats, and review cadences.
• Data preparation and quality: Deep proficiency in setting governance criteria for light wrangling and validation, quality review mechanisms, and escalation principles
• Spreadsheet and tabular proficiency: Deep understanding of best practices related to standardizing spreadsheet templates, controls, and QA practices to reduce variability and error rates.
• Fluency with Software Development Lifecycle (SDLC) and product development practices
• Expert knowledge of Good Clinical Practice (GCP) and clinical trial operations
• Proficiency guiding enterprise use of analytics/reporting platforms (e.g., Qlik Sense, Power BI, ThoughtSpot, Tableau)
• Strong understanding of data architecture, governance, quality frameworks, and compliance implications
• Understanding of best practices related to standing up technical enablement and change management programs.
• Understanding of analytics/programming concepts and ability to collaborate with technical teams to validate data and assess feasibility
• Ability to connect business outcomes to technical deliverables

Non-technical skills:

• Ability to communicate with executives, translating complex data into high signal narratives that shape strategic choices, align diverse stakeholders, and influence outcomes at leadership levels; able to translate technical concepts into plain language
• Demonstrates end‑to‑end ownership and initiative for multi‑team programs; sets vision and direction in ambiguous spaces; empowers leaders and teams with clear guardrails, decision frameworks, and timely checkpoints
• Ability to anticipate systemic risks and organizational interdependencies, frame scenarios with tradeoffs and long-term implications, and guide proactive mitigation through sound escalation judgment and expectation setting.
• Proficient in managing cross‑functional alignment at scale by facilitating high‑stakes forums and decision reviews, securing commitments and ensures accountability across teams and partners
• Ability to prioritize a portfolio against business strategy and outcomes; allocates resources and sequences work based on impact, urgency, and capacity; course‑corrects decisively to maintain momentum
• Expertise in building a culture of feedback, continuous improvement, and operational excellence; mentors managers and senior specialists; institutionalizes mechanisms that raise quality bars and speed
• Demonstrated capability to sustain organizational trust by driving consistent execution, communicating with clarity and transparency, and delivering succinct updates across complex situations, while setting and modeling high standards of quality
• Ability to engage vendor, leadership, and industry forums; represents team professionally and credibly under pressure; maintains resilience and composure/

Enterprise Leadership Skills:

• Strategic Planning | Plans strategically by gathering information and identifying key issues, dependencies, and relationships critical to achieving long-range goals; commits to a course of action after developing and evaluating alternatives based on facts, available resources, constraints, and organizational values.
• Networking & Partnerships | Cultivates networks and partnerships by initiating and maintaining strategic relationships with stakeholders and potential partners inside and outside the organization who provide the information, ideas, expertise, and influence needed to deepen understanding of business issues and achieve business goals.
• Change Catalyst | Leads change by driving the organizational and cultural shifts needed to achieve strategic priorities; catalyzes new approaches to improve results by evolving culture, systems, and services; helps others overcome resistance and adopt change.

Qualifications & experience:

• Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science, Statistics, Pharmacy, Nursing, Biological Sciences, or a health care–related discipline AND minimum of 10 years experience working in relevant field for associated job description (see below) AND minimum of 3 years people management experience AND demonstrate deep subject matter expertise in relevant discipline

OR

• Advanced Degree (Masters or Doctorate) in Computer Science, Statistics, Pharmacy, Nursing, Biological Sciences, or a health care–related discipline AND minimum of 8 years' experience working in relevant field for associated job description (see below) AND minimum of 3 years people management experience AND demonstrate deep subject matter expertise in relevant discipline

Required Skills:

Automation, Business Process Creation, Clinical Data Management, Data Integration, Data Validation, eCRF, Metadata Management, Solutions Development, Strategic Thinking, User Acceptance Testing (UAT)

Preferred Skills:

Adaptability, Competency Management, Mentoring Staff, People Leadership, Stakeholder Analysis

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 (https://survey.sogosurvey.com/r/aCdfqL) if you need an accommodation during the application or hiring process.

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

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.

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Employee Status:

Regular

Relocation:

No relocation

VISA Sponsorship:

No

Travel Requirements:

10%

Flexible Work Arrangements:

Hybrid

Shift:

1st - Day

Valid Driving License:

No

Hazardous Material(s):

No

Job Posting End Date:

10/7/2026