Executive Director, Organization & Talent Partner R&D Division
Merck
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Benefits offered by this job
Job summary
Merck is seeking an Executive Director, Organization & Talent Partner (OTP) for the R&D Human Resources Division. This senior role partners with senior leaders to align organizational capability with strategic priorities across science, pipeline, and workforce dimensions.
Responsibilities include shaping strategy, developing leaders, and driving enterprise-wide change. Requires a decade-plus of HR leadership in global settings and a strong coaching track record.
Qualifications
- Minimum of twelve (12) years of progressive HR or closely related business experience, including strategic HR partnership.
- Experience advising and coaching senior executives and leadership teams.
- Experience in strategic workforce planning and organization design.
- Experience supporting a pharmaceutical or life sciences organization.
Responsibilities
- Shape the agenda by translating business strategy into long-term organization and talent priorities.
- Lead organization capability planning to ensure structures and leadership readiness.
- Drive strategic workforce planning aligned with business direction and transformation.
- Provide enterprise perspective across leadership teams and the broader enterprise.
Skills
Education
Job description
The Executive Director, Organization & Talent Partner (OTP), Research & Development Division reports to the Vice President, Human Resources, Research & Development (R&D) Division and serves as the senior strategic organization and talent advisor to senior leaders and their leadership teams. Operating with a divisional as well as an enterprise mindset, the leader architects the long-term view that connects priorities and business needs into organizational capability planning solutions that help ensure these organizations have the structures, capabilities, leadership, talent pipelines and ways of working needed to deliver their priorities. The role operates across complex scientific, pipeline, workforce, geographic and organizational priorities; co-creates strategy; frames organization and workforce choices; and establishes governance and ways of working across multiple leadership interfaces.
The Executive Director, Organization & Talent Partner (OTP), Research & Development Division reports to the Vice President, Human Resources, Research & Development (R&D) Division and serves as the senior strategic organization and talent advisor to senior leaders and their leadership teams. Operating with a divisional as well as an enterprise mindset, the leader architects the long‑term view that connects priorities and business needs into organizational capability planning solutions that help ensure these organizations have the structures, capabilities, leadership, talent pipelines and ways of working needed to deliver their priorities. The role operates across complex scientific, pipeline, workforce, geographic and organizational priorities; co‑creates strategy; frames organization and workforce choices; and establishes governance and ways of working across multiple leadership interfaces.
Shape the agenda:
- Understand, anticipate and translate business strategy into the long-term organization and talent agenda
- Lead organization capability planning so structures, roles and capabilities are ready for where the business is going
- Drive strategic workforce planning linked to business direction and transformation
- Bring an enterprise perspective to leadership and business planning, connecting organization, workforce and talent implications across leadership teams and the broader enterprise.
- Enable talent development strategy, including succession and leadership development for critical populations
- Coach senior leaders to improve organizational effectiveness, leadership impact and talent decisions
- Support transformational efforts from an organization and talent perspective
- Act as steward in organizational effectiveness, driving stronger collaboration across functions and clarity in interfaces, so priorities connect rather than compete
Leverage the HR operating model to bring strategy into execution
- Be accountable for the strategy and execution of macro-level organizational change and transformation and ensure the right partnerships are activated to deliver successful execution .
- Engage with TELs, COEs, ETHR, HR Solutions & Operations and other partners to deliver the highest-value business priorities, leveraging expertise and capacity where they reside. Across these partnerships, provide context on business priorities and dynamics, connect organization and talent priorities across divisions and countries
- Seek to understand local nuances and considerations when defining organization and talent strategy and execution plans
- Business savviness: bring the depth of advanced business understanding needed to build differentiated talent strategies and workforce plans leaders will trust .
- Organization development and effectiveness: diagnose how well the organization is working and take action to close the gaps and strengthen effectiveness, using the OCP playbook and OD team resources .
- Talent growth and senior‑leader coaching: anticipate talent and capability gaps in critical populations well before they become urgent, and shape the succession and development plans that close them
- Influence and executive communication: effectively frame and communicate complex or sensitive issues clearly and confidently to stakeholders and partners to ensure effective action is taken, and align senior stakeholders without relying on formal authority.
- Change catalyst leadership: drive the organizational and cultural shifts your strategy requires, championing new approaches and helping people move through resistance to get there
- Networking, partnerships: effectively navigate the organization, delivering through trusted partnerships across the HR Operating Model
- People leadership: Demonstrated success as a people leader, ability to build an inclusive, high‑performing OTP team with clear direction and shared accountability.
- Systems Thinking: see the organization as a connected system — deep understanding of the interdependencies between businesses, functions and regions, and read data and signals across them to find the patterns that shape the org and talent agenda
- Bachelor's degree in Human Resources, Business or a related discipline required
- Minimum of twelve (12) years of progressive HR or closely related business experience, including significant strategic HR partnership experience in a complex, global environment.
- Demonstrated experience advising and coaching senior executives and leadership teams.
- Demonstrated broad-reaching experience in strategic workforce planning, organization capability planning, organization design and development, talent and succession.
- Experience supporting a pharmaceutical, life sciences, manufacturing, commercial or other science-based organization.
- Proven ability to influence senior leaders, manage high‑risk and sensitive matters, and coordinate outcomes across organizational boundaries. Ability to commission work through a networked operating model. Broad global perspective and the ability to lead with cultural sensitivity across a matrixed and global organization
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills, business judgment and analytical capability.
- Demonstrated people leadership experience, including leading, coaching and developing experienced HR professionals and building a high‑performing, inclusive team
- Change Management
- Confidential Data Handling
- Diversity and Inclusion (D&I)
- Functional Expertise
- HR Information Management
- Human Resource Information Systems (HRIS)
- Human Resource Management
- Leadership Development Programs
- Learning and Development (L&D)
- People Leadership
- Recruiting Processes
- Strategic Thinking
- Succession Planning
- Talent Acquisition
- Talent Analytics
- Talent Assessments
- Talent Development
- Talent Management
- Talent Strategy
- Workforce Analytics
- Workforce Planning
We will consider qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records for employment in compliance with the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance
Our company is committed to inclusion, ensuring that candidates can engage in a hiring process that exhibits their true capabilities. Please click here if you need an accommodation during the application or hiring process.
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. Learn more about your rights, including under California, Colorado and other US State Acts
The salary range for this role is
$231,900.00 - $365,000.00
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.
We will consider qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records for employment in compliance with the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance
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
Regular
Domestic
No
10%
Hybrid
Not Indicated
No
NA
10/15/2026
- 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.
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