Strategic Lead, Patient & Channel Data

Merck & Co.; Elmora (NJ); Hybrid; USD 142,000 - 224,000; Full time

Job summary

Merck & Co., Inc. in Rahway, NJ, is seeking an Associate Director, Patient and Channel Data Management to lead the curation, governance, quality and operationalization of patient and channel data assets powering commercial decisions across therapeutic areas.

The role requires deep expertise in specialty pharma data ecosystems, strong problem solving, and the ability to influence cross-functional partners, data vendors, and governance teams to deliver robust data infrastructure and reporting

Qualifications

• BA/BS with 10+ years (or MBA/MS with 7+ years) in commercial data management, analytics, or operations in pharma.
• Deep expertise in patient/specialty pharma data ecosystems, incl. channel/trade data and SP/SD reconciliation.
• Strong knowledge of datasets like IQVIA LAAD, APLD, Symphony Health, Precision, MMIT.
• Experience with data tokenization, PHI handling, and HIPAA compliance.
• Proficiency with data management/analytics tools (SQL, Redshift, Databricks or equivalent).
• Experience managing external data vendors and holding partners to SLAs.
• Ability to influence without authority and drive cross-functional alignment.
• Flexible leadership and emotional intelligence in complex stakeholder environments.
• Strong problem-solving and analytical approach to data issues.
• Excellent written and verbal communication; translate data concepts for multiple audiences.
• Experience supporting ophthalmology/immunology or specialty/rare disease franchises (preferred).

Responsibilities

• Serve as SME and strategic owner for channel and patient data assets; develop data frameworks, SOPs, data dictionaries, and maps.
• Establish data quality metrics; drive root cause analysis and resolution of quality issues.
• Support integration of specialty data into commercial reporting, forecasting, and analytics; align with governance principles.
• Contribute to launch readiness by building data infrastructure and reporting frameworks for new products or indications.
• Provide accurate channel-level data inputs to support gross-to-net and deductions modeling with Trade and Market Access.
• Manage relationships with data aggregators, distributors, SP data providers, and vendors; manage SLAs.
• Translate complex data concepts for non-technical audiences across stakeholders.
• Manage end-to-end data flows from distributors, SP inventory/dispense, chargeback, and ex-factory data.
• Build and govern data assets across the patient journey in HIPAA-compliant ways.
• Maintain knowledge of industry datasets (IQVIA LAAD, APLD, Symphony, Precision, MMIT) and apply tokenization to link PHI.

Skills

Biopharma Industry

Business Intelligence

Corporate Productions

Database Administration

Data Engineering

Data Flows

Data Management

Data Modeling

Data Quality

Data Quality Assessments

Data Visualization

Design Applications

Immunoassays

Immunochemistry

Immunology

Immunotherapy

Information Management

Software Development

SDLC

Stakeholder Engagement

Stakeholder Management

System Designs

Job description

Merck & Co., Inc. in Rahway, NJ, is seeking an Associate Director, Patient and Channel Data Management to lead the curation, governance, quality and operationalization of patient and channel data assets powering commercial decisions across therapeutic areas.

The role requires deep expertise in specialty pharma data ecosystems, strong problem solving, and the ability to influence cross-functional partners, data vendors, and governance teams to deliver robust data infrastructure and reporting