Associate Director – US Market Engagement (HIV)

Job Description

This role resides within the DHH US Market Engagement Team for Vaccines and Infectious Disease, operating as part of the US commercial organization. The team provides strategic thought-partnership to US commercial stakeholders by understanding brand strategy, managing analytics requests, and defining associated business requirements aligned to business priorities. The US Market Engagement team quarterbacks demand fulfillment and leads the activation of DHH products and services to enable data-driven decision making across the vaccines and infectious disease portfolio. 

The Associate Director – US Market Engagement (HIV) will be responsible for developing and communicating data-driven, actionable insights that drive deeper customer and market understanding, inform launch and go-to-market strategies, and support in-line brand growth and commercial objectives. The individual will function as a key business-facing analytics partner to US HIV marketing teams, supporting commercial insights, analytics, and data science needs, while helping to scope, design, and deliver well-defined use cases aligned to business OKRs. 

Primary Job Function and Key Responsibilities  

• Translate business needs and priorities to build analytical plans that answer business questions by providing actionable insights. Effectively communicating advanced analytics to stakeholders to inform business decisions.
• Communicate & collaborate effectively with cross functional teams with competencies in market research, forecasting, commercial analytics, data science, customer engagement, data strategy, population health, competitive insights, marketing operations, medical & clinical backgrounds.
• Analyze data across disparate databases/sources (including claims, CDC, digital/CRM and other sources) to develop insights that inform commercial business strategies.
• Stay current with industry trends and advancements in analytical methodologies to bring new ideas forward (including application of AI/GenAI) that will enhance analytic capabilities of the organization especially as we are taking a AI forward thinking approach.
• Propose innovative ideas for analytical approaches and AI/ML/NLP/modeling techniques, demonstrating strong conceptual understanding of methods and trade-offs. 
• Derive actionable business insights from various data sources, develop clear data story, and communicate effectively to business stakeholders.
• Lead and mentor a team of data scientists and business analysts (on-shore and off-shore), providing guidance on best practices in data analytics, modeling and data visualization, through the scope of a project.

The individual in this role will be an independent contributor or lead a small team, supporting commercial insight and analytics needs for US marketing teams. The person will have an entrepreneurial and consultative mindset, strong understanding of the healthcare/pharma space. They should have a demonstrated record of producing actionable insights from analytics leveraging digital/technology (AI, agentic etc.). The person will have demonstrated consistently strong leadership skills, an ability to work objectively and deal well with ambiguity and strong partnership skills. They will empower a growth mindset and inspire a culture of continual learning. This role will require interfacing and collaborating with many teams requiring strong communication skills.

Education Requirements 

• BS (or equivalent) in Data Science, Mathematics, Economics, Computer Science, Statistics, Decision Science, Marketing, Engineering, or Public Health is required. 
• MBA, MS, or PhD degree preferred. 

Required Experience & Skills  

·       5+ years of analytics or data science experience in pharma/biotech/healthcare; HIV experience preferred.

• Proven data science experience  leveraging advanced statistical methods, Machine Learning/ Artificial Intelligence, Natural Language Processing (NLP) modeling and model evaluation is a plus.
• Proficiency in Python, R studio, SAS, SQL etc. or similar tools for data extraction, feature engineering, and model development. 
• Strong experience with patient-level and healthcare data (claims, EMR/EHR, registry, CDC, IQVIA and other secondary sources). 
• Understands the business context, challenge, limitation, constraints and goals to effectively match the capability of the statistical and mathematical and M/L approaches to the business, scientific and operational challenge
• Demonstrated ability to translate business needs into structured analytical questions and data-driven recommendations. 
• Strong communication and data storytelling skills, including presenting complex findings to senior and non-technical audiences. 
• Solid project and time management capabilities, with experience leading multiple concurrent analytics initiatives and teams. 

Preferred Experience and Skills 

• Prior hands-on experience working with healthcare data, especially claims data, and various IQVIA data offerings. 
• Knowledge and experience of the HIV business is a plus. 

Work location 

• Upper Gwynedd, PA (role will be hybrid and chosen candidate is expected to be in the office at least 3 days/week). 

Required Skills:

Brand Growth, Brand Strategy, Business Intelligence (BI), Business Strategies, Commercial Analytics, Commercial Strategies, Cross-Team Collaboration, Customer Engagement, Database Design, Data-Driven Decision Making, Data Engineering, Data Modeling, Data Science, Data Storytelling, Data Visualization, Machine Learning (ML), Natural Language Processing (NLP), Public Health, Software Development, Stakeholder Relationship Management, Teamwork, Waterfall Model

Preferred Skills:

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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 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:

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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.

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The salary range for this role is

$156,900.00 - $247,000.00

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.

You can apply for this role through https://jobs.merck.com/us/en (or via the Workday Jobs Hub if you are a current employee). The application deadline for this position is stated on this posting.

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. 

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:

08/6/2026

*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.