Associate Director, Business Insights and Analytics- Data Science

Job Description

The Associate Director will partner with the Digital Human Health (DHH) area to use and apply data to produce actionable insights that drive greater customer and market comprehension to inform launch strategies, help meet in-line brand growth objectives, and achieve improved customer engagement.  They are an integral part in helping to facilitate the creation of actionable commercial use-cases that create ‘data-driven’ decisions, that leverage knowledge across the organization and are more relevant to the customer.

The preferred candidate will have an entrepreneurial spirit, comprehension of healthcare & technology, a demonstrated record of producing actionable insights from analytics.  The candidate will need to comprehend the nuances of different product lines and are well versed in the Life Science commercial space.  They 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.

Colleagues who will thrive in this role are motivated by developing a deep appreciation of pharma secondary data sources and possess an ability to define and translate objectives and business questions into analytical problems that require advanced and scalable solutions that produce actionable insights.

Key Responsibilities:

• Leadership and Mentorship: Lead a team of business analysts, providing guidance on best practices in data analytics, data visualization and storytelling with data.

• Lead and Innovate: Engage with BU leaders across the US commercial and DHH organization to prioritize and enhance customer engagement solutions, ultimately delivering on business performance.

• Expertise in Data, Analytics & AI: Serve as a subject matter expert in predictive models & prescriptive analytics, and GenAI/AI models, as well as agentic frameworks and as trusted advisor to inform commercial customer engagement decisions.

• Optimize: Drive the implementation of new analytics and AI methodologies to optimize resource management decisions for the brand and in support of the larger portfolio.

• Business Translation: Translate complex business needs and priorities into analytical plans, providing actionable insights and effectively communicating advanced analytics to inform business decisions.

• Collaboration: Work closely with DHH colleagues (i.e., data visualization, data solutions) and Marketing stakeholders to deliver best-in-class solutions and data-driven insights.

• Project Management. Manage analytics and digital solutions projects to deliver actionable and meaningful insights to marketing stakeholders in a timely manner.

• Staying Abreast with Industry Trends: Stay current with industry trends and advancements in analytical methodologies to enhance organizational analytic capabilities.

• Innovation and Experimentation with Agile Mindset in Mind: Contribute to innovative experimentations, focusing on idea generation, incubation, and using tangible, measurable criteria to make incremental meaningful improvements to the business processes and strategies using data.

The following skills and knowledge are needed to be successful in this role:

• Understanding of the pharmaceutical commercial analytics and business acumen Expertise: Deep understanding of the unique opportunities and challenges with ability to use analytics to solve business problems.

• Analytics Champion: Application of advanced marketing analytics methods to inform customer engagement experience, insight generation, predictive model performance and GenAI agents to inform both operational and Marketing decisions.

• Communication and Storytelling: Derive actionable business insights from secondary-data sources and communicate them effectively to business stakeholders.

• Decision Making and Critical Thinking: Identify and understand problems and opportunities, analyze quantitative and qualitative information, establish decision criteria, generate and evaluate alternatives, and make timely decisions.

• Emotional Intelligence: Build trust, encourage two-way communication, and strengthen relationships. Able to navigate relationships with stakeholders while achieving business results.

• Networking and Partnerships: Build and leverage relationships within and across stakeholder groups and within DHH to achieve results.

• Complex Data Management: Substantial experience in interpreting complex datasets, particularly patient claims data.

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 is preferred.

Required Experience and Skills:

• 3+ years of relevant experience delivering complex analytical projects in the pharmaceutical/biotech/healthcare industry

• Knowledge in mining patient medical claims/EMR data with a strategic mindset and proven record of being able to produce actionable business insights that drive positive commercial results.

• Knowledge in developing both machine learning and descriptive algorithms/modeling using such languages as Python, R studio, SAS, SQL etc.

• Knowledge in development of AI/GenAI models, data pipelines as well as agent development and orchestration

• Self-motived, proactive mindset, and ability to work independently

• Effective interpersonal and communication skills

• Strong business acumen, with proven ability to comprehend business processes and commercial strategies in detail and translate these into detailed business standards/questions that power analytics.

• Effective stakeholder management and communication skills, along with the ability to convey appropriately and confidently with colleagues from different backgrounds and seniority levels

• Effective organizational and project management skills to work effectively across organization and manage capability of team of data scientists efficiently and effectively

• Proven data science leveraging advanced statistical methods, Machine Learning/Artificial Intelligence, Natural Language Processing (NLP) modeling and model evaluation is a plus.

Preferred Experience and Skills:

• Preferred: Prior hands-on experience working with healthcare data especially in EMR/EHR, Claims Data and various IQVIA /KOMODO data offerings

Required Skills:

Accountability, Business Acumen, Business Analysis, Commercial Analytics, Critical Thinking, Customer Engagement, Customer Segmentation, Data Science, Decision Making, Demand Management, Innovation, Leadership, Macroeconomics, Management Process, Microeconomics, Project Management, Requirements Management, Sales Force Effectiveness, Sales Operations, Sourcing and Procurement, Stakeholder Relationship Management, Strategic Planning

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:

06/20/2026

*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.