Assoc. Dir , AI Lead Innovation Consultant

Merck•Rahway, NJ

2d•Hybrid

About The Position

Associate Director, AI Innovation Consultant The Opportunity Based in Rahway, New Jersey join a global healthcare biopharma company and be part of a 130-year legacy of success backed by ethical integrity, forward momentum, and an inspiring mission to achieve new milestones in global healthcare. Be part of an organization driven by digital technology and data-backed approaches that support a diversified portfolio of prescription medicines, vaccines, and animal health products. Drive innovation and execution excellence. Be a part of a team with a passion for using AI to drive decision-making, and which creates custom software, allowing us to tackle some of the world's greatest health threats. Role Overview: As an AI Innovation Consultant, you will serve as a Frontline Facilitator within the AI Innovation Studio, partnering closely with the AI Innovation Studio leads to deliver high-quality discovery and early-stage AI innovation engagements. In this role, you will help translate ambiguous business challenges into clearly defined, AI-ready opportunity statements that inform Opportunity Assessments and downstream PoC planning. This role is highly client-facing and discovery-oriented. You will contribute directly to workshop design and delivery, stakeholder interviews, journey mapping, and user research, producing structured outputs that enable alignment between business, AI, and delivery teams. While you will most often operate in partnership with Studio leads, you will also take ownership of specific discovery sessions, workstreams, or lower-complexity engagements as appropriate.

Requirements

7+ years of experience in consulting, business analysis, product discovery, or innovation-focused roles.
Experience supporting technology-enabled initiatives, with exposure to AI, automation, or data platforms preferred.
Comfort operating in team-based, client-facing environments with shared accountability.
Workshop design and facilitation, including experience co-designing and delivering structured discovery sessions.
Problem translation, with the ability to clearly document business challenges and desired outcomes.
Strong analytical thinking and comfort decomposing complex processes and workflows.
Solid understanding of technology value propositions, including AI/GenAI, data platforms, cloud services, and automation.
Ability to engage technical partners constructively and challenge assumptions when appropriate.
Familiarity with Agile and iterative delivery approaches.
Highly collaborative and adaptable, with comfort partnering across multiple AI Innovation Studio leads.
Strong communication skills and high emotional intelligence.
Organized, dependable, and effective in ambiguous, fast-moving environments.
B.S. Degree
Client Counseling
Emerging Technologies
Operational Acceptance Testing (OAT)
Product Management
Requirements Management
Solution Architecture
Stakeholder Relationship Management
Technical Advice
User Experience (UX) Design
Waterfall Model

Nice To Haves

Current Employees apply HERE
Current Contingent Workers apply HERE

Responsibilities

Partner on Discovery & Client Engagements
Partner closely with AI Innovation Studio leads to execute the Discovery Methodology across multiple business engagements.
Co-design and facilitate discovery workshops using techniques such as Design Thinking, journey mapping, process mapping, and structured ideation.
Conduct and support stakeholder interviews to surface pain points, constraints, decision drivers, and success criteria across business and IT audiences.
Translate Business Problems into AI-Ready Inputs
Collaborate with Studio leads to synthesize insights from stakeholder interviews, journey mapping, and user research into clear problem statements, use cases, and desired outcomes.
Document current-state workflows, user needs, pain points, and non-functional considerations required for Opportunity Assessment.
Produce clear, well-structured artifacts that translate business ambiguity into actionable inputs for AI and delivery teams.
Support Technically Grounded Opportunity Shaping
Apply a strong understanding of AI, automation, data platforms, and cloud technologies to help scope feasible and value-oriented solution approaches.
Engage architects, data scientists, and engineers with informed questions to validate assumptions and surface technical or data constraints.
Help ensure proposed AI opportunities are grounded in technical reality prior to handoff to delivery teams.
Contribute to PoC Planning & Handoff
Own the end-to-end value case for each assessed AI opportunity from initial data discovery and ideation through building ROI models and business cases providing the quantitative rigor needed to validate, prioritize, and advance initiatives into PoC.
Support early PoC planning by clarifying scope boundaries, assumptions, success metrics, and stakeholder expectations.
Ensure discovery outputs are complete, coherent, and decision-ready, reducing friction during transition to delivery teams.
Participate in alignment discussions to maintain continuity from discovery through execution.
Support Stakeholder Alignment & Engagement
Build strong working relationships with business and IT stakeholders through clear communication, reliability, and follow-through.
Support stakeholder working sessions and alignment forums, adapting to varying stakeholder styles and priorities.
Contribute to positive client experiences by maintaining momentum, clarity, and trust throughout engagements.

Benefits

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.

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