Assoc. Dir, FDO Portfolio Management

Merck • North Wales, PA

6d • Hybrid

About The Position

The Associate Director, Portfolio Management is a key leadership role within our company's Finance Digital Office, responsible for governing and advancing the FDO's portfolio of digital transformation initiatives across a global finance organization of over 1,000 employees. This individual will serve as the connective tissue between strategic intent and execution; ensuring that projects are prioritized, resourced, tracked, and communicated with rigor and transparency. This role requires a rare combination of financial acumen, project management discipline, and digital fluency. The successful candidate will build and maintain the frameworks, tools, and governance processes that enable the FDO to deliver value at scale.

Requirements

• Bachelor's degree in Finance, Accounting, Business Administration, or related field; MBA preferred
• 7+ years of progressive experience in project/portfolio management, finance transformation, or a related discipline
• Demonstrated experience managing a portfolio of concurrent technology or transformation initiatives
• Strong proficiency in project management tools and methodologies (e.g., Agile, Waterfall, hybrid); PMP or equivalent certification preferred
• Excellent communication and presentation skills; comfort engaging with VP and above-level stakeholders
• Proficiency in Power BI, Excel, and PowerPoint; experience with portfolio management platforms a plus

Nice To Haves

• Experience in a pharmaceutical, biotech, or Fortune 500 finance environment
• Familiarity with ERP systems (SAP), financial planning tools (BPC, SAC-P, Lumel), or data platforms (Databricks, Redshift, FSA)
• Six Sigma, Lean, or other process improvement certification
• Demonstrated ability to drive governance and accountability in a matrixed global organization

Responsibilities

• Own and continuously evolve the FDO project portfolio, including the end-to-end intake, prioritization, and approval process
• Maintain and enhance the value/effort scoring framework used to prioritize digital investments across the finance organization
• Develop and manage a portfolio-level Gantt-based roadmap, ensuring visibility into milestones, dependencies, and sequencing
• Establish and enforce portfolio governance standards, including project charter requirements, stage-gate reviews, and post-implementation assessments
• Proactively identify capacity constraints, cross-project dependencies, and delivery risks; escalate and resolve issues as appropriate
• Partner with FDO leadership to conduct regular portfolio reviews and ensure alignment with enterprise finance and technology strategy
• Develop and deliver high-quality portfolio dashboards, status updates, and executive briefing materials for senior finance leadership
• Create compelling data visualizations and narrative summaries that translate portfolio complexity into clear, actionable insights
• Maintain portfolio reporting cadence and ensure stakeholders receive timely, accurate updates on project health and strategic progress
• Serve as a primary point of contact for finance leaders seeking visibility into FDO project status and timelines
• Design and implement scalable PMO processes, templates, and tools that improve portfolio visibility and execution discipline
• Lead efforts to standardize project intake and classification processes, including governance guardrails to prevent shadow projects from bypassing review
• Leverage Power BI and other analytics platforms to build self-service reporting capabilities for FDO stakeholders
• Identify and close gaps in current portfolio management practices; benchmark against industry standards and propose improvements
• Build strong working relationships with finance business partners, IT, and shared services teams to ensure project alignment and adoption
• Facilitate cross-functional planning sessions, dependency mapping workshops, and portfolio prioritization discussions
• Support change management activities associated with digital initiative rollouts, including communication planning and readiness tracking

Benefits

• medical, dental, vision healthcare and other insurance benefits (for employee and family)
• retirement benefits, including 401(k)
• paid holidays
• vacation
• compassionate and sick days
• annual bonus
• long-term incentive

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Director