Associate Director, Digital Process & Data Analysis

MSD • Rahway, NJ

1d

About The Position

The Associate Director, Digital Process & Data Analysis (DPDA) provides strategic leadership for the organization's digital reporting, analytics, and process optimization capabilities. The role partners with business and technical teams to set priorities, lead end-to-end delivery of reporting solutions, and integrate purpose-built applications, analytics, and AI-enabled tools. The Associate Director promotes data-driven decisions, establishes governance and best practices, and advances user adoption through stakeholder engagement, communications, and capability-building initiatives that maximize business value and operational effectiveness.

The role oversees solution delivery and product/data support, including reporting plans, requirements, data readiness, development oversight, testing, release, maintenance, executive insights, analytics intake and prioritization, benchmarking, refresh schedules, and reliability monitoring. It also strengthens team capabilities and delivery consistency through mentoring, documentation and development standards, quality remediation, validation practices, and continuous improvement.

The position oversees documentation governance, archiving and decommissioning documentation, and access policies, workspace structures, and permission models in partnership with technical owners. It requires expertise in BI reporting and visualization, data literacy, data preparation and quality, SDLC, GCP and clinical trial operations, databases, data governance, enablement and change management, and collaboration with technical partners. The role also requires strategic communication, ownership, risk management, cross-functional influence, prioritization, resilience, and enterprise leadership in innovation, strategic planning, and influence.

Requirements

• One of the following education and experience combinations in Computer Science, Statistics, Pharmacy, Nursing, Biological Sciences, or a healthcare-related discipline: non-degree or associate's degree and 10+ years of relevant experience; bachelor's degree and 8+ years; or advanced degree (master's or doctorate) and 4+ years.
• Experience applying clinical operations knowledge and/or technical analytics expertise to identify business needs and support data, reporting, or digital solution delivery.
• Experience leading cross-functional initiatives, facilitating stakeholder alignment, and managing dependencies and risks.
• Strong working knowledge of the Software Development Lifecycle (SDLC).
• Advanced knowledge of Good Clinical Practice (GCP) and clinical trial operations.
• Strong understanding of database concepts, data quality, lineage, and governance.
• Knowledge of BI reporting and visualization tools and experience setting standards for dashboard usability, consistency, and adoption across platforms such as Qlik Sense, Power BI, ThoughtSpot, or Tableau.
• Understanding of data literacy practices, including storytelling guidelines, executive readout formats, and review cadences.
• Understanding of data preparation and quality governance, including light wrangling and validation, reconciliation patterns, tolerance thresholds, UAT signoff criteria, and escalation paths.
• Understanding of spreadsheet and tabular analysis standardization, including templates, checklists, and controls for analysis and QA.
• Understanding of technical enablement and change management program practices.
• Understanding of analytics and programming concepts, with the ability to collaborate with technical partners to validate data and prototype solutions.
• Ability to connect business outcomes to technical deliverables.
• Ability to communicate strategically across technical and business stakeholders, tailoring narratives, visuals, and level of detail, and translating technical concepts into plain language.
• Ability to take ownership and initiative, set direction for ambiguous workstreams, empower others, and provide clear guidance and timely checkpoints.
• Ability to elicit and document business needs and translate them into requirements, user stories, or solution concepts.
• Ability to anticipate complex risks and interdependencies and frame options with trade-offs, recommendations, and decision implications.
• Ability to foster cross-functional collaboration, alignment, and accountability, and ensure commitments are met.
• Advanced ability to balance competing priorities and adjust focus and sequencing based on urgency, impact, capacity, and timing.
• Ability to foster feedback and continuous improvement and sustain organizational trust through consistent execution, transparent communication, and concise updates.
• Ability to engage vendors, leadership, and industry forums and represent the team professionally and credibly under pressure.
• Required skills listed: Business Analysis, Business Intelligence (BI), Business Process Improvements, Change Management, Dashboard Development, Data Analytics, Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC), Stakeholder Management, Storytelling, and User Acceptance Testing (UAT).

Nice To Haves

• Significant responsibility in clinical operations and deep experience in one or more clinical operations areas.
• Strong healthcare, analytics, or operations leadership, or training and enablement background.
• Experience designing and delivering training programs and building enablement materials and operating guides to scale processes and data literacy.
• People leadership experience, including coaching, feedback, and talent development, or demonstrated leadership through mentoring and matrixed teams.
• Track record of process improvement and change management.
• Preferred skills listed: Requirements Gathering and Strategic Planning.

Responsibilities

• Drive clinical and operational reporting plans across products, roles, and geographies, and implement standards and adoption tactics for purpose-built applications, self-service analytics, and other products in partnership with stakeholders.
• Engage business stakeholders to understand and document needs, translating them into clear requirements and technical deliverables.
• Lead delivery governance for key solutions, including requirements definition, data readiness coordination, development oversight, testing, release, and maintenance.
• Consolidate portfolio trends, risks, and opportunities into executive-ready insights, narratives, and visualizations to inform strategic decisions and prioritization.
• Manage intake and prioritization for ad hoc analytics, ensure timely and accurate responses, and convert recurring requests into reusable assets or self-service capabilities.
• Coordinate industry benchmarking and translate findings into practical performance targets and recommendations for process or investment adjustments.
• Align refresh schedules and data-source management to business priorities; monitor usage and reliability KPIs; communicate changes and incidents; coordinate cross-team resolution; and drive preventive improvements.
• Establish and enforce documentation and development standards, mentor specialists and senior specialists, and model effective stakeholder engagement.
• Review quality trends across teams, assign ownership for systemic issues with remediation timelines, and ensure validation practices are embedded in delivery processes.
• Evaluate emerging technologies and reporting methods, pilot promising approaches, and institutionalize practices that reduce time-to-insight and increase impact.
• Oversee process documentation and completeness associated with archiving and decommissioning.
• Own domain documentation governance, maintain a single source of truth linked to release processes, audit adherence, resolve inconsistencies, and require updates after changes.
• Oversee access policies, workspace structures, and permission models in partnership with technical owners.
• Guide team success, plan and prioritize work, establish action plans with clear timelines and resources, and orchestrate complex work across stakeholders.
• Provide expertise across multiple areas and lead project teams without formal authority, persuading others to adopt improvements and align on approaches and priorities.

Benefits

• Medical, dental, vision healthcare, and other insurance benefits for employees and family.
• Retirement benefits, including 401(k).
• Paid holidays, vacation, and compassionate and sick days.
• Eligible for annual bonus and long-term incentive, if applicable.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Director
• Education Level: Associate degree