Associate Director, Discoverability & Web Strategist (Hybrid - Upper Gwynedd, PA)

Merck • North Wales, PA

3d • $142,400 - $224,100 • Hybrid

About The Position

The Associate Director, Discoverability and Web Strategist is a critical, cross‑functional digital leader responsible for shaping, evolving, and operationalizing our company's discoverability strategy for U.S. Market segments across Healthcare Consumer (HCC), Healthcare Professional (HCP), across our company business units. This role unites AI-enabled Content Discoverability, Paid Search and Web Ownership and Leadership, to drive best‑in‑class experiences, compliant execution, and measurable customer impact across channels including organic and paid search.
The leader will collaborate closely with Business Unit stakeholders including Marketing, Media, Promotion, Customer Agile Teams (CAT’s), Digital Data and Analytics, the Content Accelerator team, Content Hub team, and design system product owners to ensure our digital ecosystem is intuitive, discoverable, scalable, future‑ready and meets the needs of our patients and customers as they navigate the web for health information.

Requirements

• Bachelor's Degree required.
• Minimum of 7 years of professional experience
• Minimum of 5 years in digital marketing, web strategy, IT, channel innovation, or related areas.
• Proven ability to manage complex digital programs with multiple stakeholders.
• Strong proficiency in content discoverabilty, digital marketing strategy, and content optimization.
• Experience with web analytics platforms, KPI creation, and data-driven decision-making.
• Demonstrated success in managing vendors, agencies, and third-party partners.
• Strong leadership, communication, stakeholder management, and cross-functional influence skills.

Nice To Haves

• Experience launching and leading new web capabilities and scaling operational improvements.
• Agile experience strongly preferred.
• Strong problem solving, analytical thinking, and comfort solving ambiguous challenges.
• Experience with design systems and creative workflow tools (e.g., Figma).
• Experience with AI-driven content workflows, structured data, and emerging search channels.
• Background in consumer healthcare, HCP engagement, pharma marketing, or regulated industries.

Responsibilities

• Act as the primary liaison between internal teams and the SEO partner organization.
• Serve as the SME for AI Search for assigned BU, with responsibility for capability roadmaps, enhancements, and long-term experience evolution.
• Define, own, and continuously optimize the overarching web strategy (content disoverability) across HCC and HCP properties.
• Co-Lead and evolve the enterprise-wide digital discoverability strategy, including SEO, AEO (Answer Engine Optimization), GEO (Generative Engine Optimization), and AI-friendly content structure.
• Oversee SEO audits, keyword strategy, ranking trends, and performance dashboards with a continual improvement mindset.
• Partner with Customer Engagement Planning & Measurement team to evolve the landscape of measurement to include new metrics (e.g., agent traffic).
• Develop and maintain AI Search guidance, governance documentation, and training resources to scale discoverability best practices across the enterprise.
• Embed AI Seach and discoverability considerations into early creative concepting, UX planning, and content development processes.
• Ensure optimal site architecture, navigation, and accessibility for search engines and AI search models.
• Serve as SME on structured content creation and the preparation of data/metadata for AI platforms.
• Provide SME consultation on content, templates, or web experiences to drive content discoverability.
• Research and introduce innovations that enhance discoversbility, customer experience, team efficiency, and time‑to‑market speed.
• Contribute to UX research, usability testing, prototyping, and experimentation to identify friction points and create actionable optimization plans.
• Drive standardization across design systems (e.g., VIVID360) to ensure consistency, compliance, reuse across brands and content discoverability.
• Evaluate and prioritize new capability requests based on customer needs, technical feasibility, and business impact as they relate to content discoverability.
• Partner with BU stakeholders, CAT teams, DHH, Content Accelerator and Content Hub teams to translate business needs into technical execution, ensuring smooth deployment of new website features and enhancements as they relate to content discoverability.
• Lead legal, regulatory, and marketing partners through educational forums, web summits, and training around best practices and design system usage as they relate to content discoverability.
• Facilitate innovation forums for BU stakeholders, CAT teams, and marketers to bring forward new ideas and share learnings as they relate to content discoverability.
• Partner with CAT design teams and Content Hub design teams to ensure alignment on process, standards, and consistent quality as they relate to content discoverability.
• Collaborate across DHH, BU stakeholders, CAT teams, marketing, Content Accelerator and Content Hub teams to drive operational excellence and cross-organizational adoption of improvements.

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: Manager