Associate Director - Global Swine Technical Nutritionist

Merck

1d • Hybrid

About The Position

The Global Marketing Swine Technical Nutritionist is a senior technical role within our company's Animal Health’s Global Swine Business Unit. This person will provide high-level global nutrition and technical support to marketing, commercial and R&D teams across product lifecycles, ensuring nutritional science drives product positioning, claims and field adoption. The role blends applied swine nutrition expertise with strategic marketing support and global stakeholder engagement to advance product development, extension materials, and customer-facing technical resources. The role requires strong collaboration with marketing directors, R&D, regulatory and local country teams and frequent interaction with key opinion leaders (KOLs), nutritionists and veterinarians. Travel (domestic and international) will be required to support markets and scientific meetings.

Requirements

• PhD or MSc in Animal Nutrition, PhD or MSC in Animal Science with strong nutrition specialization required.
• Minimum 8 years’ experience in swine nutrition, swine production, academia or the animal health/nutrition industry, with a proven record of applied nutrition work in commercial production systems.
• Experience in designing and interpreting feeding trials and nutrition studies, including formulation and performance/health endpoints.
• Full proficiency in spoken and written English; proficiency in a second major language (e.g., Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese) is a plus.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills with ability to translate complex nutritional science into practical guidance and compelling marketing content.
• Strong interpersonal skills with a natural ability to work collaboratively across functional teams (marketing, R&D, regulatory, global & local technical teams).
• Proven project leadership and ability to manage multi-disciplinary, multi-region projects.
• Self-starter comfortable working in a fast-paced environment with the ability to prioritize competing technical and commercial demands.
• Demonstrated ability to build and maintain relationships with external academic and industry nutrition KOLs.

Nice To Haves

• Veterinarian degree (DVM or equivalent) is desirable.
• Demonstrated background combining formal training in nutrition with clinical veterinary perspective is highly desirable.
• Broader livestock nutrition experience (e.g., poultry, ruminants) is desirable — candidate should be able to integrate cross-species nutrition insights where appropriate.
• Previous technical advisory experience in an animal health, feed additive, feed ingredient, premix or nutrition consultancy is highly desirable.
• Practical on-farm experience with feed management, nursery/grower/finisher nutrition and sow herd nutrition strongly preferred.
• Understanding of the biologicals industry, feed additive regulatory environments and nutrition-related claims is preferred.
• Global exposure/experience and ability to work across multicultural teams and markets preferred.
• Passion for applied animal nutrition and improving production outcomes through nutrition-driven solutions.
• Knowledgeable about the nutritional differences in the Global Swine Industry
• Ability to balance veterinary clinical perspective with nutrition science and commercial considerations.
• Scientist-communicator: comfortable with data, trial design and statistics, but skilled at storytelling and clear guidance for commercial teams and customers.
• Strategic mindset with customer empathy and commercial pragmatism.
• Credibility and presence to represent the company in scientific and industry forums.

Responsibilities

• Develop, define and maintain global nutritional technical platforms for new and existing products and services, ensuring high-quality, evidence-based nutrition information is available to global and local teams to inform strategy and technical communications.
• Provide expert nutritional assessment of new product ideas and proposals to R&D, Business Development and Regulatory Affairs; help prioritize opportunities that address nutritional gaps and customer needs in swine and broader livestock systems.
• Translate nutrition science into clear, actionable marketing materials (technical bulletins, white papers, training modules, digital content) in collaboration with marketing directors to support product launches and life-cycle management.
• Generate and review scientific materials for publication, technical conferences and oral presentations that communicate nutritional benefits, modes of action and practical feeding recommendations.
• Serve as a global technical nutrition representative at scientific meetings, congresses and exhibitions to advance the company’s technical profile and build credibility with nutrition and veterinary communities.
• Initiate and maintain relationships with global KOLs, academic nutritionists, and industry experts to inform product strategy and secure independent scientific validation when appropriate.
• Ensure all global promotional and PR materials, and nutrition-related communications, are technically accurate, ethically sound, and reflect authorized product labels and regulatory constraints.
• Monitor competitor nutritional products, feed additives, premixes and relevant scientific literature; synthesize findings and share insights with global colleagues and local companies to inform positioning and differentiation.
• Provide high-quality global customer product and nutritional support—either directly or by enabling and training local technical teams—to optimize technical adoption and client outcomes.
• Assist and guide local market product support trials and feeding trials to ensure robust experimental design, nutritional endpoints, adherence to technical platforms and compliance with global technical and regulatory requirements.
• Support internal training programs for commercial teams and local technical staff on nutritional principles, feeding strategies, and interpretation of trial data to improve customer conversations and sales effectiveness.

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
• Number of Employees: 5,001-10,000 employees