US Medical Affairs Health Systems Oncology, Director, Strategic Medical Implementation Lead

Merck • North Wales, PA

2d • $210,400 - $331,100 • Remote

About The Position

The USMA Health Systems Oncology (HSO) Director, Strategic Medical Implementation Lead, plays a critical leadership role in advancing the strategic priorities of US Medical Affairs (USMA) across a dynamic and growing portfolio. Reporting to the AVP, Health Systems Oncology, this role is a key member of the USMA Health Systems Field Medical Leadership Team and drives alignment, innovation, and execution across the Health Systems field medical enterprise. The USMA HSO Director, Strategic Medical Implementation Lead, holds primary responsibility for integrating cross-functional (e.g., Medical Affairs, Integrated Account Management (IAM), Payer Marketing, Organized Customer Access and Reimbursement (OCAR) strategic direction into medical field execution to optimize impact across Strategic Accounts. In partnership with cross-portfolio stakeholders, the USMA HSO Director, Strategic Medical Implementation Lead, leads strategic planning, communication, and innovation initiatives to ensure coordinated, data-driven, and future-ready engagement with the evolving healthcare ecosystem.

Requirements

• Advanced healthcare/science doctoral degree (e.g., MD, PharmD, PhD)
• 5+ years field medical affairs experience, including: 2 or more years as a HS/Payer Medical Liaison OR equivalent
• Agile mindset, ability to multitask among many competing priorities, and ability to work across a portfolio along the product life-cycle
• Ability to handle a demanding and changing workload and respond efficiently to timelines and changing market events
• Excellent interpersonal, analytical, strategic, and tactical planning, project management, communication, and organization skills
• Exceptional ability to effectively communicate information to internal and external stakeholders at all levels (e.g., senior leadership, management and individual contributor) and create presentation concepts and slides that are visually appealing with compelling content
• Commitment to keeping team members, departmental colleagues (as appropriate), and management fully apprised of project/initiative status and issues
• Proven ability to work with cross-functional Matrix teams and collaborate across multiple stakeholder groups (e.g., therapeutic areas)
• Working knowledge of development and application of evidence base, real world analytics, health economics and outcomes research in defining the value proposition of products
• Proven track record of contribution to commercial and medical development strategies within the pharmaceutical industry
• Strategy lead and/or additional experience in a strategy and operations type role preferred (including experience working in managed care /health systems)
• Team lead or management experience preferred but not required
• Clinical Oncology
• Immuno-Oncology
• Medical Affairs
• Medical Knowledge
• Performance Measurement
• Pharmaceutical Medical Affairs
• Professional Networking
• Project Management
• Strategic Insights
• Strategic Planning
• Strategic Thinking

Nice To Haves

• Strategy lead and/or additional experience in a strategy and operations type role preferred (including experience working in managed care /health systems)
• Team lead or management experience preferred but not required

Responsibilities

• Advance non-therapeutic area strategic initiatives (i.e., quality, value and implementation) that shape the direction of USMA Health Systems field activities across Oncology portfolio.
• Lead strategic alignment across multiple Regional Medical and Scientific Director (RMSD) teams and the Health Systems (HS) team, including Medical Account Planning, joint initiatives, etc.
• Serve as a critical connector between overall Health Systems strategy and product-level strategies, ensuring collaboration with Integrated Account Management (IAM), Strategic Insights Team, Payer Marketing, Organized Customer Access & Reimbursement (OCAR), and other enterprise partners.
• Influence field medical planning through collaboration with FMADs, PASLs, and SDMAs to ensure coordinated execution and prioritization.
• Support strategic communications, leadership alignment, and executional excellence across all touchpoints between Headquarters and the Field.
• Partner with leadership on culture-shaping initiatives, team development, and performance enablement to ensure a high-performing, innovative, and agile field medical organization.
• Drive simplification, innovation, efficiency and effectiveness across field medical health systems, tools, and processes to increase agility and measurable outcomes.
• Lead and evolve strategic frameworks for initiative reporting, Medical Affairs / Commercial meetings, medical leadership reviews, and impact communications.
• Manage and enhance the US Value & Implementation Goal tracking, aligning resources to support major initiatives with robust 30/60/90-day milestone tracking.
• Lead Health Systems Oncology value creation by identifying areas of high impact and translating into messaging that resonates with senior leadership.
• Develop and assess team data and analytics via KPI dashboards, scorecards, and other analytics systems to track performance against team goals and impact metrics.
• Identify and accelerate best practices across HSO MADs and cross-functional partners through data-driven insights.
• Co-lead the development of impact reports in partnership with the Executive Director to highlight progress and strategic contributions.

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

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Director
• Education Level: Ph.D. or professional degree