Director, Strategic Planning

Merck • North Wales, PA

2d • $173,200 - $272,600 • Hybrid

About The Position

The Human Health Division (HH) has been on a significant transformation journey, focused on positioning our company for long-term growth by strengthening the commercial capabilities needed to compete today and win in the future. As market dynamics continue to evolve and digital, data, and AI reshape how commercial organizations create value, HH is accelerating its focus on Commercial Model Innovation. This work centers on designing, scaling, and realizing the capabilities, ways of working, and integrated solutions that will enable a more agile, responsive, and growth-oriented future. This role is designed to accelerate our Human Health transformation as we work to create an AI-enabled, agile, and integrated commercial model. The Transformation, Director will lead a team responsible for shaping a future where strategy and execution operate as a unified system, transformation is delivered at scale with speed, and new capabilities such as AI and automation redefine how work is done. In this team leader role, the individual will provide direction, coaching, and prioritization across a portfolio of strategic initiatives while ensuring strong execution, talent development, and enterprise impact.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s Degree, required
• Minimum of 10+ years of related Industry Experience
• Minimum 5+ years Transformation or Strategic Planning Experience
• Experience leading cross-functional teams and initiatives
• Established People Manager with ability to lead across a matrixed organization
• Demonstrable Change Management experience or a combination of professional certification(s)
• Demonstrable experience executing comprehensive transformational change plans across a broad group of stakeholders/functions (HQ, field, COEs, strategic partners, executive sponsors, etc.) to work collaboratively and achieve success
• Comfortable working in white space and managing multiple workstreams simultaneously
• Experience working with external vendors to execute on transformational projects
• Strong executive presence and communication skills
• Strong understanding of compliance-related concepts and application in all job-related functions

Nice To Haves

• Master’s Degree, preferred
• Direct customer experience (i.e. Sales, Marketing)
• Established business owner (i.e. P&L, Financial trade-offs)
• Knowledgeable in systems thinking, design thinking and organizational behavior
• Experience with digital, AI, or data-driven transformation preferred

Responsibilities

• Lead and manage a team of Associate Directors, providing direction, prioritization, and coaching to drive high performance and consistent delivery across transformation initiatives
• Own a portfolio of transformation initiatives aligned to enterprise strategic priorities, ensuring end-to-end delivery from strategy through deployment and value realization
• Translate enterprise strategy into a coherent transformation roadmap, aligning initiatives to business outcomes and sequencing for maximum impact
• Oversee pilot design, execution, and scaling, ensuring insights are codified into repeatable playbooks for enterprise adoption
• Ensure effective deployment of capabilities across brands and business units, driving adoption, change integration, and measurable value realization
• Establish governance, tracking, and reporting to monitor progress, risks, and value delivery across the transformation portfolio
• Partner with senior leaders across Marketing, Review, Data, Market Access, and Global teams to align on priorities, resolve trade-offs, and enable execution
• Shape future-state operating models, including AI-enabled workflows, embedded compliance, and ecosystem-based delivery models
• Drive evolution of roles, ways of working, and organizational capabilities to support future-state transformation
• Act as a senior thought partner to executive stakeholders, framing decisions, risks, and trade-offs
• Champion agile ways of working, fostering a test-and-learn culture that accelerates delivery speed and improves outcomes
• Ensure integration across initiatives, avoiding fragmentation and driving a cohesive Strategy Realization approach.

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 and long-term incentive, if applicable

What This Job Offers

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