Director Strategic Planning

Merck•Rahway, NJ

5d•$173,200 - $272,600•Hybrid

About The Position

The Enterprise Strategy Office develops, implements, and drives enterprise strategy in support of the company, its customers, and shareholders. Its scope includes strategic program management, enterprise strategic planning, risk management, and strategic healthcare venture investments through the Global Health Innovation fund. The office identifies business-critical challenges, creates and evaluates options, and supports effective implementation and cross-functional engagement. The Director of Commercial Strategy Development leads and supports strategy development for enterprise-critical commercial initiatives. The role assesses and designs priorities involving complex, ambiguous questions with significant potential upside, including ongoing company initiatives and the establishment of new strategies and capabilities. It works with senior leaders, including Executive Team, ET-1, and ET-2, to socialize and refine initiatives and build support for value creation and change adoption. The role requires innovation, insight, commercial acumen, and broad market perspectives. Strategic consulting experience, broad capabilities, and pharmaceutical industry experience are compelling; commercial, marketing, market access, and/or analytics experience are particularly valuable. The position reports to the Executive Director, Commercial Strategy, Enterprise Strategy Office. Rahway, New Jersey is the preferred location; candidates from Upper Gwynedd, Pennsylvania will also be considered. The work arrangement is hybrid, with 10% travel.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree or equivalent required.
At least 4 years of strategy management consulting experience at a top-tier firm, such as BCG, McKinsey, L.E.K., ZS, or Kearney.
At least 5 years of biopharmaceutical experience across diverse roles of increasing responsibility, including required commercial experience in US/global marketing and asset launches.
Ability to use or develop strategic frameworks, evaluate options and implications, and conduct analytical assessments to support recommendations.
Strong business acumen and ability to structure complex commercial problems, assessments, and actionable recommendations with commercial colleagues.
Analytical expertise and external landscape knowledge to develop data-driven insights; experience with or awareness of commercial market assessments for therapeutic- or disease-area strategy to inform target product profile development.
Ability to influence decisions in a highly matrixed organization, with empathy, collaboration, and strong emotional intelligence.
Ability to thrive amid ambiguity and bring cross-functional colleagues together to lead high-priority initiatives.
Ability to prioritize time and focus problem-solving on high-impact initiatives.
Strong verbal and written communication skills, including the ability to communicate effectively with senior management and across all business levels.
Driven, curious, collaborative, growth-minded, and well organized, with willingness to learn.
Skills listed include adaptability, analytical tools, budget management, business acumen, business analysis, business decisions, business operations, business opportunity identification, business planning, data-driven decision making, decision making, proposal development, enterprise leadership, executive presence, industry trend analysis, influencing, management consulting, managing ambiguity, market access, market research, oncology marketing, organizational leadership, pharmaceutical industry, and results orientation.

Nice To Haves

Master of Business Administration or PhD.
Commercial, marketing, market access, and/or analytics experience.
Collaboration and commercial awareness.

Responsibilities

Lead and support development of enterprise-critical commercial initiatives by identifying opportunities, evaluating them, and making recommendations in collaboration with commercial executive leaders.
Partner in implementing critical commercial priorities that require cross-divisional collaboration, strategic thought partnership, and negotiation.
Use existing or develop new strategic frameworks to lay out options, assess implications, and conduct “what you need to believe” or similar analyses to reach recommendations.
Bring outside-in perspectives and new ideas and priorities to commercial leadership, drawing on knowledge of evolving industry trends.
Collaborate with commercial leaders on prioritized business-unit needs, launch planning, and launch excellence.
Partner with commercial and cross-divisional leaders to provide market and competitive perspectives for therapeutic-area portfolio strategy, including opportunity sizing and target product profile development.
Manage internal and external associates, directly and indirectly, who are dedicated to programs.
Create thriving, psychologically safe engagements and lead without authority while providing new strategic perspectives.