Director, Transformation Squad Lead

Merck•North Wales, PA

1d•$173,200 - $272,600•Hybrid

About The Position

The Director, Transformation Squad Lead will accelerate Human Health’s transformation toward an AI-enabled, agile, and integrated commercial model. This team leader will shape an approach in which strategy and execution operate as a unified system, transformation is delivered at scale and speed, and AI and automation redefine how work is done. The role provides direction, coaching, and prioritization across strategic initiatives while supporting strong execution, talent development, and enterprise impact. The work focuses on Commercial Model Innovation: designing, scaling, and realizing the capabilities, ways of working, and integrated solutions needed for a more agile, responsive, and growth-oriented future. The role owns a portfolio of initiatives from strategy through deployment and value realization, develops transformation roadmaps and future-state operating models, and partners with senior leaders and stakeholders across the organization. The position is hybrid, with the primary location in North Wales, Pennsylvania, and travel requirements of 10%.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree required.
Minimum of 10+ years of related industry experience.
Minimum of 5+ years of transformation or strategic planning experience.
Experience leading cross-functional teams and initiatives.
Established people manager with the ability to lead across a matrixed organization.
Demonstrable change management experience or a combination of professional certifications.
Demonstrable experience executing comprehensive transformational change plans across a broad group of stakeholders and functions, including HQ, field, COEs, strategic partners, and executive sponsors.
Comfort working in white space and managing multiple workstreams simultaneously.
Experience working with external vendors to execute transformational projects.
Strong executive presence and communication skills.
Strong understanding of compliance-related concepts and their application in job-related functions.
Required skills include acquisitions and divestitures, agile leadership, business alignment, competency management, cross-functional project management, employee performance evaluations, environmental scanning, executive presence, feasibility studies, financial analysis, forecasting models, growth mindset, leading project teams, matrix management, operating models, operations analysis, organizational leadership, people leadership, people management, project management leadership, resource management, risk management, and stakeholder management and negotiations.

Nice To Haves

Master’s degree preferred.
Direct customer experience, such as Sales or Marketing.
Experience as an established business owner, such as P&L responsibility or financial trade-offs.
Knowledge of systems thinking, design thinking, and organizational behavior.
Experience with digital, AI, or data-driven transformation.

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 them 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 priorities, resolve trade-offs, and enable execution.
Shape future-state operating models, including AI-enabled workflows, embedded compliance, and ecosystem-based delivery models.
Drive the 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 and foster a test-and-learn culture that accelerates delivery and improves outcomes.
Ensure integration across initiatives, avoiding fragmentation and driving a cohesive Strategy Realization approach.