Executive Director, Materials and Biophysical Characterization

Merck•Rahway, NJ

1d•Hybrid

About The Position

The Executive Director of Materials and Biophysical Characterization plays a critical role in advancing our company's mission. This leader is responsible for providing strategic and technical leadership for materials characterization methodologies, phase screening platforms, and biophysical characterization to enable deep understanding of drug substances and drug products and successful advancement of small molecules, biologics, and vaccines from discovery through development and commercial launch. Reporting to the Associate Vice President of Analytical Enabling Capabilities, the Executive Director will lead a multidisciplinary team of 50–60 talented people managers, scientists, and technical experts across our Rahway, NJ and West Point, PA sites. In this role, you will partner closely with leaders across Discovery, Preclinical Development, Manufacturing, Quality, and Regulatory to ensure our science delivers with excellence across the development continuum. Your focus will be on building modality agnostic scientific excellence across drug substance and drug product, strengthening biophysical characterization capabilities for biologics and vaccines, and developing fungible expertise that can flex with our company's evolving portfolio. This is a unique opportunity to influence the future of our pipeline, champion scientific excellence in domains of materials and biophysical characterization, and build a high‑performing organization that will power the next generation of therapies and vaccines for patients around the world.

Requirements

12 + years of development experience
10 + years of direct leadership experience
Must have multi-modality experience in drug substance and/or drug product development
Technical expertise in physical, biophysical and/or materials characterization
Demonstrated ability in leading large multi-disciplinary teams and mentoring and developing talent.
Excellent interpersonal, communication, and collaboration skills with proven ability to drive alignment with stakeholders.
Strength in delivering results on firm deadlines in support of drug/vaccine development.