Lead Administrative Associate, Administrative Services

Merck • Rahway, NJ

23h • Hybrid

About The Position

The Lead Associate, Administrative Services is an integral member of the Market Intelligence & Business Strategy (MIBS) and a trusted partner to the AVP of the MIBS team. The role blends top-tier administrative support with proactive operational leadership to drive effectiveness and streamline processes, enabling the AVP and the team to focus on high-impact priorities. The ideal candidate is detail-oriented, highly organized, comfortable with ambiguity, and skilled at anticipating needs, coordinating complex initiatives, and ensuring seamless execution across stakeholders and vendors. This is a great opportunity for someone eager to gain experience in operations and deepen their understanding of corporate strategy while gaining hands-on exposure to a wide range of market insights, competitive intelligence, and strategic planning practices.

Requirements

• High school diploma and seven (7)+ years of experience in roles that may have included any combination of the following: executive administration, communications, project coordination, operations, or chief-of-staff–style roles
• Experience supporting senior leaders
• Demonstrated experience managing complex calendars, travel, budgets, vendor relationships, and procurement workflows
• Comfort with data handling, document management, permissions, and basic survey programming.
• Operates autonomously and drives tasks to completion
• Navigates ambiguity; finds pragmatic solutions and removes obstacles.
• Handles sensitive information with integrity.
• Builds strong relationships across functions

Nice To Haves

• Bachelor's degree preferred

Responsibilities

• Manage the AVP’s calendar, prioritizing requests and optimizing time against priorities
• Plan and facilitate leadership/team meetings (agenda, materials, notes, actions).
• Coordinate domestic/international travel and itineraries
• Manage executive expenses and reimbursements in a timely, compliant manner
• Coordinate guest registration and site access
• Oversee team budget: track spend vs. plan and provide variance analysis.
• Partner with Finance/Procurement on forecasting, accruals, and vendor invoices.
• Lead vendor management and procurement processes end-to-end (SOWs, POs, renewals, compliance checks).
• Maintain and improve standard operating procedures and team process documentation.
• Manage onboarding and offboarding processes for employees and contractors (systems access, orientation, equipment, documentation).
• Identify and implement opportunities for workflow automation, simplification, and standardization
• Program basic internal market research surveys utilizing our enterprise survey tool. Provide high-level analysis of results in PowerPoint format
• Act as Pharmacovigilance liaison, ensuring Market Research activity alignment with PV requirements and processes.
• Manage the enterprise knowledge base (uploading, taxonomy, permissions, version control).
• Administer enterprise survey licenses: delegate licenses, program surveys as needed and ensure data governance and compliance.
• Coordinate with Legal, Compliance, IT, HR, and other functions to streamline approvals and mitigate operational risks.

Benefits

• The successful candidate will be eligible for annual bonus and long-term incentive, if applicable.
• Available benefits include medical, dental, vision healthcare and other insurance benefits (for employee and family), retirement benefits, including 401(k), paid holidays, vacation, and compassionate and sick days.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Mid Level
• Education Level: High school or GED
• Number of Employees: 5,001-10,000 employees