Associate Director, Global Marketing

About this role

Associate Director, Global Marketing

Merck

Rahway, NJ

Full-Time

Sep 25, 2026

Marketing

Job Description

Job Description

Associate Director, Launch Excellence and Operations, Global Specialty Franchise

At our company we are unified around our purpose: We use the power of leading-edge science to save and improve lives around the world. For more than 130 years, we have brought hope to humanity through the development of important medicines and vaccines. We aspire to be the premier research-intensive biopharmaceutical company in the world. Today, we are at the forefront of research to deliver innovative health solutions that advance the prevention and treatment of diseases in people and animals. We foster a varied and inclusive global workforce and operate responsibly every day to enable a safe, sustainable, and healthy future for all people and communities.

Associate Director, Launch Excellence and Operations, Global Specialty Franchise

The Global Specialty pipeline offers great promise across a broad range of areas with high unmet medical need, including immunology, ophthalmology, and PAH/rare disease. With late-stage development programs and anticipated launches, Global Specialty is positioned to be a key driver of future growth and patient impact. This is an opportunity to join an organization with a talented team of colleagues who bring high energy, passion, and patient-driven purpose.

Role Description and Key Responsibilities

Reporting to the Executive Director, Launch Excellence & Business Operations, the Associate Director, Launch Excellence and Operations will play a critical role in enabling successful global launch planning and operational execution across key Global Specialty therapeutic areas. This leader will partner closely with Global Brand Teams and cross-functional stakeholders to drive launch readiness and operational excellence.

With multiple launches occurring across the Long-Range Operating Plan period, this role will be essential in ensuring consistency, coordination, and efficiency in launch planning activities across Global Specialty and the broader organization.

Primary Responsibilities

Launch Excellence & Readiness.

• Partner with Global Brand Teams and cross-functional stakeholders to support launch planning activities across the Global Specialty portfolio.
• Drive consistency in launch planning methodologies, tools, and processes, ensuring effective utilization of established launch excellence frameworks.
• Monitoring launch readiness milestones across regions and markets and facilitating issue identification and resolution.

Launch Standards and Best Practices.

• Leverage digital planning tools and dashboards to track launch preparedness, interdependencies, communicate progress, and flag risks quickly identifying opportunities for optimization.
• Facilitate incorporation of regional and market perspectives into global launch plans.
• Capture and disseminate launch best practices, learnings, and insights across franchises and functions.
• Provide input into the development of global standards for launch planning, processes, and tools to drive excellence.

Strategic & Business Operations.

• Provide teams with operational support across a range of topics supporting the launch planning process, including but not limited to launch readiness reviews, global launch events, Launch Readiness Reviews, and Asset Commercialization Team meetings.
• Lead or contribute to cross-functional projects that support operational excellence, business priorities, and organizational effectiveness.
• Support the Executive Director, Launch Excellence & Business Operations as needed on operational initiatives.

Education

• Required: Bachelor's degree
• Preferred: MBA

Required Experience and Skills.

• Minimum of 5 years pharmaceutical experience.
• Strong commercial and business acumen.
• Strong project management skills with the ability to manage multiple priorities and stakeholders simultaneously.
• Ability to navigate ambiguity, adapt quickly, and drive results in a fast-paced environment.
• Inclusive leadership style with strong collaboration skills and ability to build trust and credibility across varied and cross-functional teams.
• Ability to lead and influence without authority.
• Strategic mindset combined with strong operational execution capabilities.
• Demonstrated ability to solve problems and identify solutions.
• Excellent written, verbal, facilitation, and presentation skills.

Preferred Experience and Skills.

• Previous commercial experience with a focus in marketing.
• Previous launch planning experience.
• Understanding of pharmaceutical commercialization landscape and trends.

The position can be based in Rahway, NJ or Upper Gwynedd, PA, and requires international travel as needed (20%).

Required Skills:

Adaptability, Business Agility, Business Decisions, Collaborative Leadership, Communication Strategy Development, Competency Management, Creativity, Data Analysis, Global Marketing Strategy, Inclusive Leadership, Influencing Without Authority, Lateral Thinking, Learning Agility, Managing Ambiguity, Marketing Analytics, Market Research, Planning, Presentation Delivery, Problem Identification, Product Management, Progress Monitoring, Strategic Objectives, Strategic Planning, Strategic Thinking

Preferred Skills:

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$142,400.00 - $224,100.00RegularNo relocationNo25%HybridNot IndicatedNoN/A10/9/2026