Associate Director, Global Data Management & Standards Business Operation
Buenos Aires - Argentina
Job Summary
Job Description
The Associate Director Global Data Management and Standards - Business Operation is responsible for collaborating with the teams Leadership to drive enterprise-wide planning governance and organizational readiness initiatives that enable successful execution of strategic programs and projects. This role provides resource and capacity planning to ensure optimal allocation of talent skills and budget across the portfolio while driving PMO standards project governance and performance reporting. The Associate Director partners with business leaders and key stakeholders to lead change management efforts develop and execute communication strategies that promote transparency and stakeholder engagement and champion learning and development initiatives that build organizational capabilities and support adoption of new processes technologies and ways of working. Through strong leadership cross-functional collaboration and a focus on continuous improvement this position ensures the organization is equipped to deliver business objectives efficiently and sustainably.
Responsibilities:
Forecasting Capacity & Portfolio Management:
Maintain headcount workload and demand models for the functional area; run allocation algorithms to help ensure the Book of Business is delivered with quality and timeliness.
Support operating-model optimization within the functional area translate outcomes into action plans and track through implementation.
Manage real-time workload balancing capacity and compliance-driven case allocation across geographies within the functional area to ensure balanced operations on-time delivery and business continuity through holidays resource availability and demand peaks
Build and maintain operational dashboards; collect analyze and validate portfolio data (efficiency utilization quality); ensure standardized reporting in partnership with cross-functional peers across Global Data Management & Standards and enterprise standards.
Assist in developing forecasting tools dashboards and visualizations; contribute to continuous improvement of capacity modeling and workforce analytics.
Support long-term quality management plans; participate in strategic and tactical special projects as needed.
Operational Governance Execution & Metrics:
Support PMO activities including project planning metrics tracking status reporting and management of cross-functional dependencies.
Prepare inputs for Operational Reviews; ensure consistent metric definitions sources and timeframes per enterprise cadence and templates.
Coordinate resource and financial forecasting contracting and invoicing; track variances and data integrity and publish reconciled views as required.
Collaborate with stakeholders to maintain a unified set of metrics training and Standard Operating Practice/ Best Practice frameworks based on functional area needs.
Monitor operational metrics postsystem release to ensure realized efficiencies are captured in forecasting models and resource planning assumptions.
Training Communication & Change Management:
Support creation maintenance and delivery of role-specific curriculum; co-develop wide training for the functional area; measure uptake.
Coordinate function-specific communications and change management aligned to Data management and Global Clinical Trial Operations frameworks.
Embed Human-first Organization practices by designing adoption aids (FAQs quick guides) and incorporating user feedback into process improvements.
Qualifications Skills & Experience:
Technical Skills
Ability to interpret operational capacity and financial data; comfortable with variance analysis and trends.
Proficient with Power BI/Tableau and Excel (advanced modeling) for dashboards and what-if views.
Working knowledge of capacity planning resourcing and portfolio management concepts.
Familiarity with functional operational systems performance dashboards and workforce analytics data.
Understanding of data integrity metric standardization and basic QC (Quality Control)/reconciliation practices.
Basic grasp of forecasting budgeting and accruals; reads plan/forecast/actuals and ties them to operational drivers.
Understanding of Agile collaboration and intake tracking tools for requests changes and release notes.
Non-technical knowledge skills and abilities:
Fluent in English; exceptional communication and influencing skills able to engage and align stakeholders across functions geographies and levels.
Strong stakeholder management and collaboration capabilities fostering trust and effective partnerships.
Skilled in organizing cross-team work; coordinates milestones and deliverables; escalates risks early.
Demonstrated ability to lead through influence motivating and guiding cross-functional and virtual teams without direct authority.
Highly adaptable and resilient able to prioritize and perform effectively under pressure in fast-changing environments.
Works independently with accountability exercising sound judgment and initiative while maintaining alignment with organizational priorities.
Effective facilitator of decision-making coordinating the work of others and driving timely resolution of complex issues.
Crafts concise decision-ready summaries for leadership clearly framing risks options and recommendations.
Strong organization and prioritization managing multiple deliverables running risk/change control aligning stakeholders (including service providers) and providing status and governance updates.
Sound judgment and accountability with emphasis on ambiguity escalation management and consensus-building on process/technology improvements.
Enterprise Leadership Skills:
Networking & Partnerships Builds and sustains collaborative partnerships across Global Data Management Finance IT and functional leaders to align forecasting assumptions standardize metrics and coordinate portfolio and resource priorities.
Business Savviness Applies strong operational and financial acumen to interpret portfolio performance workforce capacity and variance trends guiding data-driven resource planning and efficiency decisions within the assigned scope.
Influence Influences cross-functional stakeholders by translating complex capacity financial and performance data into clear trade-offs recommendations and aligned action plans within governance forums.
Business Operations Qualifications & Experience:
Bachelors Degree
Minimum of 8 years experience working in relevant field for associated job description
OR
Advanced Degree (Masters or Doctorate): Minimum of 4 years experience working in relevant field for associated job description
Required Skills:
Adaptability Adaptability Building Consensus Business Acumen Change Management Clinical Database Programming Clinical Data Management Clinical Data Standards Data Analysis Data Quality Assurance Data Reporting Data Validation Detail-Oriented Financial Forecasting Forecasting Good Clinical Data Management Practice (GCDMP) Good Clinical Practice (GCP) Interpersonal Relationships Mentoring Staff Operational Excellence Portfolio Management Project Management Tools Project Planning Quality Management Stakeholder Engagement 2 morePreferred Skills:
Current Employees apply HERE
Current Contingent Workers apply HERE
Search Firm Representatives Please Read Carefully
Merck & Co. Inc. Rahway NJ USA also known as Merck Sharp & Dohme LLC Rahway NJ USA does not accept unsolicited assistance from search firms for employment opportunities. All CVs / resumes submitted by search firms to any employee at our company without a valid written search agreement in place for this position will be deemed the sole property of our company. No fee will be paid in the event a candidate is hired by our company as a result of an agency referral where no pre-existing agreement is in place. Where agency agreements are in place introductions are position specific. Please no phone calls or emails.
Employee Status:
RegularRelocation:
No relocationVISA Sponsorship:
NoTravel Requirements:
No Travel RequiredFlexible Work Arrangements:
HybridShift:
Not IndicatedValid Driving License:
NoHazardous Material(s):
N/AJob Posting End Date:
08/6/2026*A job posting is effective until 11:59:59PM on the day BEFOREthe listed job posting end date. Please ensure you apply to a job posting no later than the day BEFORE the job posting end date.
Required Experience:
Director
About Company
Merck & Co., Inc., Kenilworth, New Jersey, USA is known as “Merck” in the United States, Canada & Puerto Rico. We are known as “MSD” in Europe, Middle East, Africa, Latin America & Asia Pacific. We are a global biopharmaceutical leader with a diverse portfolio of prescription medicine ... View more