Director, Data Science Hybrid
Rahway, NJ - USA
Job Summary
Job Description
The Director Data Science (R-track) provides strategic leadership and governance for analytics and data enablement across multiple therapeutic areas. This individual defines and oversees the implementation of enterprise-wide data and analytics strategies ensuring high-quality automation methodological consistency and alignment with clinical and digital health objectives. The Director Data Science establishes governance frameworks drive cross-functional collaboration and advance innovation in analytical methodologies tools and automation.
Responsibilities
Data analysis insights and visualization
- Lead the development and execution of therapeutic-area data enablement and analytics strategies aligned with organizational goals.
- Guide the creation of analytics KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) and dashboards to monitor data performance quality and operational efficiency across therapeutic areas.
- Serve as a key advisor to executive leadership governance boards and cross-functional leaders by translating analytical insights into strategic business decisions.
Technical delivery automation ML/AI enablement
- Maintain accountability for the design performance and integrity of automated data and analytics pipelines ensuring scalability and compliance with regulatory standards.
- Oversee analytics governance to ensure consistent application of standards metrics and quality controls across programs and platforms.
- Drive adoption of emerging technologies (e.g. AI/ML advanced data visualization predictive analytics) and promote continuous improvement in analytical efficiency and value generation.
- Define and enforce best practices for dataset design feature engineering and analytical evaluation to ensure comparability and reproducibility across studies.
- Lead and mentor analytics team members fostering an environment of innovation accountability and collaboration.
- Strengthen organizational analytics maturity through targeted capability development and knowledge-sharing initiatives.
- Partner with clinical data management and IT teams to ensure cohesive interoperable analytics processes that drive meaningful business and scientific outcomes.
- Champion organizational change; drive adoption of new operating models and digital capabilities across global functions
Technical skills
- Expert knowledge of analytics governance frameworks successful data strategy implementation and cross-functional data integration techniques.
- Expert knowledge in advanced data analytics automation and AI/ML evaluation applied to clinical and digital health data.
- Expert experience in designing and overseeing automated analytics pipelines data architectures and metadata-driven workflows.
- Expert command of programming languages and analytics tools (e.g. Python R SQL) as well as data visualization and monitoring platforms (e.g. Power BI Tableau Spotfire).
- Expert knowledge of clinical and real-world data standards (e.g. CDISC SDTM) and of regulatory compliance requirements (e.g. GxP 21 CFR Part 11).
- Expert experience driving enterprise-scale data transformation initiatives and enabling scalable technology-driven analytics ecosystems.
Non-technical skills
- Ability to distill complex issues into decision-ready narratives; frames options risks and recommendations to influence senior decisions.
- Strong proficiency in driving adoption of standardized methods/ways of working; mobilizes cross-functional champions and measures uptake.
- Capable of aligning senior stakeholders on objectives interfaces and responsibilities while ensuring clean handoffs and conflict resolution
- Coordinates decisions across regions/time zones; uses asynchronous mechanisms to maintain momentum.
- Engages vendor forums; represents team professionally and credibly under pressure; maintains resilience and composure.
- Resilient and adaptable with a balance of strategic vision and operational execution.
- Ability to integrate business operational and people dimensions into decision-making.
Enterprise Leadership Skills
- Business Savviness Anticipates business and regulatory issues and shapes strategy accordingly; connects technical expertise to organizational and industry context to make strategic recommendations
- Influence Leads large teams / projects helps shape departmental strategy influences leaders peers and cross-functional partners to align on decisions and strategic direction
- Change Catalyst Drives improvements (e.g. organizational and cultural changes) with broader impact; demonstrates adaptability and ability to collaborate with others to make change successful; helps others overcome resistance to change
Qualifications & experience
- Bachelors Degree in Computer Science Statistics Pharmacy Nursing Biological Sciences or health care related discipline with a minimum of 10 years of experience in relevant field for job description including:
- Demonstrated aptitude of working with large datasets to transform into actionable insights deep subject matter expertise in relevant discipline
- People management skills
- Programming and/or analysis experience may include SQL Python R Databricks and the like.
- Expert knowledge of statistics data visualization organizational skills time management and database concepts.
OR
- Advanced Degree (Masters or Doctorate) in Computer Science Statistics Pharmacy Nursing Biological Sciences or health care related discipline with a minimum of 8 years of experience in relevant field for job description including:
- Demonstrated aptitude of working with large datasets to transform into actionable insights deep subject matter expertise in relevant discipline
- People management skills
- Programming and/or analysis experience may include SQL Python R Databricks and the like.
- Expert knowledge of statistics data visualization organizational skills time management and database concepts.
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Required Skills:
Business Agility Business Decisions Database Design Data Literacy Data Modeling Data Organization Data Science Data Visualization Project Management Stakeholder Relationship ManagementPreferred Skills:
Clinical Operations Data Analysis Data Analytics Machine LearningCurrent Employees apply HERE
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The salary range for this role is
$190800.00 - $300300.00This is the lowest to highest salary we in good faith believe we would pay for this role at the time of this posting. An employees position within the salary range will be based on several factors including but not limited to relevant education qualifications certifications experience skills geographic location government requirements and business or organizational needs.
The successful candidate will be eligible for annual bonus and long-term incentive if applicable.
We offer a comprehensive package of benefits. 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. More information about benefits is available at can apply for this role through (or via the Workday Jobs Hub if you are a current employee). The application deadline for this position is stated on this posting.
San Francisco Residents Only:We will consider qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records for employment in compliance with the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance
Los Angeles Residents Only:We will consider for employment all qualified applicants including those with criminal histories in a manner consistent with the requirements of applicable state and local laws including the City of Los Angeles Fair Chance Initiative for Hiring Ordinance
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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:
25%Flexible Work Arrangements:
HybridShift:
1st - DayValid Driving License:
YesHazardous Material(s):
NoJob Posting End Date:
10/8/2026*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