Director, Strategic Planning

Job Description

The Human Health Division (HH) has been on a significant transformation journey, focused on positioning our company for long-term growth by strengthening the commercial capabilities needed to compete today and win in the future.

As market dynamics continue to evolve and digital, data, and AI reshape how commercial organizations create value, HH is accelerating its focus on Commercial Model Innovation. This work centers on designing, scaling, and realizing the capabilities, ways of working, and integrated solutions that will enable a more agile, responsive, and growth-oriented future.


This role is designed to accelerate our Human Health transformation as we work to create an AI-enabled, agile, and integrated commercial model. The Transformation, Director will lead a team responsible for shaping a future where strategy and execution operate as a unified system, transformation is delivered at scale with speed, and new capabilities such as AI and automation redefine how work is done. In this team leader role, the individual will provide direction, coaching, and prioritization across a portfolio of strategic initiatives while ensuring strong execution, talent development, and enterprise impact.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead and manage a team of Associate Directors, providing direction, prioritization, and coaching to drive high performance and consistent delivery across transformation initiatives

• Own a portfolio of transformation initiatives aligned to enterprise strategic priorities, ensuring end-to-end delivery from strategy through deployment and value realization

• Translate enterprise strategy into a coherent transformation roadmap, aligning initiatives to business outcomes and sequencing for maximum impact

• Oversee pilot design, execution, and scaling, ensuring insights are codified into repeatable playbooks for enterprise adoption

• Ensure effective deployment of capabilities across brands and business units, driving adoption, change integration, and measurable value realization

• Establish governance, tracking, and reporting to monitor progress, risks, and value delivery across the transformation portfolio

• Partner with senior leaders across Marketing, Review, Data, Market Access, and Global teams to align on priorities, resolve trade-offs, and enable execution

• Shape future-state operating models, including AI-enabled workflows, embedded compliance, and ecosystem-based delivery models

• Drive evolution of roles, ways of working, and organizational capabilities to support future-state transformation

• Act as a senior thought partner to executive stakeholders, framing decisions, risks, and trade-offs

• Champion agile ways of working, fostering a test-and-learn culture that accelerates delivery speed and improves outcomes

• Ensure integration across initiatives, avoiding fragmentation and driving a cohesive Strategy Realization approach.

Qualifications

Education Minimum Requirement:

• Bachelor’s Degree, required

• Master’s Degree, preferred

Required Experience and Skills:

• Minimum of 10+ years of related Industry Experience

• Minimum 5+ years Transformation or Strategic Planning Experience

• Experience leading cross-functional teams and initiatives

• Established People Manager with ability to lead across a matrixed organization

• Demonstrable Change Management experience or a combination of professional certification(s)

• Demonstrable experience executing comprehensive transformational change plans across a broad group of stakeholders/functions (HQ, field, COEs, strategic partners, executive sponsors, etc.) to work collaboratively and achieve success 

• Comfortable working in white space and managing multiple workstreams simultaneously

• Experience working with external vendors to execute on transformational projects

• Strong executive presence and communication skills

• Strong understanding of compliance-related concepts and application in all job-related functions

Preferred Experience and Skills:

• Direct customer experience (i.e. Sales, Marketing)

• Established business owner (i.e. P&L, Financial trade-offs)

• Knowledgeable in systems thinking, design thinking and organizational behavior

• Experience with digital, AI, or data-driven transformation preferred

Required Skills:

Acquisitions Divestitures, Acquisitions Divestitures, Agile Leadership, Coaching, Consumer Relations, Customer Experience (CX), Direct-To-Consumer (DTC), Employee Performance Evaluations, Environmental Scanning, Feasibility Studies, Financial Analysis, Forecasting Models, Growth Mindset, Market Access, Marketing, Operations Analysis, Organizational Capability, People Leadership, Performance Coaching, Prioritization, Resource Management, Risk Management, Stakeholder Engagement, Strategic Initiative, Strategic Planning {+ 2 more}

Preferred Skills:

Current Employees apply HERE

Current Contingent Workers apply HERE

US and Puerto Rico Residents Only:

Our company is committed to inclusion, ensuring that candidates can engage in a hiring process that exhibits their true capabilities. Please click here if you need an accommodation during the application or hiring process.

As an Equal Employment Opportunity Employer, we provide equal opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment and prohibit discrimination on the basis of race, color, age, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, protected veteran status, disability status, or other applicable legally protected characteristics.  As a federal contractor, we comply with all affirmative action requirements for protected veterans and individuals with disabilities.  For more information about personal rights under the U.S. Equal Opportunity Employment laws, visit:

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We are proud to be a company that embraces the value of bringing together, talented, and committed people with diverse experiences, perspectives, skills and backgrounds. The fastest way to breakthrough innovation is when people with diverse ideas, broad experiences, backgrounds, and skills come together in an inclusive environment. We encourage our colleagues to respectfully challenge one another’s thinking and approach problems collectively.

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The salary range for this role is

$173,200.00 - $272,600.00

This is the lowest to highest salary we in good faith believe we would pay for this role at the time of this posting. An employee’s 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 https://jobs.merck.com/us/en/compensation-and-benefits.

You can apply for this role through https://jobs.merck.com/us/en (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

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:

Regular

Relocation:

No relocation

VISA Sponsorship:

No

Travel Requirements:

10%

Flexible Work Arrangements:

Hybrid

Shift:

Not Indicated

Valid Driving License:

No

Hazardous Material(s):

N/A

Job Posting End Date:

06/4/2026

*A job posting is effective until 11:59:59PM on the day BEFORE the listed job posting end date. Please ensure you apply to a job posting no later than the day BEFORE the job posting end date.