Associate Director D&A Strategy

Job Description

Associate Director, Specialty Pharmacy Data Strategy, Contracting & Enablement

The Associate Director, Specialty Pharmacy (SP) Data Strategy Contracting & Enablement will report to the Director, Commercial Data Solutions within the Data Strategy, Products and Innovation organization.

This role will lead the strategy, acquisition, contracting, and enablement of Specialty Pharmacy and patient-level data assets that support commercial operations, reporting, analytics, and decision-making. The role will connect business processes, patient journeys, reporting needs, and KPIs to the data required to enable them, while ensuring those requirements are appropriately incorporated into vendor agreements and successfully operationalized.

In this role, a typical day might include:

• Define the SP data strategy and roadmap, identifying data required to support patient journeys, operational processes, reporting, KPIs, and advanced analytics.

• Lead SP data contracting, translating business and analytical needs into clearly defined data requirements, including critical data elements, business rules, file specifications, delivery frequency, data quality expectations, and SLAs.

• Partner with Sourcing/Contracting, Legal, Privacy, and Compliance to embed data requirements, usage rights, and delivery expectations into new agreements, renewals, and amendments.

• Establish traceability from business need and KPI → data requirement → vendor commitment → data delivery → reporting and analytics, ensuring acquired data is fit for its intended purpose.

• Manage strategic relationships with Specialty Pharmacies, data aggregators, PSS providers, and other data partners, driving alignment on capabilities, deliverables, performance, and evolving business needs.

• Oversee data aggregator engagements, including data scope, licensing and usage rights, service levels, renewals, commercial considerations, and ongoing vendor governance.

• Lead or support Fair Market Value (FMV) evaluations for data and data-related services, ensuring investments are aligned to defined business needs, data utility, and value.

• Drive end-to-end implementation and enablement of new or enhanced data feeds, partnering with vendors and internal technology teams through design, testing, validation, production deployment, and stabilization. 

• Establish and monitor data quality and delivery standards, driving resolution of gaps across contracted requirements, vendor delivery, downstream ingestion, and reporting.

• Embed data strategy and requirements early into product launches, SP onboarding, network changes, PSS transformations, and vendor transitions.

• Develop scalable data standards, dictionaries, specifications, data maps, and governance frameworks across SP and patient-level data assets.

• Identify opportunities to enhance, consolidate, or rationalize external data assets, improving business value while reducing duplication and unnecessary complexity.

• Ensure patient-level data acquisition and enablement align with applicable HIPAA, PHI, privacy, tokenization, data usage, and enterprise governance requirements.

To be considered for this opportunity, you must have:

• BA/BS with 10+ years, or MBA/MS with 7+ years, of relevant experience in pharmaceutical/biotechnology data, Specialty Pharmacy, Patient Support Services, Market Access, analytics, or related disciplines.

• Deep understanding of the Specialty Pharmacy and patient data ecosystem, including dispense/inventory, patient status/referral, BI/BV, PA/ePA, copay, PAP/free goods, and adherence data.

• Demonstrated ability to translate business processes, patient journeys, reporting requirements, and KPIs into data requirements and contractual deliverables. 

• Experience developing and managing data agreements and external data partnerships, including SPs, data aggregators, Hub/PSS vendors, or other commercial data providers.

• Experience partnering across Sourcing, Legal, Privacy, Compliance, Analytics, Technology, and business teams to acquire and operationalize external data. 

• Understanding of FMV assessments, data licensing, usage rights, SLAs, data quality, and vendor governance.

• Strong understanding of patient-level data governance, PHI/HIPAA considerations, and data quality management.

• Strong strategic thinking, stakeholder management, problem-solving, and communication skills, with demonstrated ability to influence across internal and external stakeholders.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Experience supporting specialty/rare disease or other patient-support-intensive therapeutic areas.

• Working knowledge of data and analytics environments such as SQL, Databricks, Redshift, or equivalent platforms.

• Familiarity with commercial and patient-level data sources such as IQVIA, Symphony Health, MMIT, Precision, or similar data providers.

• Experience supporting product launches, SP network changes, Hub/SP implementations, or major data/vendor transformations.

Required Skills:

Advanced Analytics, Business Analysis, Data Aggregation, Databricks Unified Data Analytics Platform, Data Quality Control, Data Science, Demand Management, HIPAA Compliance, Influencing Skills, Patient Access, Patient Support Programs, Product Rollouts, Requirements Management, Sourcing and Procurement, Speciality Pharmaceuticals, Stakeholder Relationship Management

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.

Learn more about your rights, including under California, Colorado and other US State Acts

The primary location for this posting is:

USA - New Jersey - Rahway

Where required by law, the compensation range for this role is provided below.

The salary range for the primary location of this role is:

$156,900.00 - $247,000.00

This range reflects the Company's reasonable expectation of the base salary applicable to this role at the time of 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.

Additional location(s): Please note the salary range above applies to the Primary Location of the position. Where a role has other listed locations, different compensation guidelines may apply. You may find the salary ranges for additional locations below. If the salary range is not listed for the location you are applying to, our Talent Acquisition team will provide further information to you relevant to your location.

Additional location(s) Compensation Information:

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:

11/14/2026

*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.