Associate Director (Digital Engagement Partner) - Regulatory Affairs

Job Description

Role Overview:

The Associate Director, Digital Engagement Partner is responsible for driving the adoption, engagement, governance, and business value realization of digital capabilities across the Global Regulatory Affairs and Clinical Safety (GRACS) organization. This role serves as a strategic partner to business stakeholders, helping identify opportunities, shape digital strategies, and deliver measurable business outcomes through the integration of artificial intelligence, data science, automation, Power Platform solutions, and other emerging technologies.

 

The position acts as the primary liaison between business functions, technology organizations, and global stakeholders to accelerate awareness, adoption, and value realization of digital capabilities. The role leads engagement strategies, stakeholder partnerships, use-case discovery, demand management, governance activities, and capability-building initiatives to ensure digital investments align with business priorities and deliver sustainable impact.

 

A key focus of this role is ensuring digital solutions successfully transition from innovative concepts to trusted, scalable capabilities embedded in day-to-day operations. Through stakeholder engagement, change management, communications, training, and performance monitoring, the Associate Director drives utilization, business value, and continuous improvement across a portfolio of AI, automation, and data science solutions.

Education:

• Bachelor's degree in Business Administration, Information Management, Communications, Data Science, Life Sciences, or a related field, with 5+ years of experience in pharmaceutical, life sciences, or other regulated environments.

Required:

• Strong balance of innovation, strategic thinking, and operational execution within regulated and GxP environments.

• Strong change leadership, negotiation, consensus-building, and stakeholder management skills.

• Experience partnering with business stakeholders, IT organizations, vendors, and sourcing partners to deliver technology-enabled solutions.

• Strong organizational awareness with the ability to influence and collaborate effectively across all levels of the organization.

• Proven success leading cross-functional, global, and matrixed teams to deliver business and technology initiatives.

• Knowledge of regulatory affairs and pharmacovigilance business processes, information, and systems.

• Excellent written, verbal, presentation, storytelling, and stakeholder-influencing skills.

Preferred:

• Strong business acumen and ability to understand complex regulatory information relationships.

• Experience with process improvement and change management methodologies (e.g., Lean Six Sigma).

• Ability to operate effectively in ambiguous environments and deliver results under aggressive timelines.

• Experience organizing enterprise innovation challenges, digital community forums, or similar innovation programs.

• Demonstrated ability to leverage Generative AI and large language models (LLMs) to solve business problems, including data preparation, model utilization, and generation of actionable outputs.

Required Skills:

Automation Solutions, Change Management, Cross-Cultural Awareness, Data Management, Employee Training Programs, Policy Implementation, Regulatory Operations, Stakeholder Engagement, Systems Development Lifecycle (SDLC), Vendor 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 - Pennsylvania - North Wales (Upper Gwynedd)

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

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

$129,000.00 - $203,100.00

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:

11/13/2026

*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.