Associate Director, Measurement Activation Planning and Strategy

Job Description

Associate Director – Integrated Measurement (MAPS)

Measurement, Activation, Planning & Strategy (MAPS) Product Line | DHH India Hub Delivery

Reports to

Director – Customer Knowledge and Measurement, DHH India Hub Delivery

Location

Hyderabad, India;
international and domestic travel as required by business

Capability scope

Integrated measurement, measurement and planning, product build, activation enablement, and AI-enabled planning and measurement across brands and markets: KPI and measurement frameworks, marketing mix modeling, multi-touch attribution, incrementality and test-and-learn, campaign and content performance, investment and ROI optimization, insight-to-planning feedback loops, and AI-enabled measurement across the One marketing framework journey

Leadership scope

Lead measurement science, analytics, insights, and product build teams (product owners, data scientists, AI and data engineers); partner with MAPS Customer Insight, Planning, and Activation capabilities; orchestrate pods across Brand, Commercial, Finance, Data Science/AI, Technology, Content, and Market partners

Role Overview

Lead the Integrated Measurement capability within the Measurement, Activation, Planning & Strategy (MAPS) , turning performance evidence into decisions that improve brand planning, customer activation and effectiveness, investment allocation, performance measurement and future growth across brands and markets.

Job Description

This role sits within the Customer Knowledge and Measurement capabilities vertical of Digital Human Health (DHH), India Hub Delivery. MAPS connects customer insight, planning, activation, and measurement to improve decision-making and business performance across brands and markets. The Associate Director, Integrated Measurement-MAPS will own the measurement backbone of MAPS, ensuring every plan has clear success metrics, every activation is measured consistently, and every insight feeds back into optimization and investment decisions.

The role brings together KPI and measurement frameworks across customer identification, marketing mix and attribution modeling, incrementality testing, campaign and content performance analytics, and investment and ROI optimization into a single, integrated view of performance. Beyond analytics, the role owns the build of scalable measurement and planning products, such as ROI simulators, budget optimizers, and performance intelligence tools, and embeds measurement into activation so that insights drive strategy and planning, targeting, omnichannel orchestration and optimization. A key mandate is to accelerate AI-enabled planning and measurement, including GenAI and agentic solutions for automated insight generation, scenario planning, and optimization, and to scale proven solutions across brands and markets.

The Associate Director will work closely with the MAPS Lead and the Customer Insight, Planning, and Activation capability leads, and partner with Brand Strategy, Customer Engagement, Finance, Data Science/AI, Commercial Technology, and market teams to close the loop between strategy and execution.

Key Responsibilities

• Define and lead the Integrated Measurement roadmap and India Hub delivery model within Customer Knowledge and measurement, aligned to MAPS product line priorities and to US and international brand and market needs.
• Establish a common measurement framework, including KPI hierarchy, definitions, data standards, and success criteria, that links brand strategy and planning objectives to activation and business outcomes.
• Lead advanced measurement solutions, planning and strategy, customer mapping, including marketing mix modeling, multi-touch attribution, incrementality and holdout testing, and closed-loop campaign and content measurement, with clear guidance on when to use each approach.
• Connect strategy and execution by ensuring performance insights directly inform brand planning, channel and content optimization, in-flight campaign adjustments, and resource allocation decisions.
• Activate capability to embed measurement into activation, including audience and segment targeting, next-best-action and trigger performance, omnichannel orchestration across CRM, email, web, media, and field channels, and closed-loop optimization of HCP and patient campaigns.
• Partner with Brand, Commercial, and Finance leaders to drive evidence-based investment decisions through ROI analysis, scenario planning, budget optimization, and identification of future growth opportunities.
• Run a structured test-and-learn agenda across brands and markets, capturing learnings in a reusable knowledge base that accelerates planning and activation for future campaigns.
• Accelerate AI-enabled planning and measurement by defining the AI roadmap for MAPS measurement, prioritizing use cases by business value, and applying AI/ML, GenAI, and agentic capabilities to automated performance monitoring, anomaly detection, forecasting, scenario planning, and optimization recommendations.
• Build and deploy AI solutions with Data Science/AI and Technology partners, such as conversational insight assistants, automated campaign performance readouts, AI-driven budget reallocation, and agentic planning and measurement workflows, with responsible-use guardrails, human-in-the-loop review, and value tracking.
• Scale measurement capabilities across brands and markets through reusable models, standardized dashboards, self-service tools, and playbooks that reduce cycle time and cost to serve.
• Own the product build of measurement and planning products, such as MMM and ROI simulators, budget and channel-mix optimizers, performance intelligence dashboards, and measurement data products, from discovery and MVP through release, adoption, and continuous improvement, using product management practices (vision, roadmap, backlog, user stories, and success metrics).
• Partner with Data Engineering, Commercial Technology, and AI platform teams on solution architecture, data pipelines, model operationalization (MLOps), and integration with planning and activation platforms, so that products are production-grade, reusable, and scalable across brands and markets.
• Ensure measurement rigor and trust through strong data quality, model validation, privacy and compliance controls, transparent assumptions, and consistent performance reporting across stakeholders.
• Establish governance and operating rhythms for prioritization, roadmap and backlog management, adoption, and value tracking, and report measurable business impact to MAPS and DHH leadership.
• Build and develop a high-performing team that combines measurement science, commercial understanding, consulting skills, product thinking, and stakeholder influence to deliver measurable impact.

Education Requirements

Master’s degree or equivalent experience in Statistics, Econometrics, Economics, Data Science, Decision Science, Marketing Science, Engineering, Computer Science, Business, Life Sciences, or a related discipline. Advanced degree such as MBA, MS, MPH, PharmD, or PhD preferred.

Required Experience and Skills

• 8+ years of experience in pharma/biotech commercial analytics, marketing science, measurement and ROI analytics, omnichannel analytics, data science, or related functions, with a strong track record in marketing and promotional measurement.
• 4+ years of people leadership experience, including coaching measurement/analytics teams and leading cross-functional pods in a global, matrixed environment.
• Deep expertise in measurement methodologies, including MMM, multi-touch attribution, incrementality/holdout testing, experimental design, causal inference, and forecasting.
• Proven experience translating measurement insights into planning, budget allocation, and optimization decisions, and influencing brand and investment choices with senior stakeholders.
• Demonstrated experience building and scaling analytics or AI products end to end, including product ownership, agile delivery, working with engineering teams, and driving user adoption and measurable value.
• Strong understanding of brand planning, customer engagement strategy, segmentation and targeting, omnichannel activation, and how measurement connects across the insight-to-plan-to-activate cycle.
• Hands-on exposure to activation, including omnichannel campaign execution, next-best-action and triggers, audience targeting, and in-flight optimization of HCP and patient engagement.
• Experience with customer and promotional data sources such as CRM activity, Rx, claims, media and spend data, web analytics, email engagement, content interaction, sales, market research, and syndicated data.
• Familiarity with modern data, analytics, and MarTech platforms such as Veeva, Salesforce, Adobe Experience Cloud, Power BI/Tableau, Databricks, AWS/GCP, Python/R, or similar platforms.
• Strong AI/ML and GenAI fluency, including practical experience with machine learning, LLMs, and agentic AI use cases, and a responsible-use mindset, with the ability to identify, build, and scale AI-enabled planning and measurement solutions that improve speed, accuracy, productivity, and decision quality.
• Ability to translate ambiguous business questions into structured solutions and communicate the so what/now what clearly through compelling data storytelling.

Additional location(s) Compensation Information:

Required Skills:

AI Implementation Planning, AI Implementation Planning, AI Systems, Brand Planning, Brand Strategy, Business Intelligence (BI), Coaching, Database Design, Data Engineering, Data Modeling, Data Science, Data Storytelling, Data Visualization, Forecasting Models, Growth Investing, Level Measurement Instruments, Machine Learning (ML), Marketing Science, Patient Engagement, People Management, Performance Reports, Product Management, Product Ownership, Responsible AI, Software Development {+ 3 more}

Preferred Skills:

Current Employees apply HERE

Current Contingent Workers apply HERE

Secondary Language(s) Job Description:

#MSDHYDIT

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:

VISA Sponsorship:

Travel Requirements:

Flexible Work Arrangements:

Hybrid

Shift:

Valid Driving License:

Hazardous Material(s):

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.