Business Unit Director, Oncology - Malaysia

Job Description

• Lead Malaysia’s Oncology unit—shape strategy, access, and meaningful patient impact.

• Drive launch excellence and portfolio growth, partnering across teams to deliver what matters most.

• Be an enterprise leader—build high-performing teams and influence the oncology ecosystem with integrity.

Our Oncology team is dedicated to delivering breakthrough innovations that extend and improve the lives of cancer patients worldwide. Our team of forward-thinking individuals achieve this through an unwavering commitment to support accessibility to medicine, providing new therapeutic solutions, and collaborating with governments and payers to ensure that people who need medicines have access to them. Our focus is on innovation and launch execution excellence; we translate breakthrough science into innovative medicines that help people with cancer across the globe.

Role Overview:
The Business Unit Director Oncology role leads the Oncology business in Malaysia while serving as an enterprise leader on the SGMY Country Leadership Team, balancing Oncology performance with broader country priorities across financial, customer, people, and organisational outcomes. The role owns end-to-end Oncology strategy and integrated business planning (annual and long-range plans, forecasting, budgets, and resource allocation), anticipates market/policy risks with proactive mitigation, and drives portfolio commercialization through brand strategy, launch excellence, customer strategy, market development, and disciplined execution across key commercial levers (insights, promotion, pricing, distribution). Success depends on strong cross-functional partnership (e.g., Medical, Regulatory, Commercial Operations, External Affairs/Policy/Comms, Supply Chain, Finance, HR and the Country Leadership Team), sustained external engagement across the oncology ecosystem to advance patient access and shape the environment compliantly, and building.
 

What will you do in this role
 

Leadership & Enterprise Contribution:

• Act as an enterprise leader and active member of the SGMY Country Leadership Team, contributing beyond Oncology to deliver country strategy, enterprise priorities, and overall business performance.

• Represent Oncology as a strategic country leader, balancing business unit performance with enterprise priorities across financial, customer, people, and organisational outcomes.

• Contribute to organisational health by championing talent, culture, inclusion, leadership capability, and enterprise-wide change initiatives.

Strategy & Business Planning:

• Shape and deliver short- and long-term Oncology strategy, translating market insights and enterprise priorities into sustainable growth and effective resource allocation.

• Lead integrated business planning, including annual and long-range plans, forecasting, budgets, and resource allocation aligned with customer needs, market dynamics, and global strategy.

• Anticipate risks and evolving healthcare, policy, and business developments, and implement proactive mitigation and contingency plans.

Commercial Execution & Performance:

• Lead end-to-end commercialization of the Oncology portfolio, including brand strategy, launch excellence, customer strategy, and market development.

• Set and align commercial objectives, priorities, and performance expectations within the broader country and corporate context.

• Oversee execution across key commercial activities (market insights, promotion, pricing, distribution) and monitor performance, taking corrective action where required.

• Deliver day-to-day business performance in partnership with cross-functional teams to achieve sales, market share, growth, and profitability targets.

Cross-Functional & Enterprise Collaboration:

• Partner across business units and enabling functions to drive integrated outcomes and strengthen enterprise decision-making.

• Ensure alignment of Oncology priorities with broader country and corporate objectives.

External Engagement & Ecosystem Leadership:

• Lead strategic external engagements across the Oncology ecosystem, including key customers, policymakers, medical societies, advocacy groups, and industry stakeholders.

• Build and sustain strong relationships to advance patient access, shape the external environment, and support sustainable, compliant business growth.

People & Organisational Leadership:

• Build and lead a high-performing organisation with strong capability, clear accountability, and a robust succession pipeline.

• Drive talent selection, development, and empowerment with appropriate delegation and leadership oversight.

• Foster an integrated, high-performing culture across sales and marketing teams.

Governance, Compliance & Risk Stewardship:

• Provide strong stewardship on governance, compliance, risk management, and organisational reputation.

• Ensure all business activities are conducted in line with legal, regulatory, and ethical standards, embedding a culture of accountability and integrity.

Supervision

This role has leadership responsibility for the Oncology commercial team in Malaysia, including marketing and sales, and works in close partnership with cross-functional colleagues to deliver business and patient impact.

What should you have to be successful in this role:

 Education:

• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent required.

• Advanced degree (e.g., MBA, healthcare or related discipline) is an advantage.
   

Experience and leadership:

• Minimum 10–12 years of relevant experience in the pharmaceutical, healthcare or related industry, with progressive leadership experience across commercial, marketing, sales or business unit environments.

• Demonstrated experience operating at a senior leadership level, with accountability for business performance, strategic decision-making and execution delivery.

• Proven track record of leading within complex, matrixed environments, influencing across functions, geographies and stakeholder groups.

• Experience contributing as an enterprise leader beyond a single business unit, including participation in country or regional leadership forums.

• Strong commercial acumen, with a consistent track record of delivering sustainable business growth and performance outcomes.

• Demonstrated ability to translate market insights into actionable strategy, including portfolio prioritization, resource allocation and execution planning.

• Experience leading product launches and driving brand performance in complex, competitive markets.

• Capability to balance short-term performance delivery with long-term strategic development.

• Experience in Oncology, specialty care, or other complex healthcare environments is strongly preferred.

• Deep understanding of the healthcare ecosystem, including customers, policy environment, access dynamics and stakeholder expectations.

• Demonstrated ability to shape access, partnerships or stakeholder strategies that improve patient outcomes and support sustainable business growth.

• Proven experience engaging with external stakeholders, including key customers, policy stakeholders, professional societies and advocacy groups.

• Strong people leadership capability, including experience building, developing and leading high-performing, inclusive teams.

• Ability to coach, develop and empower leaders, with a focus on succession planning and capability building.

• Track record of leading through change, fostering engagement and strengthening organizational health.

• Strategic thinking and enterprise mindset, with the ability to align business priorities to broader country and organizational objectives.

• Strong stakeholder management and influencing skills, including the ability to engage credibly with senior internal and external stakeholders.

• Excellent communication and interpersonal capability, able to simplify complexity and drive alignment.

• High level of integrity and accountability, with a strong commitment to governance, ethics and compliance.

Who we are:

We are known as Merck & Co., Inc., Rahway, New Jersey, USA in the United States and Canada, and as MSD everywhere else. For over a century, we have been bringing forward medicines and vaccines for many of the world’s most challenging diseases. Today, our company remains at the forefront of research, delivering innovative health solutions and advancing the prevention and treatment of diseases that threaten people and animals around the world.

What we look for:

Imagine getting up in the morning for a job as important as helping to save and improve lives around the world. Here, you have that opportunity. You can put your empathy, creativity, digital mastery, or scientific genius to work in collaboration with a diverse group of colleagues who are motivated to bring hope to countless people facing some of the most challenging health issues of our time. Our team is constantly evolving, so if you are among the intellectually curious and purpose-driven, we invite you to join us – and start making your impact today.

Required Skills:

Agile Methodology, Animal Health Care, Biopharmaceutical Industry, Data Analysis, Digital Marketing, Innovation, Interventional Oncology, Market Access Strategies, Market Research, Oncology, Oncology Marketing, People Leadership, Profit and Loss (P&L) Management, Relationship Building, Results-Oriented, Strategic Planning, Strategic Thinking, Talent Development

Preferred Skills:

Current Employees apply HERE

Current Contingent Workers apply HERE

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:

06/4/2026

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