Executive Director, Account Management

Job Description

Our company is building the commercial foundation in anticipation of an exciting launch in ophthalmology and this role is at the forefront of it. As the National Leader of the Ophthalmology Account Management Team, you will lead and manage a field team of Account Directors purposefully built around our two late-stage pipeline assets.

This is an opportunity to establish how our company shows up in the evolving ophthalmology market, develop deep strategic partnerships and orchestrate cross functional engagement across teams. You will be a central leader in our customer engagement model, overseeing account managers responsible for key consolidated Retina practices, large managed-service organizations or PE backed networks.

You will play a crucial role in establishing our company as an industry gold standard, supporting healthcare partners and providers, improving patient health outcomes and becoming a trusted resource. This role will report into the US Franchise Leader of Ophthalmology and participate in the Franchise Leadership Team.

Key Responsibilities:

• Team Leadership: Establish, recruit and oversee our company's Ophthalmology Account Management Team, including National Account Directors responsible for key corporate accounts and Key Account Managers assigned to districts to engage key retina practices within their responsible geographies
• Strategic Vision: Participate as a member of the US Ophthalmology Leadership Team to shape the strategic direction, capabilities and performance of the Ophthalmology franchise
• Account Management: Serve as the internal expert on key ophthalmology engagements, providing insights and counsel to senior leadership and representing account segments in business planning forums
• Executive Engagement: Provide strategic oversight and executive sponsorship for key organized customer accounts, maintaining selective, high-level engagement with C-suite and clinical leadership, while empowering the account management team to serve as the primary owners of ongoing operational relationships
• Talent Development: Coach and mentor a high-performing field team, establishing a culture of accountability and continuous professional development
• Cross-functional collaboration: Coordinate cross functional execution across SAMs, BEMs, Field Sales, Field Reimbursement and Medical to ensure seamless pull-through across the customer network to meet customer needs while upholding high standards of compliance to company policy
• Launch Excellence and Market Shaping: Provide strategic oversight of customer engagement plans, optimize resource allocation and champion collaborations with other field-facing teams

Core Competencies:

Business Literacy Acumen

• Demonstrates expertise in market and landscape understanding: anticipates healthcare market trends, synthesizes complex data from multiple sources and applies insights to shape strategic plans
• Applies strong commercial acumen: interprets customer business priorities, healthcare business models and financial metrics to identify opportunities that improve patient outcomes and drive product access
• Represent our company's ophthalmology franchise to the highest ethical and professional standards, in full compliance with applicable laws, regulations and company policies

Customer Focus

• Excels at people and process mapping: expertly navigates clinical and business decision-making networks across different sites of care to ensure product and patient access
• Builds trusted professional relationships: serves as a trusted advisor to customers by demonstrating deep understanding of their business and professional goals, establishing long-term relationships based on mutual success
• Shapes approaches: develops tailored strategies that address specific customer challenges, proactively identifying the most effective frameworks to meet unique customer objectives
• People management: demonstrate leadership across the customer engagement ecosystem with responsibility for assigned Strategic Account Managers (SAMs)
• Mentors peers, and shares expertise on best practices for maintaining business relationships to build customer networks

Communication & Collaboration

• Demonstrates effective communication: proactively discerns nuanced audience needs and seamlessly adjusts content and delivery to resonate with varied stakeholders, including in complex and difficult conversations
• Provides cross-functional leadership: leads complex cross-functional initiatives, ensuring alignment across account teams to achieve organizational goals and win as one team
• Drives mutual commitment: expertly leads high-level, complex customer engagements, consistently arriving at commitments that maximize benefit for all stakeholders while maintaining positive business relationships
• Creates and leads an inclusive environment that values broad perspectives and expertise

Strategic Planning & Execution

• Develops growth strategy: crafts account plans that set a long-term growth vision, identifying high-impact strategies and seamlessly bringing together cross-functional teams to deliver coordinated approaches
• Leads orchestration and execution: strategically mobilizes resources and applies insights to execute efficiently, establishing a reputation for exceptional leadership in meeting mutual goals
• Delivers impact: uses data fluently to identify opportunities, develops compelling narratives that integrate customer needs and insights and delivers presentations that resonate in multi-stakeholder environments

Education:

• Bachelor's degree required
• MBA or advanced degree preferred

Required Experience and Skills:

• 12+ years of progressive pharmaceutical, biotech, or related industry experience
• 7+ years of experience in managing direct reports
• 5+ years of demonstrated experience in strategic/key account management with enterprise level customer engagement
• Proven ability to develop and implement strategy across complex healthcare environments, including the ability to influence without authority and mobilize cross functional colleagues
• Strong understanding of buy-and-bill economics, specialty drug distribution, GPO contracting structures and reimbursement dynamics
• Demonstrated financial acumen with ability to communicate value proposition and negotiate, if applicable 
• Excellent interpersonal and communication skills, internally and externally, with ability to interact with individuals from a variety of cultures
• Ability to travel 50%

Preferred Experience and Skills:

• Proven knowledge and relationships with key executive level decision makers from retina and other market GPOs and institutional trade partners
• Previous experience in launching new specialty pharmaceutical/biologics products
• Cross functional experience spanning account management, marketing, market access and/or operations
• Strong understanding of healthcare ecosystem
• Experience with channel accounts (Distributors, GPOs/PE Backed Entities, Specialty Pharmacies)

Required Skills:

Account Management, Account Management, Business Growth Strategies, Collaborative Leadership, Competency Management, Contracting Strategies, Contract Management, Corporate Decision Making, Cross-Functional Leadership, Cross-Functional Project Management, Customer-Focused, Customer Management, Customer Relationship Management (CRM), Engagement Strategies, Financial Acumen, Interpersonal Relationships, Key Account Management, Leadership Management, Leadership Theories, Managed Markets, Matrix Management, People Leadership, Pharmaceutical Sales Marketing, Proactive Behavior, Relationship Building {+ 8 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.

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

The salary range for this role is

$255,800.00 - $402,700.00

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:

Domestic

VISA Sponsorship:

No

Travel Requirements:

50%

Flexible Work Arrangements:

Remote

Shift:

1st - Day

Valid Driving License:

Yes

Hazardous Material(s):

n/a

Job Posting End Date:

10/17/2026

*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.