Senior Specialist, Procurement

Job Description

Senior Specialist, Analytical Labs Support and Small Molecule Materials Sourcing

 

Job Description

Our company is a global health care leader with a diversified portfolio of prescription medicines, vaccines and animal health products. The difference between potential and achievement lies in the spark that fuels innovation and inventiveness; this is the space where our company has codified its legacy for over a century. Our company’s success is backed by ethical integrity, forward momentum, and an inspiring mission to achieve new milestones in global healthcare. 

Our ability to excel depends on the integrity, knowledge, imagination, skill, diversity and teamwork of an individual like you.  To this end, we strive to create an environment of mutual respect, encouragement and teamwork.  As part of our global team, you will have the opportunity to collaborate with talented and dedicated colleagues while developing and expanding your career.

Advanced Strategy & Procurement is responsible for the development and implementation of all supplier management strategies and initiatives, improving supply chain resiliency, and driving improvements in cost, supplier performance and working capital, in support of manufacturing and supply of our company products.

The successful candidate will be responsible for managing Analytical Labs (60%) and also the gathering, creating, delivering, tracking, analyzing, modeling, and managing data for various strategic initiatives within Small Molecules area of Advanced Strategy and  Procurement (40%). Will enable progress on projects and procurement organizational objectives and accelerate organizational performance through effective project management and communications, strategy execution, and focused team performance.

General Responsibilities:

• Support our Company's analytical testing labs.  Creating a sourcing strategy, ensuring all chemicals and reagents are available for sourcing and qualifying vendors for risk management.
• Support strategic and operating objectives for the procurement function including product sourcing, supply risk management, supplier performance improvement, cost reduction, supplier diversity development, working capital improvement, and supplier relationship management.
• Work with cross functional teams including Legal, Finance, Procure-to-Pay, internal stakeholders, and external suppliers.
• Conduct detailed market analyses looking at facts and data with the objective of providing deep and meaningful insights
• Implement procurement strategies and execute tactical procurement processes. Serve as a resource regarding processes, procedures and systems for procurement function.
• Support selection of suppliers to ensure appropriate savings and service levels. Ensure that all legal contract requirements are met. Manage relationships with selected external contacts to ensure optimal team performance.
• Enforce compliance with all Global Procurement policies and procedures by using a data driven business case approach.

Additional responsibilities are as follows:

• Supplier and Supply Market Analysis – To conduct rigorous market intelligence and detailed supplier and supply market analyses, to provide deep and meaningful insight to sourcing teams.
• Cost Modeling / Cost reduction – To construct detailed cost models/purchase price analysis of goods and services that are supplied to our company. At times, this will require supplier visits to create a complete understanding of the cost structure of suppliers and develop cost reduction opportunities.
• Strategic Analysis – To conduct project analysis which transforms information into insightful, well-structured breakthrough options and opportunities. Examples include Portfolio Analysis, Supplier Preferencing, and Day One Sourcing.
• Data Upload to Ariba and other Procurement Dashboards
• Financial Analysis & Reporting – To prepare analysis and reporting of category spend, savings, compliance, and other metrics. To support the annual budget / profit planning process for the category at the global level. To maintain financial reporting and management systems (including SAP) with up-to-date data on an ongoing basis.
• Negotiation Planning – To create detailed pre-negotiation plans, to support and participate in prolonged negotiation sessions with suppliers and to conduct post negotiation debriefs and follow through plans. 
• Sourcing – To create and execute RFIs, RFPs, and e-Auctions, together with subsequent structured information analysis wherever possible using electronic procurement processes.
• Risk Assessment and Mitigation – To conduct effective risk assessment (including Financial Solvency Analysis, compliance with FCPA, Business Partner Code of Conduct, etc.) and establish appropriate risk mitigation plans within the supply-base pursuant to our company Manufacturing Division's risk management framework. 
• Category Team Membership – To be an active member of one or more category teams using the techniques and content created in above as input in the creation of breakthrough strategies delivering cost reduction targets.
• Sharing of Learnings – The candidate will be expected to generate high quality work and to share and transfer this to colleagues throughout Global Supplier Management Group (GSMG)

Education Minimum Requirement:

• Bachelor’s degree in Chemical Engineering, or Pharmacy or Organic Chemistry

Required Experience and Skills:

• Some relevant work experience in the pharmaceutical industry.
• Adaptability and ability to work across multiple enterprise initiatives, able to communicate effectively across different levels of organization.
• Possess excellent verbal and written communication skills including ability to make clear and concise presentations, sensitivity to cultural differences in communication.
• Ability to influence external partners to drive meaningful outcomes.
• Advanced data collection, management, analytics and reporting skills.
• Excellent project management skills
• Ability to work independently with a high degree of flexibility and adaptability to deal with ambiguous and dynamic situations.
• Quick learner and motivated to cultivate technical, business and commercial skills by applying their knowledge within company’s environment.
• Proficient in Microsoft office suite (Excel, PowerPoint, Word)

Preferred Experience and Skills:  

• Experience in a GMP Lab environment.
• Support of analytical testing labs at a large scale
• Prior pharmaceutical industry experience or any fortune 500 company experience.
• Cost modeling experience
• Experience with using MS Teams, SharePoint or other similar collaboration websites.
• Experience with PowerBI or other data analytic/visualization tools
• Experience with using Excel to manage large datasets.
• Experience managing external relationships.
• Experience with data collection methods.

 

Additional location(s) Compensation Information:

Required Skills:

Adaptability, Adaptability, Analytical Testing, Analytical Thinking, Benchmarking, Contract Management, Cost Reduction, Data Analytics, Data Collection Methods, Driving Continuous Improvement, Financial Acumen, Financial Analysis, Flexibility Training, Global Procurement, Influencing Skills, Market Analysis, Market Intelligence, Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Office, Microsoft Teams, Negotiation Planning, Organic Chemistry, Pharmaceutical Industry, Procurement, Procurement Management {+ 10 more}

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:

Not Applicable

Shift:

Valid Driving License:

Hazardous Material(s):

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.