Sr. Specialist, Therapeutic Excellence Learning Experience Designer (Hybrid - Upper Gwynedd, PA)

Job Description

The Therapeutic Excellence Learning Experience Designer serves as an end-to-end learning design leader responsible for translating business, brand, and therapeutic strategies into high-impact, compliant, and scalable product and disease learning experiences across U.S. and Global markets.

This role combines learning strategy consultation, advanced learning experience design, and operational ownership to ensure the commercial organization is knowledgeable, confident, and ready to perform at launch and through key market moments. The Designer applies deep therapeutic and scientific acumen, data-driven insights, and design thinking to create learner-centric, outcomes-driven learning journeys by persona and role. Working in close partnership with Learning Consultants, Learning Developers, vendors, SMEs, and cross-functional stakeholders, the Learning Experience Designer is accountable for high-level learning strategy, detailed design, vendor oversight, and Medical/Legal/Compliance (CRT/PRT) participation or ownership, ensuring learning solutions are scientifically sound, compliant, scalable, and aligned to business priorities.

Brand/Franchise Learning Strategy & Business Consultation

• Serve as the primary Global learning consultant for assigned Brands/Franchise, establishing and sustaining strong relationships with brand, sales, and functional leaders.

• Consult with stakeholders to identify performance needs, capability gaps, and desired business outcomes aligned to brand and launch strategies.

• Translate business and performance into an integrated learning strategy that may include training and non-training solutions.

• Monitor trends, data, and feedback to continuously refine learning strategies and recommend improvements.

• Report on learning initiative progress, risks, and key decisions in regular business forums, including high-stakes cross-functional leadership meetings.

• Drive adoption and sustained use of learning assets by supporting and delivering targeted enablement sessions for market-level stakeholders and field leaders.

Learning Experience Design & Oversight

• Design scalable, learner-centric, science-based learning journeys by persona and role, aligned to global learning and brand strategy.

• Create high-level designs, detailed design documents, learning blueprints, and content frameworks across multiple modalities (digital, virtual, ILT, blended).

• Apply adult learning theory, instructional design best practices, and design thinking to drive mindset, skill, and behavior change.

• Partner closely with Learning Developers, SMEs, and vendors to ensure fidelity to design intent and business outcomes.

• Facilitate design and content creation working sessions to assess learner needs and define instructional objectives.

• Facilitate co-creation sessions with market-level stakeholders to ensure learning strategies are relevant, delivered in time for market needs, and minimize duplicate or redundant spend.

• Influence and build modular content architecture that scales global “non-negotiables” while defining boundaries for local variants, with a clear approach to label updates, indication expansions, and market-specific regulatory accommodations.

• Partner closely with localization teams to ensure source files are created in ways that enable efficient downstream adaptation and use across markets (e.g., structured templates, editable formats, and clear content governance).

 

Development Partnership & Vendor Management

• Accountable for the performance of all learning initiatives they lead for their assigned brand(s), including delivery quality, impact, and on-time execution.

• Oversee internal and external vendors responsible for learning design and development, ensuring quality, scalability, speed, and cost-effectiveness.

• Provide clear direction, feedback, and governance to vendors to ensure alignment with learning standards, brand strategy, and learner experience.

• Manage learning programs end-to-end, including timelines, dependencies, prioritization, and stakeholder communication.

• Monitor, track, and report financial performance for learning initiatives, including budget forecasting, spend oversight, and reconciliation with Business Budget Owners.

 

Medical, Legal, and Regulatory Ownership

• Job owner for learning assets, fully accountable from job creation through approval and archive.

• Participate in or lead Medical/Legal/Compliance (CRT/PRT) review processes, including preparation, live discussions, and revisions.

• Collaborate with agencies and partners to prepare materials for review and ensure strategic, compliant execution.

• Anticipate commercial reviewer concerns by proactively preventing claim creep and tone risks, ensuring fair balance framing while maintaining appropriate scientific depth for the defined learner persona.

• Ensure learning solutions meet US and Global regulatory requirements and standards.

Delivery, Measurement, and Continuous Improvement

• Support training delivery and/or enable subject matter experts and trainers as needed for Global markets.

• Analyze learning effectiveness data, learner feedback, and business impact metrics.

• Communicate insights and recommendations to stakeholders to drive continuous improvement and sustainability of learning solutions.

• Identify opportunities to enhance learning effectiveness, efficiency, and learner experience over time

Core Capabilities & Competencies

• Therapeutic, scientific, and business acumen

• Learning strategy, needs analysis, and experience design

• Adult learning theory and instructional design

• User Centered Design

• Executive Presence

• Stakeholder consultation, influence, and partnership

• Program and project management

• Vendor and agency management

• Data-driven decision making and learning measurement

• Change management and organizational agility

• Strong oral, written, and presentation communication skills

• Creative thinking, critical thinking, and problem-solving

• Coaching and collaboration across functions

• Digital learning and learning management systems

Required Education:

• Minimum of a Bachelor’s Degree, or currently in pursuit of degree completion, or equivalent relevant work experience in Human Resources, or related discipline.

Required Experience:

• Minimum of 6 years of progressive experience in learning & development or instructional design (reduced with Master’s degree).

• Demonstrated experience designing and leading learning solutions for pharmaceutical or healthcare product and disease education.

• Experience translating business strategy into scalable, learner-centric learning solutions.

• Experience participating in or leading formal Medical/Legal/Compliance (CRT/PRT) review processes.

• Proven ability to partner cross-functionally and influence stakeholders at multiple levels.

• Strong communication skills, verbal and written, for both technical and non-technical learning

• Creative thinking, strong problem-solving, continuous improvement capability

• Ability to guide / mentor Learning Developers and troubleshoot issues

• Management of design and development vendors

• Assess capability, evaluate, and measure value and business impact

• Stakeholder analysis and management, change management

• Business acumen and ability to rapidly learn business and cultural contexts

Preferred

• Master’s degree.

• Experience supporting pharmaceutical brand launches or key market events.

• Oncology, vaccines, specialty, or general medicine experience.

• Demonstrated success in cross-functional leadership and collaboration 

• Experience managing projects and vendors in a related field 

• Strong scientific acumen

MSJR

Required Skills:

Disease Education, Instructional Design, Pharmaceutical Industry, Training and Development, User Experience (UX) Design

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.

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The salary range for this role is

$106,200.00 - $167,200.00

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:

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:

05/28/2026

*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.