Assoc. Dir , Market Research

Our Marketing team is passionate about bringing our medicines and vaccines to customers around the world. Through digital listening and patient analytics, we understand customer needs and strive to provide solutions. We are leveraging insights, analytics, and technology to invent for life on behalf of patients globally. We seek individuals with a passion for using strategic insights, data, and analytics to drive decision-making and tackle global health threats.

Within our commercial Insights, Analytics, and Data organization, we are transforming to power decision-making across the end-to-end commercialization process, from business development to late lifecycle management. We are seeking a dynamic talent for the role of Associate Director, Primary Market Research for the Oncology franchise, with a focus on Bladder Cancer and future assets in this domain.

Responsibilities

• Market Research & Analytics
  • Develop and oversee execution of an assigned portion of the Global and US market research plan within the product franchise with a strategic mindset and minimal supervision.
  • Provide leadership and strategic thinking for assigned primary market research projects, including framing critical business questions, identifying information needs, and managing the research process to deliver objective insights on key customers, competitors, and market developments.
  • Take ownership of understanding business challenges, propose appropriate methods, and apply best practices or new techniques to meet objectives.
  • Design effective research studies using various market research methodologies and techniques.
  • Evaluate and apply innovative market research approaches and emerging technologies, such as AI-assisted synthesis, advanced analytics, digital personas, and simulated respondents.
  • Complete analyses using secondary data, syndicated reports, and databases, integrating findings into primary research to deliver actionable results.
• Project Management
  • Lead execution of market research studies, including project planning, budget management, vendor briefing, timeline oversight, compliance, and delivery of actionable insights.
  • Articulate business rationale, hypotheses, methodology, and expected impact to stakeholders, ensuring alignment with business objectives.
  • Evaluate, select, and manage external research partners based on expertise, capabilities, innovation potential, and ability to deliver measurable business value.
  • Assess vendor capabilities in AI-enabled research methodologies, ensuring compliance, transparency, and methodological rigor.
  • Proactively engage marketing and commercial teams to integrate insights into decision-making and planning.
• Proactive Collaboration
  • Partner with cross-functional teams, including marketing communications, market access, commercial teams, and agency partners, to integrate insights into launch and post-launch activities.
  • Collaborate with forecasting and analytics teams to inform strategic assumptions and track key performance indicators.
  • Work with analytics, data strategy, and insights functions to advance novel data sources, including Real World Data and AI-enabled analytics.
  • Lead ad hoc franchise-wide initiatives as needed.

Requirements

• Education
  • Minimum: BA/BS degree in Business, Marketing, Healthcare, or a related field.
  • Preferred: MBA, MS, MPH, or other advanced degree in a relevant discipline.
• Experience and Skills
  • Minimum of eight (8) years of experience in pharmaceutical marketing market research and analytics, including roles in market research, analytics, sales, forecasting, access and pricing, marketing, or competitive intelligence.
  • Well-developed analytical and problem-solving skills with a demonstrated ability to think strategically and objectively.
  • Expertise in quantitative and qualitative research methodologies and working knowledge of secondary data, analytics, and epidemiology data sources.
  • Proven ability to synthesize data into compelling, actionable insights through effective storytelling and executive-ready communication.
  • Strategic consulting mindset with the ability to establish trust, build credibility, and influence stakeholders.
  • Technical aptitude and curiosity to build expertise in emerging market research approaches, including AI-enabled tools and advanced analytics.
  • Ability to prioritize and manage multiple requests in a fast-paced environment.
  • Strong communication skills and demonstrated ability to lead change, support transformation, and promote new ways of working.
• Preferred Skills
  • AI fluency and experience applying responsible, compliant AI-enabled market research and analytics capabilities.
  • Hands-on experience with LLM tools/apps and basic understanding of prompt engineering.
  • Experience supporting launch excellence, early commercial development, or lifecycle planning.
  • Familiarity with marketing strategy development.
  • Demonstrated leadership behaviors, including customer focus, sound decision-making, collaboration, and accountability.
  • Strong project leadership skills to manage complexity and deliver high-quality work.
  • Ability to motivate without authority and support transformation and change management.

Skills

• Bladder Cancer, Business Analysis, Business Decisions, Business Development, Business Opportunities, Emerging Technologies, Epidemiology, Marketing, Marketing Data Analytics, Market Research, Project Management, Researching, Stakeholder Relationship Management, Strategic Insights, Strategic Thinking, Supplier Management, User Research, Waterfall Model

Pay

The salary range for this role is $156,900.00 - $247,000.00. An employee’s position within the salary range will be based on factors including education, qualifications, certifications, experience, skills, geographic location, and business needs. The successful candidate will be eligible for annual bonus and long-term incentive, if applicable.

Benefits

We offer a comprehensive package of benefits, including:

• Medical, dental, vision, and other insurance benefits for employees and their families.
• Retirement benefits, including a 401(k) plan.
• Paid holidays, vacation, compassionate, and sick days.

More information about benefits is available at Merck Compensation and Benefits.