Business Process Manager/PM

About the role

The Patient Health Innovation (PHI) team within Merck’s Human Health division—specifically under Commercial Excellence & Innovation (CEI)—is seeking a proactive and strategic Business Excellence & Operations Contractor. PHI is dedicated to closing gaps in patient care and advancing outcomes by identifying barriers across the patient journey and transforming data-driven insights into scalable solutions.

In this role, you will drive disciplined execution, operational rigor, and cross-functional alignment by translating strategic priorities into clear action plans and measurable outcomes. Working closely with senior leadership, you will prepare high-level executive communications, lead process improvement initiatives, and streamline daily operating rhythms to improve transparency, efficiency, and accountability across the organization.

Responsibilities

• Support senior leadership in managing strategic initiatives, business excellence priorities, and ad hoc executive requests.
• Track, monitor, and enable team action items, key deliverables, project milestones, and overall performance metrics.
• Prepare executive-level presentations, slide decks, status reports, meeting recaps, and follow-up communications.
• Facilitate cross-functional alignment and seamless communication between PHI and the broader Commercial Excellence & Innovation (CEI) department.
• Manage and organize key PHI team meetings, all-hands sessions, and shared operating files and repositories.
• Identify operational process gaps, risks, and dependencies, proposing pragmatic solutions and driving continuous process improvement.
• Lead process optimization efforts, including evaluating and executing opportunities for AI enablement within daily team workflows.
• Drive operational discipline, execution excellence, and accountability across up to 5 core daily stakeholders and broader matrixed teams.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in a business or technical field required (with ~5 years of relevant experience).
• Master’s degree or MBA preferred (with ~2–3 years of relevant experience).
• Proven background in project management, business process optimization, or business operations.
• Demonstrated experience in executive communications, including slide creation and high-level presentation prep.
• Solid proficiency with Microsoft Office tools (especially PowerPoint, Excel, Outlook, and Teams/SharePoint).
• Proven ability to work independently with minimal direction, navigate ambiguity, and take proactive initiative.
• Experience working in a large, matrixed organization supporting senior leaders or executive-level meetings is highly preferred.
• Experience in healthcare, commercial pharmaceuticals, or broader life sciences is preferred.

Schedule

Hybrid schedule requiring 1–2 days on-site per week. Full remote flexibility is acceptable for highly qualified candidates.

Day-to-day breakdown: roughly 50% dedicated to collaborative meetings and 50% focused on independent project execution.

Key Competencies

• Strong cross-functional collaboration
• Strategic mindset
• Autonomy
• Cross-stakeholder leadership