Associate Director, Global Data Management and Standards - Business Operations - Hybrid

Job Description

The Associate Director, Global Data Management and Standards - Business Operation, is responsible for collaborating with GDMS Leadership to drive enterprise-wide planning, governance, and organizational readiness initiatives that enable successful execution of strategic programs and projects. This role provides resource and capacity planning to ensure optimal allocation of talent, skills, and budget across the portfolio, while driving PMO standards, project governance, and performance reporting. The Associate Director partners with business leaders and key stakeholders to lead change management efforts, develop and execute communication strategies that promote transparency and stakeholder engagement, and champion learning and development initiatives that build organizational capabilities and support adoption of new processes, technologies, and ways of working. Through strong leadership, cross-functional collaboration, and a focus on continuous improvement, this position ensures the organization is equipped to deliver business objectives efficiently and sustainably.

Responsibilities:

Forecasting, Capacity, & Portfolio Management:

• Maintain headcount, workload, and demand models for the functional area; run allocation algorithms to help ensure the Book of Business is delivered with quality and timeliness.

• Support operating-model optimization within the functional area, translate outcomes into action plans and track through implementation.

• Manage real-time workload balancing, capacity, and compliance-driven case allocation across geographies within the functional area to ensure balanced operations, on-time delivery, and business continuity through holidays, resource availability, and demand peaks

• Build and maintain operational dashboards; collect, analyze, and validate portfolio data (efficiency, utilization, quality); ensure standardized reporting in partnership with cross-functional peers across GDMS (Global Data Management & Standards) and enterprise standards.

• Assist in developing forecasting tools, dashboards, and visualizations; contribute to continuous improvement of capacity modeling and workforce analytics.

• Support long-term quality management plans; participate in strategic and tactical special projects as needed.

Operational Governance, Execution, & Metrics:

• Support PMO activities, including project planning, metrics tracking, status reporting, and management of cross-functional dependencies.

• Prepare inputs for Operational Reviews; ensure consistent metric definitions, sources, and timeframes per enterprise cadence and templates.

• Coordinate resource and financial forecasting, contracting, and invoicing; track variances and data integrity and publish reconciled views as required.

• Collaborate with stakeholders to maintain a unified set of metrics, training, and SOP/BP (Standard Operating Practice/ Best Practice) frameworks based on functional area needs.

• Monitor operational metrics post–system release to ensure realized efficiencies are captured in forecasting models and resource planning assumptions.

Training, Communication, & Change Management:

• Support creation, maintenance, and delivery of role-specific curriculum; co-develop GDMS-wide training for the functional area; measure uptake.

• Coordinate function-specific communications and change management aligned to GDMS/GCTO (Global Clinical Trial Operations) frameworks.

• Embed Human-first Organization practices by designing adoption aids (FAQs, quick guides) and incorporating user feedback into process improvements.

Qualifications, Skills & Experience:

Technical Skills

• Ability to interpret operational, capacity, and financial data; comfortable with variance analysis and trends.

• Proficient with Power BI/Tableau and Excel (advanced modeling) for dashboards and what-if views.

• Working knowledge of capacity planning, resourcing, and portfolio management concepts.

• Familiarity with functional operational systems, performance dashboards, and workforce analytics data.

• Understanding of data integrity, metric standardization, and basic QC (Quality Control)/reconciliation practices.

• Basic grasp of forecasting, budgeting, and accruals; reads plan/forecast/actuals and ties them to operational drivers.

• Understanding of Agile collaboration and intake tracking tools for requests, changes, and release notes.

Non-technical knowledge, skills, and abilities:

• Fluent in English; exceptional communication and influencing skills, able to engage and align stakeholders across functions, geographies, and levels.

• Strong stakeholder management and collaboration capabilities, fostering trust and effective partnerships.

• Skilled in organizing cross-team work; coordinates milestones and deliverables; escalates risks early.

• Demonstrated ability to lead through influence, motivating and guiding cross-functional and virtual teams without direct authority.

• Highly adaptable and resilient, able to prioritize and perform effectively under pressure in fast-changing environments.

• Works independently with accountability, exercising sound judgment and initiative while maintaining alignment with organizational priorities.

• Effective facilitator of decision-making, coordinating the work of others and driving timely resolution of complex issues.

• Crafts concise, decision-ready summaries for leadership, clearly framing risks, options, and recommendations.

• Strong organization and prioritization, managing multiple deliverables, running risk/change control, aligning stakeholders (including service providers), and providing status and governance updates.

• Sound judgment and accountability with emphasis on ambiguity, escalation management, and consensus-building on process/technology improvements.

Enterprise Leadership Skills:

• Networking & Partnerships | Builds and sustains collaborative partnerships across GDMS, Finance, IT, and functional leaders to align forecasting assumptions, standardize metrics, and coordinate portfolio and resource priorities.

• Business Savviness | Applies strong operational and financial acumen to interpret portfolio performance, workforce capacity, and variance trends, guiding data-driven resource planning and efficiency decisions within the assigned scope.

• Influence | Influences cross-functional stakeholders by translating complex capacity, financial, and performance data into clear trade-offs, recommendations, and aligned action plans within governance forums.

Business Operations Qualifications & Experience:

• Bachelor's Degree Minimum of 8 years experience working in relevant field for associated job description

OR

• Advanced Degree (Masters or Doctorate): Minimum of 4 years experience working in relevant field for associated job description

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The salary range for this role is

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

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