Director, Data Science

Business Strategies Data Transformation Feature Engineering Contingent Workforce Strategic Leadership Predictive Analytics Digital Capabilities Regulatory Compliance, The Director, Data Science (R-track) provides strategic leadership and governance for analytics and data enablement across multiple therapeutic areas. This individual defines and oversees the implementation of enterprise-wide data and analytics strategies, ensuring high-quality automation, methodological consistency, and alignment with clinical and digital health objectives. The Director, Data Science establishes governance frameworks, drive cross-functional collaboration, and advance innovation in analytical methodologies, tools, and automation.

Responsibilities

Data analysis, insights, and visualization

• Lead the development and execution of therapeutic-area data enablement and analytics strategies aligned with organizational goals.
• Guide the creation of analytics KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) and dashboards to monitor data performance, quality, and operational efficiency across therapeutic areas.
• Serve as a key advisor to executive leadership, governance boards, and cross-functional leaders by translating analytical insights into strategic business decisions.

Technical delivery, automation, ML/AI enablement

• Maintain accountability for the design, performance, and integrity of automated data and analytics pipelines, ensuring scalability and compliance with regulatory standards.
• Oversee analytics governance to ensure consistent application of standards, metrics, and quality controls across programs and platforms.
• Drive adoption of emerging technologies (e.g., AI/ML, advanced data visualization, predictive analytics) and promote continuous improvement in analytical efficiency and value generation.
• Define and enforce best practices for dataset design, feature engineering, and analytical evaluation to ensure comparability and reproducibility across studies.
• Lead and mentor analytics team members, fostering an environment of innovation, accountability, and collaboration.
• Strengthen organizational analytics maturity through targeted capability development and knowledge-sharing initiatives.
• Partner with clinical, data management, and IT teams to ensure cohesive, interoperable analytics processes that drive meaningful business and scientific outcomes.
• Champion organizational change; drive adoption of new operating models and digital capabilities across global functions, RStudio Oncology Ideation Base SAS Curiosity Marketing Economics Leadership Consulting Automation Innovation Algorithms Statistics Compassion Agentic AI Mathematics Forecasting Data Science Data Privacy Communication Data Analysis Data Modeling Biotechnology Data Strategy Brand Strategy SAS (Software) Pharmaceuticals Business Acumen Self-Motivation Market Research Database Design Business Process Computer Science Microsoft Access Machine Learning Business Metrics Telephone Skills Decision Science Data Engineering Domain Knowledge Growth Mindedness Population Health Project Management Advanced Analytics Executive Presence Data Visualization Business Decisions Business Strategies Customer Engagement Business Priorities Statistical Methods Experimental Design Software Development Contingent Workforce Computer Programming Marketing Operations Go-to-Market Strategy Business Requirements Business Intelligence Customer Segmentation Stakeholder Management Relationship Management Electronic Medical Record SQL (Programming Language) Data-Driven Decision Making Machine Learning Algorithms Interpersonal Communications Python (Programming Language) Healthcare Industry Knowledge Generative Artificial Intelligence Master Of Business Administration (MBA) +0, Oncology Ideation Base SAS Curiosity Marketing Economics Leadership Consulting Automation Innovation Algorithms Statistics Compassion Agentic AI Mathematics Forecasting Data Science Data Privacy Communication Data Analysis Data Modeling Biotechnology Data Strategy Brand Strategy SAS (Software) Pharmaceuticals Business Acumen Self-Motivation Market Research Database Design Business Process Computer Science Machine Learning Business Metrics Telephone Skills Decision Science Data Engineering Domain Knowledge Growth Mindedness Population Health Project Management Advanced Analytics Executive Presence Data Visualization Business Decisions Business Strategies Customer Engagement Business Priorities Statistical Methods Software Development Statistical Analysis Contingent Workforce Computer Programming Marketing Operations Go-to-Market Strategy Business Requirements Performance Reporting Business Intelligence Stakeholder Management Relationship Management Decision Support Systems Electronic Medical Record Self Service Technologies SQL (Programming Language) Data-Driven Decision Making Interpersonal Communications Python (Programming Language) Healthcare Industry Knowledge Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) Generative Artificial Intelligence +0

Power BI Metadata Dashboard Operations Leadership Management Automation Governance Innovation Resilience Statistics Compassion Databricks Scalability Data Science Adaptability Data Analysis Data Modeling Collaboration Data Strategy Data Literacy Accountability Time Management Real World Data Database Design Computer Science Data Integration Machine Learning Telephone Skills Interoperability Project Management Influencing Skills Strategic Planning Data Visualization, Organizational Skills Emerging Technologies Operational Efficiency Capability Development Artificial Intelligence Clinical Data Management R (Programming Language) Organizational Leadership SQL (Programming Language) Python (Programming Language) Continuous Improvement Process Cross-Functional Collaboration Organizational Change Management Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) Spotfire (Data Analytics Software), * Expert knowledge of analytics governance frameworks, successful data strategy implementation, and cross-functional data integration techniques.

• Expert knowledge in advanced data analytics, automation, and AI/ML evaluation applied to clinical and digital health data.
• Expert experience in designing and overseeing automated analytics pipelines, data architectures, and metadata-driven workflows.
• Expert command of programming languages and analytics tools (e.g., Python, R, SQL) as well as data visualization and monitoring platforms (e.g., Power BI, Tableau, Spotfire).
• Expert knowledge of clinical and real-world data standards (e.g., CDISC, SDTM) and of regulatory compliance requirements (e.g., GxP, 21 CFR Part 11).
• Expert experience driving enterprise-scale data transformation initiatives and enabling scalable, technology-driven analytics ecosystems.

Non-technical skills

• Ability to distill complex issues into decision-ready narratives; frames options, risks, and recommendations to influence senior decisions.
• Strong proficiency in driving adoption of standardized methods/ways of working; mobilizes cross-functional champions and measures uptake.
• Capable of aligning senior stakeholders on objectives, interfaces, and responsibilities, while ensuring clean handoffs and conflict resolution
• Coordinates decisions across regions/time zones; uses asynchronous mechanisms to maintain momentum.
• Engages vendor forums; represents team professionally and credibly under pressure; maintains resilience and composure.
• Resilient and adaptable, with a balance of strategic vision and operational execution.
• Ability to integrate business, operational, and people dimensions into decision-making.

Enterprise Leadership Skills

• Business Savviness

  Anticipates business and regulatory issues and shapes strategy accordingly; connects technical expertise to organizational and industry context to make strategic recommendations

• Influence

  Leads large teams / projects, helps shape departmental strategy influences leaders, peers, and cross-functional partners to align on decisions and strategic direction

• Change Catalyst

  Drives improvements (e.g., organizational and cultural changes) with broader impact; demonstrates adaptability and ability to collaborate with others to make change successful; helps others overcome resistance to change, * Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science, Statistics, Pharmacy, Nursing, Biological Sciences, or health care related discipline with a minimum of 10 years of experience in relevant field for job description, including:

• Demonstrated aptitude of working with large datasets to transform into actionable insights, deep subject matter expertise in relevant discipline
• People management skills
• Programming and/or analysis experience may include SQL, Python, R, Databricks and the like.
• Expert knowledge of statistics, data visualization, organizational skills, time management, and database concepts., * Advanced Degree (Masters or Doctorate) in Computer Science, Statistics, Pharmacy, Nursing, Biological Sciences, or health care related discipline with a minimum of 8 years of experience in relevant field for job description, including:
• Demonstrated aptitude of working with large datasets to transform into actionable insights, deep subject matter expertise in relevant discipline
• People management skills
• Programming and/or analysis experience may include SQL, Python, R, Databricks and the like.
• Expert knowledge of statistics, data visualization, organizational skills, time management, and database concepts., Business Agility, Business Decisions, Database Design, Data Literacy, Data Modeling, Data Organization, Data Science, Data Visualization, Project Management, Stakeholder Relationship Management

Preferred Skills: Clinical Operations, Data Analysis, Data Analytics, Machine Learning, Leadership Management Automation Governance Innovation Resilience Statistics Compassion Databricks Scalability Data Science Adaptability Data Analysis Data Modeling Collaboration Data Strategy Data Literacy Accountability Time Management Real World Data Database Design Computer Science Data Integration Machine Learning Telephone Skills Interoperability Project Management Influencing Skills Strategic Planning Data Visualization

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 $190,800.00 - $300,300.00

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.