Data Strategy & Innovation Associate Director

Job Description

Job Description:

The incumbent is responsible for supporting Human Health in partnering with key stakeholders to ensure we are developing an industry-leading strategy and approach to data sourcing & utilizing commercial data assets to inform business critical decisions and actions within the markets.  Human Health (HH) is comprised of our company’s commercial and marketing organizations responsible for our HH prescription medicines and vaccines.  Together, HH employees are focused on driving the company’s top-line growth and enhancing our ability to deliver on our mission to save and improve lives.  ​​​​​Under direction of the Data Supplier Strategy Engagement Leader, the incumbent will be assigned to manage the relationship with vendors in the HH commercial data space in the first ever centralized global data program.

The Data Strategy & Enablement Associate Director will identify opportunities and data gaps across our data portfolio, within the Japan Market, to make sure we are strategically managing & resourcing their data needs. They will identify innovative opportunities where we can partner with other vendors/sources where there is an identified data gap.  In addition, the person will conduct benefit realization activities, including exploratory data analyses, fit for purpose analyses, and proof-of-concept use case tests which will identify value, quality, cost, and efficiencies.

The Data Strategy &Enablement Associate Director will work closely with the other key areas of the Business, Market D&A teams, Procurement, DSI, Contracting, Governance & Compliance, and Vendor Management. They will field escalations, drive the team based on the agreed upon SLA, maintain a set of data analytics tools, and works with the other areas of the broader DSI&G team to drive continuous improvement.

Job Tasks:

• Complete comprehensive onboarding and training activities
• Get introduced to key stakeholders (e.g., at BU syncs) in the data space
• Understand the current Japan data landscape and data assets
• Drive change management and enable the appropriate ways of working between global and local teams
• Lead vendor management relations and support data purchase centralization across divers data assets.
• Drive stakeholder engagement, both with Japan and HHDDA stakeholders and team members, and consult business partners on creating value through data strategy.
• Collaborate with the Data Governance team
• Join Customer Data Domain Council and actively contribute to its activities
• Function as a data subject matter expert, understanding all the data, as well as the BI systems, be able to understand what use cases each data source can answer.
• Conduct data needs assessments using input from key country business stakeholders, identifies gaps in current data strategy versus ideal state and prioritizes identified gaps. 
• Proactively identify sources necessary to solve a data gap, including partnering with Vendors to innovate in areas where data does not exist.
• Conduct assigned data innovation analytics including data quality assessments, fit-for-purpose analyses, and proof-of-concept use case tests.
• Leverage the data to develop clear understanding of efficiencies, and partnership values to convey key insights to help inform strategic decisions.
• Establish, monitor and, report enterprise-level operation and performance metrics and SLAs tracking and improvement.
• Familiarize self with, and collaborate, if possible, on the preparation of the annual Budget Plan.
• Drive root cause analysis for data supplier process performance issues and establish remediation plans.
• Ensure processes are conducted in compliance with all internal and external policies, standards, regulations and predefined SLA.
• Monitor development of data playbooks to drive standardized and maintain metrics, identifying the processes which could be scaled to other data suppliers.
• Represent DSSE capability with markets to:
  • Confirm strategy is aligned with broader enterprise priorities.
  • Ensure alignment with other country data teams and share best practices.
• Onboard new data assets end-to-end, with full documentation and Data Governance implementation
• Continuing the goal of enhancing the coverage and consistency of metadata collection and data quality for HH Data
• Optimize data flow and veracity: streamlining parallel ingestion flows and transformation
• Onboard notable missing data into the Data Warehouse
• Create full documentation of data ingestion and lineage in Collibra
• Support data harmonization and standardization, sales, product naming, reference data efforts
• Implement data quality enhancements: standard rule suggestions and support

Education

• Bachelor of Science (or equivalent) in Data Science, Computer Science, Management Information Systems, IT, MBA, or an equivalent scientific/commercial discipline
• Minimum of three (3) or more years of experience in analyzing healthcare administrative data, electronic health records, and/or disease/patient registries for relevant quantitative and qualitative research.   

Preferred:

• MS (or equivalent) in Data Science, Computer Science, Management Information Systems, IT, MBA, or an equivalent scientific/commercial discipline

Experience:

• Has in-depth understanding of and experience with the wholistic pharma data landscape in Japan, including but not limited to the dynamically changing government policy and data provider environments (e.g., IQIVIA, MDV, JMDC, M3, etc.)
• Has experience in engaging with business stakeholders, both local and global, and in building professional relationships with them
• Bi-lingual: native Japanese is a must, with at least business-level of English communication skills
• Strong business acumen with a keen ability to understand how data (HCP, consumer, payer, patient, account, engagement, etc.) can be leveraged to inform critical commercial decisions and actions.
• Proven ability to analyze and assess the commercial value of data assets.  
• Proven potential to effectively collaborate with a broad range of internal and external stakeholders.  Global experience a plus.
• Intellectual curiosity and ability to identify innovative approaches to addressing data needs.
• Excellent presentation, analytics, and communication skills, both written and oral, are required to synthesize key issues and communicate/persuade constituencies towards specific actions and initiatives.
• Ability to attain “trusted advisor” status with key stakeholders and business clients.  
• Ability to operate in dynamic, transforming environment.
• Project management and root cause analysis

Our Human Health Division maintains a “patient first, profits later” ideology. The organization is comprised of sales, marketing, market access, digital analytics and commercial professionals who are passionate about their role in bringing our medicines to our customers worldwide.  

Who we are …

We are known as Rahway, New Jersey, USA in the United States and Canada and everywhere else. For more than a century, we have been inventing for life, bringing forward medicines and vaccines for many of the world's most challenging diseases. Today, our company continues to be at the forefront of research to deliver innovative health solutions and advance the prevention and treatment of diseases that threaten people and animals around the world.

What we look for …

Imagine getting up in the morning for a job as important as helping to save and improve lives around the world. Here, you have that opportunity. You can put your empathy, creativity, digital mastery, or scientific genius to work in collaboration with a diverse group of colleagues who pursue and bring hope to countless people who are battling some of the most challenging diseases of our time. Our team is constantly evolving, so if you are among the intellectually curious, join us—and start making your impact today.

Current Employees apply HERE

Current Contingent Workers apply HERE

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:

VISA Sponsorship:

Travel Requirements:

Flexible Work Arrangements:

Hybrid

Shift:

Valid Driving License:

Hazardous Material(s):

Required Skills:

Business, Business Decisions, Communication, Continual Improvement Process, Data Governance, Driving Continuous Improvement, Electronic Health Records (EHR), Electronic Medical Record (EMR) Systems, Internet Sourcing, Management Information Systems (MIS), Management Process, Procurement, Project Management, Stakeholder Engagement, Vendor Management

Preferred Skills:

Job Posting End Date:

12/31/2025

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