Job Description

The Medical Affairs Director Specialty is a member of the Local Medical Affairs LT and acts as ‘Medical Partner’, in the cross functional team, to give input and share decision on the key strategies to ensure early and broad access to current and future products in Specialty, with adequate recognition of the value of our pipeline and our products.

Responsibilities include but will not be limited to the following key activities:

• To have a strategic view and strong scientific knowledge of our Specialty and pipeline portfolio with main focus on immunology, ophthalmology and neuroscience;
• To have strong people management skills: achieving results through people, motivation, inspiring, coaching and developing people;
• Budget management;
• To be a key scientific reference for Scientific leaders and Scientific societies;
• To organize and attend at national and international scientific events (meetings, congresses and symposium). To cooperate in the organization of scientific meetings, sponsored or fully organized by our company. To contact and assist foreign and local speakers, as well as local speakers invited by our Company Human Health Division or other subsidiaries;
• Medical review / approval of promotional material and medical information & communication & trainings materials in general according to the actual SOP;
• To be accountable for coordination and properly implementation of local studies and for supporting independent studies and external collaborations;
• To provide Medical support to key activities aimed to guarantee equitable access to our Products in Specialty and support our product value at local, regional and national level (e.g. dossier for P&R);
• To ensure continuous support to the Specialty medical team for Life Cycle Management opportunities, liaising global communications and local needs;
• To deliver presentations at medical meetings and events;
• Organization and implementation of gathering insights activities;
• To ensure the cross functional team and sales teams are kept up to date with new scientific data. To detect, comply and analyze all information on our company’s and competitive landscape;
• To partner with Country Medical Director, Regulatory and other internal stakeholders to deliver objectives;
• To engage with and provide regular updates to the Managing Director and local management team;
• To support GCTO in the Identification of potential investigators with adequate profile and infrastructure;
• To provide Medical support to Regulatory and Pharmacovigilance areas;
• To maintain and strengthen a fluent relationship with medical and government officials, at a level of cooperative and scientific interchange;
• To be the final responsible for the elaboration of the Local Specialty Medical Affairs Plans and V&I plan, maintaining alignment with the overall company strategy;
• To drive and implement non promotional “Medical Own Meetings” related to New Products & Specialty;
• To collaborate with SL speaker program, aligned with our company’s procedure (GEMS–Country to Country program);
• To be accountable for implementation of procedures related to the New Products & Specialty medical area.

Your Profile

Qualification & Experience:

An MD is required and recommended for this position. Candidates should have at least five years of experience in the global biopharmaceutical industry, specifically within Medical Affairs. Additionally, experience as a people manager is strongly recommended.

Skills:

• Demonstrated effective organizational skills, including ability to set goals and align priorities;
• Experience in the following field: immunology, ophthalmology, neuroscience and Public Health.
• Leadership: Proactively identify projects and opportunities;
• Cross Functional Team Leadership: Establish, facilitate and drive towards reaching objectives;
• General business analytical skills: understand, analyze, evaluate and interpret financial statements;
• Negotiating (protecting our company's interests);
• Problem Solving;
• Conceptual & Strategic thinking;
• Presentation Skills;
• Risk analysis and Evaluation;
• Objective driven;
• Excellent written and oral Communication;
• High level of interpersonal skills;
• Evaluating/Judgement;
• Resilience;
• Influencing; Negotiating; Decision Making;
• Project Management skills and experience;
• Business acumen;
• IT knowledge – Excel, Word, PowerPoint, internet, data base packages.

Knowledge required:

• Pharmaceutical industry and healthcare environment;
• Commercial environment;
• Industry Code of Conduct;
• Financial basics;
• Corporate / HQ environment.

Preferred:

• Current ‘license to practice’;
• Strong understanding of the compliance environment in which Medical Affairs functions;
• Business acumen, ethics and credible reputation with the external scientific community;
• Experience in the development or field management of interventional/non-interventional clinical studies;
• Ability to simplify and convey complex concepts and strategies, orally and in writing, and conduct/facilitate meetings with strong presentation skills;
• Demonstrated creativity and effectiveness in addressing strategic challenges, an entrepreneurial mindset, and capability of thinking out of the box and taking measured risks;
• Ability to understand issues across a global affiliate network and contribute relevant insights as appropriate;
• High comfort level representing Medical Affairs at the (extended) Country Leadership Team.

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:

Not Applicable

Shift:

Valid Driving License:

Hazardous Material(s):

Required Skills:

Adaptability, Advisory Board Development, Decision Making, Healthcare Education, Hospital Medicine, Infectious Disease, Management Process, Medical Affairs, Medical Marketing Strategy, Medical Training, Multiple Therapeutic Areas, People Leadership, Pharmaceutical Medical Affairs, Project Life Cycle Management, Results-Oriented, Scientific Communications, Social Collaboration, Specialty Care, Stakeholder Engagement, Strategic Planning, Talent Acquisition, Talent Recruitment

Preferred Skills:

Job Posting End Date:

09/15/2025

*A job posting is effective until 11:59:59PM on the day BEFORE the listed job posting end date. Please ensure you apply to a job posting no later than the day BEFORE the job posting end date.