Job Description

The Associate Director, Vaccine Sales Force Effectiveness Lead will own the development and delivery of field effectiveness strategies for the Vaccine Business Unit, translating commercial priorities into actionable initiatives that increase HCP engagement, optimize territory productivity and meet/exceed sales goals from field promotional investments. You will work closely with Vaccine Sales leadership and collaborate with a cross‑functional team — including marketing, analytics, operations and finance — while influencing matrix stakeholders across the organization to ensure strong governance, measurable outcomes, opportunity identification, uncover meaningful business insights and sustainable adoption of best practices across the field.

Field Strategy & Planning

• Define and drive the Field Effectiveness strategy aligned to commercial objectives (brand plans, launch goals, product lifecycle, field priorities & targets).

• Translate enterprise and brand objectives into measurable field performance goals, initiatives, and roadmaps.

Performance management & KPIs

• Coordinate the design, implementation and continuous improvement of field KPI reporting to track productivity, activity quality, and customer impact.

• Lead periodic territory performance and field resource reviews; recommend and implement territory alignments, resource prioritization, and workload rebalancing if needed.

• Partner with Sales Leaders, Sales Incentives & Crediting internal subject matter experts in the inception and development of plans to ensure alignment and execution.

Analytics & insights

• Partner with analytics teams to develop actionable field insights (targeting, segmentation, call planning, sizing, field performance reporting, etc.) and ensure insights are operationalized by field teams.

• Use data to identify underperforming segments/territories and partner with Sales Leaders to design targeted interventions (training, routing, workload and more).

Enablement & coaching

• Develop and oversee field enablement programs including onboarding, ongoing coaching, playbooks, and product performance improvement plans.

• Ensure consistent adoption of calling models, messaging, and promotional compliance across the field.

Tools & digital adoption

• Leverage field input & insights to influence roadmap for CRM, Veeva, territory alignment tools and field productivity tools; drive adoption and continuous improvement in tool usage.

• Partner with cross-functional team to prioritize field requests and translate field workflows into tool requirements.

Change management & stakeholder engagement

• Act as a bridge between sales leadership, brand team, analytics, and operations to ensure alignment and buy-in for Field Effectiveness initiatives.

• Lead, coordinate or facilitate change management for new programs, ensuring communication, training and adoption plans are executed.

People & budget management

• Manage cross functional teams, set priorities, and build capability.

• Collaborate with Sales leadership to influence allocation across program and vendor spend, training and tools, ensuring investments maximize impact and utilization.

Compliance & governance

• Maintain a high-level of compliance knowledge to ensure all field programs and materials comply with field policy letters, relevant regulations, company policies and promotional codes.

• Maintain documentation for governance and audit readiness.

If you are a proactive, strategic and customer‑oriented leader with a growth mindset who turns insights into measurable field impact and partners effectively across functions, we want to hear from you. Join us to shape how our field teams engage healthcare professionals.

Position Qualifications:

Minimum Requirements

• Bachelor’s Degree and a minimum of 5 years of experience in pharmaceutical sales, account management and/or headquarters.

• Strategic planner who translates commercial/medical priorities into field initiatives; customer‑centric with field operations and CRM (e.g., Veeva) experience; strong cross‑functional influence, analytics literacy to set KPIs and drive action; proven people leadership and change management; excellent communication and compliance awareness.

Preferred Experience and Skills:

• Hands-on Excel analytics experience, launch or therapy-area experience, incentive/compensation familiarity, multi‑market rollout experience, vendor/budget influence, and omnichannel/digital engagement skills, and business case development.

Required Skills:

Adaptability, Business Planning Development, Competitor Analysis, Digital Marketing, Executive Presence, Financial Analysis, Marketing Planning, Market Research Techniques, Market Trend Analysis, People Leadership, Pricing Strategies, Product Management, Strategic Planning, Strategic Thinking, Vendor Management

Preferred Skills:

Current Employees apply HERE

Current Contingent Workers apply HERE

US and Puerto Rico Residents Only:

Our company is committed to inclusion, ensuring that candidates can engage in a hiring process that exhibits their true capabilities. Please click here if you need an accommodation during the application or hiring process.

As an Equal Employment Opportunity Employer, we provide equal opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment and prohibit discrimination on the basis of race, color, age, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, protected veteran status, disability status, or other applicable legally protected characteristics. As a federal contractor, we comply with all affirmative action requirements for protected veterans and individuals with disabilities. For more information about personal rights under the U.S. Equal Opportunity Employment laws, visit:

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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.

Learn more about your rights, including under California, Colorado and other US State Acts

The salary range for this role is

$142,400.00 - $224,100.00

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

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:

No relocation

VISA Sponsorship:

No

Travel Requirements:

10%

Flexible Work Arrangements:

Remote

Shift:

Not Indicated

Valid Driving License:

Yes

Hazardous Material(s):

n/a

Job Posting End Date:

07/10/2026

*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.