Job Description

Associate Director – Field & CRM Engagement, Customer Knowledge & Measurement

Job Description :

This role sits within the Customer Knowledge & Measurement (CK&M) vertical of Digital Human Health (DHH). The Associate Director, Field & CRM Analytics owns the "act on it and measure it" CK&M: the activation, measurement and feedback layer that operationalises customer understanding into field execution and brand performance.

The Associate Director will be responsible for leading the analytics that define how we engage customers and measure the outcome: HCP / HCC targeting (N=1 detailing prioritization), field alerts and next-best-action (NBA) - including strategy, methodologies, logic, data spine, and impact measurement. The team supports US Brand, Field Operations, DHH counterparts, IT.

The role is a key node in evolving the India Hub from delivery support to strategic analytics partner across the customer-insight value chain.

Role Overview :

The Associate Director will lead a team of 15+ covering capability domains under Field & CRM Analytics. The candidate must be able to lead direct teams and orchestrate cross-functional insights pods spanning DHH, Data Strategy & Solutions, IT and the broader DHH organisation. The individual will demonstrate consistently strong leadership, the ability to work objectively in ambiguity, strong partnership skills, and a culture of continual learning.

The preferred candidate will have an entrepreneurial spirit, a consultative and strategic mindset, deep field-effectiveness and customer-engagement-measurement experience in pharma / biotech, fluency in technology (AI, agentic, GenAI applied to NBA and measurement), and a demonstrated record of producing actionable insights from analytics. The individual should have a strong understanding of CRM, field activity and Rx data, omnichannel campaign-measurement frameworks, and the regulated workflows around field-alert legal approval. The role demands the ability to translate ambiguous business questions into advanced, scalable analytical solutions that drive measurable field and campaign outcomes.

Key Responsibilities:

• Field Activity Analytics: Assess field force performance, call planning effectiveness, and territory alignment to optimize reach, frequency, and impact of interactions.
• Call Detailing Effectiveness: Evaluate detailing activities to identify what messaging and content drive engagement and influence prescribing behavior; recommend improvements.
• CRM Analytics & Optimization: Leverage CRM data to track engagement metrics, monitor channel performance, and improve personalization and next-best-action strategies.
• Field Alerts & Recommendations Analytics: Develop and refine data-driven alerting and next-best-action models by analyzing HCP behavior, field activity, and CRM engagement patterns; measure effectiveness through adoption, conversion, and downstream business impact.
• Data Spine & Measurement Analytics: Design and manage a unified analytics layer integrating HCP/HCC, field activity, and engagement data; define KPIs, attribution logic, and measurement frameworks to enable consistent, scalable insights and performance tracking.
• Prioritization and value tracking: Understand the full book of work underway and planned for each disease area or business unit. Work with BU leadership to prioritize against DHH capacity. For prioritised work, engage cross-functional teams to articulate the value and impact of each piece. Encourage the mindset to articulate the "so what" and "now what" and to track realized business value.
• Team leadership and cross-functional orchestration: Lead and mentor Senior Managers (and the specialists, interns reporting into them), providing guidance on best practices in data analytics, modelling, validation and data visualization. Manage team workload proactively and ensure optimal resource utilization. Lead cross-functional insights pods in addition to direct teams.
• Stakeholder collaboration: Drive proactive, transparent engagement with cross-functional partners to co-create solutions, align on organizational priorities, and set clear expectations. Provide internal and business stakeholders with forward-looking visibility into key programs to inform milestones, prioritization, risk mitigation, and aligned decision-making.
• Pharma data-ecosystem analytics: Analyse data across disparate data sources (claims, EMR, Rx, activity, promotional, consumer, content) to develop insights that inform commercial business strategies. Partner closely with the AD, Customer Behavior Analytics, on the model-output / activation handoff.
• Leverage advanced statistical methods and ML/AI modeling with strong validation practices; deliver regression and time-series models, and segmentation/clustering approaches (k-means, hierarchical) to generate actionable insights.
• Innovation and GenAI experimentation: Contribute to and lead innovation experiments - idea generation, idea incubation, experimentation - including responsible application of GenAI / agentic AI. Identify tangible, measurable criteria to make meaningful improvements to business processes.

Education Requirements:

Masters (or equivalent) in Data Science, Mathematics, Computer Science, Statistics, Decision Science, Marketing, Engineering, Management or an equivalent commercial discipline. Advanced degree (MBA, MS, PharmD, PhD) is preferred

Required Experience and Skills:

• 8+ years with relevant experience in field-effectiveness analytics, customer-engagement measurement within the pharmaceutical, consulting or healthcare industry; including delivery of complex analytical projects for the US region.
• 4+ years leading high-performing teams; proven ability to coach talent, build inclusive culture, and lead cross-functional pods in a matrixed setup.
• Strong consultative mindset with demonstrated ability to translate brand and commercial strategies into field-execution plans and measurement frameworks.
• Executive presence with ability to influence senior leaders, align US Commercial & DHH stakeholders, and communicate clear, data-driven narratives.
• Extensive experience working with real-world datasets (claims, Rx, CRM, promotional and sales data), leveraging SQL, Python, and AI-driven tools; familiarity with modern data platforms including Snowflake, Databricks, and AWS/GCP
• AI / GenAI experimentation: innovative thinking with affinity toward experimentation and appropriate risk-taking; curiosity about how agentic AI and automation can enhance NBA generation, decision science analytics
• Self-motivated, proactive mindset, and ability to work independently.

Required Skills:

Business Analysis, Business Processes, Business Process Improvements, Clustering Algorithms, Customer Engagement, Data Analytics, Data Science, Demand Management, Digital Healthcare, Innovation, Pharmacodynamics, Pharmacology, Prioritization, Project Prioritization, Requirements Management, Sourcing and Procurement, Stakeholder Relationship Management, Strategic Planning, Team Leadership, Working Independently

Preferred Skills:

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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:

Domestic

VISA Sponsorship:

No

Travel Requirements:

10%

Flexible Work Arrangements:

Hybrid

Shift:

Not Indicated

Valid Driving License:

No

Hazardous Material(s):

NA

Job Posting End Date:

07/31/2026

*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.