Job Description
The Director, Customer Engagement Planning & Measurement (CEP&M) is responsible for leading a team of Customer Engagement Architects and advancing customer-centric, omnichannel engagement strategies across an assigned Therapeutic portfolio.
As a member of the CEP&M leadership team, this individual partners closely with Brand Marketing, Sales, Analytics, Customer Engagement Operations, US Media, and Commercial leadership to translate business objectives into integrated customer engagement plans that drive measurable business outcomes.
The Director provides strategic leadership, organizational oversight, and talent development while ensuring effective execution of customer engagement planning activities that enhance customer experience and business performance. This role serves as a critical bridge between business strategy and customer engagement execution, partnering across Marketing Operations to ensure business and brand needs are reflected in evolving engagement capabilities, helping shape connected end-to-end customer experiences, and driving adoption of new customer engagement approaches and ways of working.
Key Responsibilities
Team Leadership & Talent Development
- Lead, coach, and develop a team of Customer Engagement Architects.
- Establish performance expectations and support employee development through ongoing coaching, feedback, and talent planning.
- Build organizational capability through succession planning and development of future leaders.
- Foster a culture of accountability, collaboration, continuous improvement, and customer-centric thinking.
Strategic Leadership
- Translate business objectives, customer insights, and marketing strategies into integrated omnichannel engagement plans.
- Provide strategic oversight for customer engagement planning activities across assigned brands and portfolios.
- Drive prioritization and resource allocation decisions to maximize business impact.
- Ensure engagement strategies align with enterprise priorities, customer needs, and commercial objectives.
- Partner with other Marketing Operations capability teams to articulate business and brand requirements that inform the evolution of AI-enabled customer engagement capabilities, personalization approaches, and future engagement solutions.
- Ensure customer engagement strategies support a connected end-to-end customer journey and customer experience across channels, touchpoints, and interactions.
Cross-Functional Partnership
- Partner with Brand, Sales, Analytics, Medical, Operations, Customer Engagement Operations, and US Media teams to deliver integrated omnichannel customer engagement strategies.
- Facilitate alignment across cross-functional stakeholders to support enterprise and business objectives.
- Represent CEP&M in key planning activities, governance forums, and leadership discussions.
- Build strong partnerships that enable effective execution and continuous optimization.
- Partner with Marketing Operations, Analytics, Media, and Commercial stakeholders to advance connected customer experiences across customer touchpoints.
- Serve as a key business representative in the evolution of customer engagement capabilities, providing business input and requirements that inform future processes, tools, and operating models.
Analytics, Measurement & Optimization
- Leverage engagement analytics and performance insights to guide decision-making and optimization efforts.
- Partner with analytics teams to assess campaign performance and business impact.
- Establish learning agendas that translate customer and business insights into actionable recommendations.
- Drive adoption of measurement approaches that support continuous improvement and performance optimization.
- Utilize customer engagement and journey performance insights to identify opportunities to improve customer experience, engagement effectiveness, and business outcomes.
Change Leadership & Operational Excellence
- Lead organizational, process, and capability transformation initiatives within the CEP&M organization.
- Champion adoption of new customer engagement capabilities, technologies, processes, and ways of working that support Marketing Operations transformation objectives.
- Drive operational excellence through effective planning, governance, and execution.
- Continuously identify opportunities to improve efficiency, effectiveness, and organizational performance.
- Lead the pull-through and operationalization of evolving engagement approaches, helping teams successfully adopt and execute new customer engagement practices and operating models.
Market & Industry Leadership
- Maintain expertise in marketing, customer engagement, omnichannel strategy, customer experience, and emerging industry trends.
- Evaluate opportunities to strengthen organizational capabilities and customer engagement effectiveness.
- Assess current/future workforce hard and soft skills and group talent needs to support evolving business priorities.
- Monitor emerging trends in customer experience, AI-enabled engagement, personalization, omnichannel marketing, and commercial transformation to identify opportunities that can improve customer outcomes and organizational effectiveness.
Critical Leadership Competencies
Successful candidates will demonstrate strength in the following leadership capabilities:
- Strategic Decision Making
- Change Leadership
- Influencing Without Authority
- Coaching & Talent Development
- Business Acumen & Enterprise Thinking
- Strategic Partnership Building
- Executive Presence & Communication
Required Qualifications
- Bachelor’s degree in business, Marketing, Communications, Life Sciences, or a related field.
- Minimum of 12 years of experience in marketing strategy, customer engagement, omnichannel marketing, customer experience, or related commercial functions.
- Experience in US commercial business or marketing roles.
- Product Launch experience in Marketing, Sales or other commercialization functions
- Minimum of 2 years of direct-line people management / Proven success leading teams within complex matrix organizations.
- Demonstrated ability to influence senior stakeholders and drive cross-functional alignment.
- Experience leading organizational change and transformation initiatives.
- Strong business acumen, strategic thinking, and problem-solving skills.
- Excellent communication, stakeholder management, and people leadership capabilities.
Preferred Qualifications
- Experience in Oncology, Vaccines, Respiratory, Immunology, Ophthalmology and Cardiovascular marketing, commercial operations, or customer engagement.
- Advanced degree (MBA, Master's, or equivalent).
- Experience in omnichannel engagement planning, customer journey strategy, media strategy, and customer experience design.
- Experience working within Agile operating models and cross-functional teams.
- Experience leveraging analytics and measurement frameworks to optimize customer engagement strategies.
- Familiarity with emerging AI-enabled marketing and customer engagement capabilities.
Required Skills:
Accountability, Accountability, Adaptability, Business Acumen, Business Alignment, Business Decisions, Creativity, Customer Centricity, Customer Engagement, Customer Experience Improvement, Customer Experience Management, Customer Insights, Digital Marketing, Engagement Strategies, Executive Presence, Financial Acumen, Market Access, Marketing Automation, Marketing Budget Management, Market Research, Omnichannel Marketing, Omnichannel Strategy, Operational Efficiency, Organizational Leadership, Partnership Management {+ 9 more}
Preferred Skills:
Current Employees apply
Current Contingent Workers apply
US and Puerto Rico Residents Only:
The salary range for this role is
$190,800.00 - $300,300.00
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 .
You can apply for this role through (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:
Domestic
VISA Sponsorship:
No
Travel Requirements:
10%
Flexible Work Arrangements:
Hybrid
Shift:
Not Indicated
Valid Driving License:
No
Hazardous Material(s):
n/a
Job Posting End Date:
10/1/2026
*A job posting is effective until 11:59:59PM on the day BEFOREthe listed job p
