Job Description

This Director will provide strategic leadership and end-to-end accountability for external vendor and partner relationships that deliver critical capabilities, resources, and services supporting GCS objectives, portfolio execution, and business continuity. This role is a part of the External Operations and Inventory Management team within External Partnerships and Sourcing. The incumbent will bring strong business acumen, enterprise leadership, and change management capability to shape supplier strategies, strengthen governance, and drive sustained operational performance. Key responsibilities include defining and advancing partnership objectives, overseeing supplier deliverables, timelines, performance, risks, issues, and opportunities, and ensuring supplier capabilities remain aligned with evolving GCS priorities. This role will lead through influence across GCS functions and enabling partners, including Procurement, Finance, Quality, and other support functions, to ensure effective decision-making, transparency, accountability, and value realization across the supplier relationship. The Director will also drive continuous improvement, process standardization, and stronger connectivity between suppliers and GCS functional areas to ensure service lines across the Global Clinical Supply Chain are governed efficiently, effectively, and in alignment with strategic business needs.

Primary Qualifications include but are not limited to:

• Owns strategic direction for the packaging service line, defining priorities, advancing capabilities, and ensuring external partner performance supports GCS portfolio and pipeline objectives.

• Translate evolving business, portfolio, and network needs into forward-looking packaging strategies, operating models, and continuous improvement priorities.

• Lead through influence across a complex matrix organization, aligning GCS functions, enabling partners, suppliers, and leadership around shared objectives, decisions, and outcomes.

• Accountable for sustained service-line performance, supplier governance effectiveness, risk mitigation, capability development, and alignment of external partner execution to GCS strategy and enterprise priorities. Driving integration readiness and oversight of identified beachhead assets and our Research & Development Division targets to ensure critical pipeline delivery.

• Partner across planning, distribution, sourcing, procurement, finance, and functional stakeholders to ensure end-to-end visibility, capacity alignment, financial stewardship, and delivery of business-critical packaging needs.

• Lead strategic problem solving, scenario planning, and risk mitigation for complex or ambiguous business challenges, ensuring durable solutions rather than reliance on day-to-day escalation management.

• Drive transformation, process standardization, and scalable ways of working across the packaging service line and broader external operations network.

• Communicate effectively with senior leaders by synthesizing complex operational, supplier, financial, and performance information into clear insights, recommendations, and decision points.

• Create broader organizational impact by standardizing ways of working, strengthening governance maturity, improving transparency, and enabling scalable external partnership models across GCS and driving integration into the GCS Tier Process.

• Coach, mentor, and develop others across EPS and GCS to strengthen service line capability, decision-making, and organizational effectiveness.

• Demonstrate strong proficiency with Microsoft Office tools, including Word, PowerPoint, and Excel; experience with Power BI, Power Automate, Qlik Sense, SAP, or similar business intelligence and enterprise systems preferred.

Education/Experience:

• 10+ years' experience in corporate environment within pharmaceutical or similar.

• Minimum 5 years experience in clinical supply chain, packaging operations and/or vendor management.

• Strong understanding of Current Good Manufacturing and Distribution Practices (cGMP/GDP), including FDA and EMEA

• Demonstrated strategic ability to develop innovative solutions and business processes to meet the needs of key stakeholders

• Strong verbal and written communication skills, with the ability to communicate with Users, Peers and Sponsors

Preferred Experience and Skills:

• Strategic planning & realization

• Strong compliance mindset

• Excellent communication skills

• Managerial skills

Required Skills:

Preferred Skills:

Current Employees apply

Current Contingent Workers apply

US and Puerto Rico Residents Only:

The salary range for this role is

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:

Relocation:

VISA Sponsorship:

Travel Requirements:

Flexible Work Arrangements:

Shift:

Valid Driving License:

Hazardous Material(s):

Job Posting End Date:

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