Job Description

As AI rapidly reshapes pharmaceutical R&D - from molecule discovery and clinical trial design to regulatory intelligence and real-world evidence - we need strategic technology leadership more than ever. We are seeking a Senior Director to lead Enterprise Architecture engagement for R&D, serving as a trusted enterprise technology advisor to R&D leadership and a strategic partner to business-facing IT partners across the division.

This is not a traditional architecture role. It is a senior leadership position for someone who deeply understands the science, operations, and business of pharmaceutical R&D, and who can connect divisional outcomes to enterprise capabilities, platforms, standards, and technology direction. The right candidate will help R&D leaders understand how enterprise technology investments - including AI and advanced analytics - can accelerate their pipeline, compress timelines, improve decision quality, and unlock new capabilities, while ensuring those investments

are grounded in enterprise strategy, responsible AI principles, and measurable outcomes.

Organizational Context:

This role is part of the Enterprise Architecture organization within Global Technology and leads Enterprise Architecture engagement for R&D. It operates as a trusted enterprise technology advisor to the Architecture Leadership Team and R&D senior leadership, and as a complementary strategic partner to business-facing IT partners. The role connects R&D priorities, outcomes, and capability needs to enterprise capabilities, platforms, standards, investments, and technology direction. It also represents R&D demand and strategic context within Enterprise Architecture so that enterprise decisions and capabilities better support divisional outcomes. The role advises, guides, and aligns where enterprise or cross-divisional implications exist, partnering with divisional architecture, product, domain, and delivery leaders who drive realization within R&D.

Key Responsibilities

Trusted Enterprise Advisor to R&D Leadership

- Develop trusted relationships with R&D senior leadership and the Architecture Leadership Team, providing an enterprise technology perspective that connects divisional priorities to enterprise capabilities, platforms, standards, investments, and future technology direction.

- Advise R&D leaders on enterprise technology opportunities, dependencies, risks, tradeoffs, and cross-divisional implications that may influence divisional outcomes.

- Help R&D leaders understand how enterprise capabilities, shared platforms, and technology investments can accelerate business objectives while reducing duplication, risk, and long-term complexity.

- Bring visibility to enterprise implications and cross-divisional dependencies early enough to inform planning and investment discussions before choices are locked.

- Represent R&D priorities, demand signals, and capability needs in enterprise technology and architecture discussions so they shape enterprise strategy, platforms, and investments.

Accelerate Business Outcomes

- Engage R&D leadership early to understand material outcomes, future demand, and enterprise implications across capability areas (discovery, lab operations, preclinical, clinical development, regulatory, pharmacovigilance, clinical supplies manufacturing).

- Connect divisional needs to enterprise capabilities, platforms, data, and shared dependencies - helping resolve enterprise barriers that could delay R&D outcomes.

- Drive AI acceleration across R&D: identify high-value use cases, prioritize AI investments by business impact, and ensure strategic alignment over fragmentation.

- Evaluate emerging technologies and industry trends (AI/ML, generative AI, Cloud, SaaS, advanced analytics, modern data integration) and translate them into actionable enterprise strategies that serve R&D.

- Bring a total-cost-of-ownership and business-outcomes lens to investment decisions, ensuring choices are evidence-based, priority-aligned, and sustainable at scale.

Make Technology Decisions Fast, Transparent, and Durable

- Own the quality and traceability of enterprise architecture decisions affecting R&D - ensuring decisions, rationale, dependencies,

implications, and outcomes are visible and reusable.

- Clarify which decisions require enterprise alignment and which require senior governance, providing constructive guidance rooted in business context.

- Translate recurring enterprise decisions into standards, patterns, reference architectures, and self-service guidance - including responsible AI guardrails.

- Drive connected, trusted enterprise architecture data that improves planning, decision intelligence, reuse, optimization, and self-service access to architecture knowledge.

Optimize Through Reuse, Standardization, and Simplification

- Create visibility into cross-divisional reuse, platform leverage, duplication, lifecycle risk, and technical debt opportunities relevant to R&D.

- Quantify enterprise value and implications in partnership with portfolio, finance, product, and architecture leaders.

- Help convert agreed opportunities into roadmaps with clear owners - measuring opportunity visibility, reuse, complexity reduction, and realized enterprise value.

- Identify opportunities for shared platforms across divisions (manufacturing quality, animal health, and other business units) and champion value-centric technology decisions prioritized by business outcomes.

Shape and Realize the Future of Technology

- Bring R&D future demand and market signals into enterprise technology foresight - shaping enterprise capability and platform direction where R&D needs have broader relevance.

- Maintain an active network of peer organizations, analysts, suppliers, and leading-edge sources in pharma/life sciences technology - with particular attention to the evolving AI ecosystem.

- Advise R&D leaders on the implications and opportunities created by enterprise technology direction, connecting enterprise roadmaps to practical adoption paths.

- Translate external insights into practical recommendations that keep R&D technology strategy ahead of the curve.

Enterprise Architecture Leadership and Capability Building**

- Lead Enterprise Architecture engagement for R&D, establishing clear priorities, accountability, and measurable outcomes aligned to the enterprise EA strategy.

- Develop and coach Enterprise Architecture talent supporting R&D, strengthening business acumen, strategic thinking, enterprise alignment, decision leadership, and domain depth.

- Represent R&D within Enterprise Architecture leadership forums and represent Enterprise Architecture perspectives within R&D leadership forums.

- Act as a senior delegate for Enterprise Architecture leadership in R&D-related planning, strategy, and governance discussions when required.

- Build succession depth for enterprise architecture leadership.

Required Skills

Deep R&D Domain Knowledge

- Thorough understanding of the end-to-end pharmaceutical R&D value stream - discovery through post-market evidence generation.

- Working knowledge of relevant regulations (21 CFR Part 11, GxP, CSV) and emerging regulatory expectations around AI in life sciences.

- Familiarity with laboratory instrumentation, scientific computing, clinical data platforms, and R&D operational systems at a strategic level.

AI & Advanced Analytics Acumen

- Strong understanding of how AI/ML and generative AI are being applied across pharma R&D - with a clear-eyed view of where they deliver real value versus where they remain aspirational.

- Ability to bridge data scientists, business leaders, and technology teams, ensuring AI initiatives are framed around business problems and measured by business outcomes.

- Commitment to responsible AI practices: fairness, transparency, and regulatory compliance.

Strategic & Enterprise Thinking

- Proven ability to develop technology strategies that bridge business vision and execution, with a track record of driving adoption and measurable results.

- Enterprise-level thinking: connecting divisional needs to organizational strategy, identifying cross-functional synergies, and optimizing for the whole.

- Experience navigating complex, matrixed organizations and influencing without direct authority. Comfortable in ambiguity.

Stakeholder Leadership & Communication

- Outstanding communication skills - able to distill complex technology concepts into compelling narratives for executive, business, and technical audiences.

- Skilled in evidence-based decision-making through structured analysis and persuasive storytelling.

- Demonstrated ability to build trusted advisory relationships with senior leaders through business acumen, follow-through, and sound judgment.

Modern Technology Fluency

- Strong grasp of Cloud, SaaS, AI/ML, data platforms, and modern integration patterns in pharmaceutical R&D contexts.

- Ability to evaluate vendor platforms and emerging technologies with a critical, business-first lens - assessing fit, risk, scalability, and TCO.

Qualifications

- Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Information Security, or a related field.

- 15+ years in technology strategy, enterprise architecture, digital transformation, or related leadership roles - ideally with significant pharmaceutical, biotech, or life sciences R&D exposure.

- Self-directed leader who independently identifies needs, fills strategic gaps, and drives results with minimal direction.

- Demonstrated ability to lead teams, develop talent, and build succession depth in architecture or technology strategy functions.

- Effectively leverages diversity of thought and perspective to strengthen strategies and outcomes.

- Bachelor's or Master's degree in Information Science, Computer Science, Bioinformatics, Life Sciences, or a related field.

Required Skills:
Building Capability, Building Capability, Building Trust, Business Acumen, Business Alignment, Business Architecture, Business Decisions, Business Enterprise Architecture (BEA), Business Informatics, Business Process Modeling, Competency Development, Data Modeling, Emerging Technologies, Enterprise Leadership, Executive Leadership, Influencing Skills, Influencing Without Authority, Information Technology Architecture, Process Simplification, Product Roadmap, Requirements Management, Solution Architecture, Stakeholder Relationship Management, Strategic Alignment, Strategic Alliances {+ 2 more}

Preferred Skills:

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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.

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 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

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