Associate Director, Digital Scientific Workflows

Job Description

Job Summary:

The DSCS Digital Technologies organization is responsible for the invention and application of new digital tools/workflows to support scientists across drug substance development, drug product development and analytical development. We aspire to embed digital technologies into the fabric of DSCS culture to drive transformational impact. The tools that we develop are as the teams developing them, and in this Associate Director, Digital Scientific Workflows role, the successful candidate will serve as a domain owner of the sample management workflows across all modalities requiring technical expertise across digital data capture solutions such as Appian, Benchling, and LIMS. The person in this role will work across our Company small molecule, biologics, and vaccines modalities to help establish a strategy for aligning our sample management workflows through application of enterprise aligned digital tools and workflows.

The candidate will be tasked with solving complex business workflows, data capture, analysis, and visualization challenges in an interdisciplinary, collaborative environment using cutting-edge digital technologies. This includes, but is not limited to, supporting analytical characterization, process development, drug substance development, and drug product development. This role sits within the Digital Insights team which is working to digitally enable a decision engine for DSCS, by innovating solutions through strong partnership in the domains of Data Science, Data Analysis, Informatics, Multi-Omics, Predictive Science, and Data Engineering.

Responsibilities:

• Serve as a domain owner for sample management of large and small molecules, maintaining full awareness of all digital projects, data sources, systems, and data flows within the domain.

• Serve as technical SME/coordinator of systems such as LIMS, Appian and Benchling etc.

• Build strong partnerships with business stakeholders & scientists to gather requirements for new digital and data solutions which will have direct pipeline impact.

• Inform & influence the work being done to establish DSCS Digital Data Strategy ensuring inclusion of identified opportunity areas.

• Design and development of scientific dashboards, reports, and data exports enabling scientific collaborations among scientists across process, formulation and analytical teams.

• Demonstrate excellent interpersonal, communication, and collaboration skills

• Embrace and model our core values and inclusion, including fostering a supportive culture where all can thrive

• Collaborate effectively in a dynamic, integrated, and multidisciplinary team environment.

• Mentor and guide junior members working across modalities, ensuring alignment with sample management practices.

Education Minimum Requirement:

• A Ph.D. in Computer Science, Chemistry, Biochemistry, Engineering, Data Science, Mathematics, Physics, Biology, Pharmaceutical Sciences, or a closely-related field with at least 3 years of relevant experience. 

• A M.S. in Computer Science, Chemistry, Biochemistry, Engineering, Data Science, Mathematics, Physics, Biology, Pharmaceutical Sciences, or a closely-related field with at least 5 years of relevant experience. 

• A B.S. in Computer Science, Chemistry, Biochemistry, Engineering, Data Science, Mathematics, Physics, Biology, Pharmaceutical Sciences, or a closely-related field with at least 7 years of relevant experience. 

Required Experience and Skills:

• Experience with integrating data capture systems such as Benchling, Appian, LIMS into scientific business workflows within the pharmaceutical or chemical industry.

• Experience mapping scientific workflows, identifying opportunity areas for efficiency gains and driving adoption of new digital tools/practices.

• Experience defining or enforcing consistent data capture practices, metadata schemas, in a scientific or pharmaceutical context.

• Demonstrated ability to lead technical initiatives, mentor junior members, and influence scientific business workflows across multiple stakeholders. Ability to work in a team environment with cross-functional interactions.

• Ability to deliver complex solutions under compressed timelines in a dynamic environment.

• Familiarity with version control systems (Git/GitHub) and collaborative software development practices.

• Excellent communication skills, demonstrated creativity, and effective interpersonal skills.

• Motivated to learn new skills, willingness to take on new challenges, and scientific curiosity.

Preferred Experience and Skills:

• Experience with one or more drug modalities being developed internally such as small molecule, biologics, vaccines, peptides, drug conjugates.

• Experience with data visualization tools (Shiny, Streamlit, Spotfire, Dash, PowerBI, or Tableau)  for building scientific dashboards and exploratory data applications.

• Connecting to AWS (S3, RedShift, Glue, Athena, SageMaker) as a data source for data visualization.

• Experience with data pipeline tools such as Dataiku or Databricks.

• Experience with relational databases, graph databases, and SQL.

• Experience working alongside or supporting wet-lab scientists with data capture systems into day-to-day work pharmaceutical development.

• Experience with AI coding tools is a plus.

Required Skills:

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.

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.

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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 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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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. 

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