Associate Director, Strategic Communications and Organizational Engagement, Remote

Job Description

The Associate Director, Organizational Engagement reports to the Chief of Staff (CoS) of the Senior Vice President (SVP)of Global Clinical Trial Operations (GCTO) and plays a key role in shaping and executing the strategic communications for GCTO’s global workforce of over 10,000 employees.    Serves as strategic advisor to the GCTO leadership team, this role is responsible for developing and implementing enterprise-wide communication strategies that enhance organizational effectiveness, employee engagement, and change readiness across a highly matrixed and regulated environment.

The ideal candidate is an exceptional communicator with deep expertise in strategic communications, change management, cross-functional and workforce engagement with exceptional digital acumen skills, including the responsible use of AI.

This role engages with the SVP, GCTO and the leadership team as a strategic partner and advisor, develops engagement and change management strategies in alignment with GCTO’s strategic priorities, goals and branding guidelines Responsible for the development and maintenance of GCTO’s communications framework; supports planning and delivery of GCTO events; and serves as a day-to-day partner to GCTO leaders to support internal messaging, executive communications, and presentation materials.

Responsibilities:

Executive Engagement and Advisory

• Serves as a strategic communications partner to GCTO leadership, crafting executive-level messaging that drives clarity, alignment, and action.
• Diagnosing communication gaps and design interventions that enhance leadership visibility and effectiveness

Strategic Communications Leadership

• Develops, plans, and executes the global engagement and internal communications strategy for GCTO ensuring alignment with organizational priorities and communication guidelines. Collaborates with the GCTO leadership team, GCTO’s and GCD’s Project Management Office (PMO) in the development of communications for special initiatives.
• Manages vendor relationships and deliverables to ensure quality, timeliness and alignment with GCTO communication objectives. Develops and executes the GCTO enterprise employee engagement strategy, designing and leading engagement initiatives including surveys, listening strategies, and action planning; analyzing feedback data and translating findings into actionable insights and recommendations for GCTO leadership
• Measures effectiveness of engagement and communication activities through established metrics and recommend improvements to increase employee understanding, engagement and adoption.

Communication Framework, Content Channels & Brand Consistency

• Develops and maintains the GCTO communications framework and toolkit to drive efficient, high quality communications
• Develops and maximizes fit-for-purpose GCTO communication channels to drive targeted information distribution, consumption, and uptake.
• Maximizes effectiveness of communications campaigns and channels leveraging data-centric measurement plans and stakeholder feedback; synthesizes insights and recommends improvement to communication strategies (ex. frequency and format).
• Ensures communications are developed consistent with GCTO and company branding guidelines.
• Translates complex scientific, technical and business concepts into clear, concise and compelling narratives for different stakeholder audiences.

Events, Engagement, & Knowledge Sharing

• Supports planning  and execution of major GCTO  events (e.g., town halls, leadership messaging, large meetings, senior leader updates including narrative arcs, visuals, SharePoint and engagement mechanics.
• Provides ad hoc support as relevant (e.g., industry presentation consultation; onboarding communications, intern events).

Leadership Communications & Stakeholder Partnership

• Serves as day-to-day partner to GCTO leadership team on internal messaging; drafts and refines executive communications and presentation materials
• Develops and delivers structured communication plans for major GCTO change initiatives ensuring messaging reinforces adoption objectives throughout each initiative lifecycle
• Ensures alignment across training, communications, and leadership messaging for major initiatives
• Acts as a reliable partner to GCTO and other cross-functional teams, actively seeking input, aligning on priorities, and closing feedback loops to drive high-quality, coordinated engagement and communications.

Qualifications, Skills, Experience and Education:

Technical Skills:

• Ability to translate  technical and scientific subject matter and content into clear narratives for target audiences
• Advanced skills in SharePoint Online administration and page design; governance of content hubs and basic HTML/UX
• Experience working with enterprise communications tools (e.g., email/newsletter platforms, survey tools, asset libraries); template creation and governance
• Expertise in interpreting campaign/channel analytics (e.g., email, SharePoint, Teams/Viva Engage); ability to compile metrics into simple dashboards
• Deep knowledge of internal communications controls (privacy, accessibility, records retention) and brand/tone standards
• Experience in applying project management tools and methods to enhance overall effectiveness
• Experience in and advanced knowledge of the responsible use of AI to enable effective communications with human in the lead oversight.
• Demonstrates working proficiency with enterprise-approved digital, data, and AI tools relevant to the role; applies automation and data-driven approaches in day-to-day work.
• Certification Standard: Holds and maintains GCTO Elevate – Beginner (minimum) within first 6 months in role; progresses to role-appropriate tier annually

Preferred:

• Experience in service provider and production management across design, video, events, and content operations

Non-Technical Skills:

• Exceptional communication skills with ability to drive content creation and delivery across a broad range of stakeholders (e.g., executive, organizational, geography-specific, and functional)
• Customer and stakeholder mindset with experience in coordinating and coaching content authors with a focus on clarity, quality, tone, and compliance
• Experience coordinating teams, partnering across the organization, leading decision making, and delivering results without positional or program authority undefined

Enterprise Leadership Skills:

• Business Savviness - Uses organization and industry information to identify trends, assess current business practices and results, and/or evaluate specific function/operation changes and anticipate their impact
• Strategic Planning - Identifies more critical and less critical activities and assignments; adjusts priorities when appropriate.
• Execution Excellence - Takes action that goes beyond job requirements to achieve results
• Influence - Clearly communicates the benefits of an idea, proposal, or approach (for the individual, team, and organization); tailors the persuasion strategy to engage individuals emotionally and rationally; leverages supporting evidence to address anticipated objections; summarizes benefits to ensure understanding

Qualifications & experience:

• Bachelor's degree with a minimum of 8 years of experience working in the pharmaceutical or biotech industry, clinical trial operations, operations, or relevant field.

OR

• Advanced degree (Masters or Doctorate) with a minimum of 4 years of experience working in the pharmaceutical or biotech industry, data management, clinical trial operations, operations, or relevant field
• A minimum of 3 years overseeing communication planning in a global, matrixed organization is required

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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.

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