Director, National Contract Operations

Job Description

Position Description:

The Director, Contract Operations Data & Analytics is responsible to lead and direct teams of multiple Associate Directors and Sr. Specialists, focusing on Deal Modeling & Forecasting, Payer Master, Primary Care and Hospital & Specialty Contract Planning & Analysis as well as Vaccine Contract Planning & Analysis. Initial accountabilities will focus on collectively establishing and strengthening core service lines that assess, evaluate, and provide integrated insights on contracting at the customer, segment, brand, and portfolio level. This Director will align their teams with key stakeholders from cross functional groups and departments on priorities and direction that support our goal of the broadest appropriate and profitable access to our medicines and vaccines.

Primary Responsibilities:

• Collaborate and align with a wide range of internal stakeholders in Pricing, Payer & Brand Marketing, Finance, Contract Management & Operations, and IT to deliver an integrated assessment that provides pro-active insights for Payer and Provider contracting.

• Manage and deliver integrated insights reports, dashboards, and trend analytics to share with key internal Stakeholders.

• Establish a centralized process that pro-actively defines the impact of the medical and pharmacy benefit landscape and applies these learnings to financial evaluations from inputs across the organization to be used by Senior Leaders to inform contract strategy and specific customer and segment contracting decisions.

• Work in an Agile setting, leveraging new and existing capabilities to summarize and assess market insights providing inputs that will shape and inform contracting strategies.

• Communicate and facilitate change management for process transitions and collaborations with cross-functional teams supporting Contract Strategy assessments.

• Ensure timely and initiative-taking communication within and across a large set of cross-functional teams.

• Establish a culture of continual process improvements to select Service Lines through leveraging of Agile principles.

• Leads and supports the development and enables the creation of the required capabilities for contract strategy decisions inclusive of innovative solutions supporting affordable access for the portfolio of our Company's assets.

This is a headquarters-based position from our Upper Gwynedd, PA office. Remote / hybrid work arrangements will be considered, but travel frequency will vary depending on candidate's location.

Position Qualifications:

Education Minimum Requirement

• BA or BS Degree required.

Required Experience and Skills

• 5+ Years direct account management, customer contracting and financial analysis, customer marketing, and/or pharmaceutical supply chain experience.

• Demonstrated in depth business acumen in Contracting Strategy and Implementation.

• Successful history of building partnerships across a highly matrixed organization.

• Advanced Analytical skills.

• Strong Project management skills, with strict diligence.

• Strong critical thinking skills.

• Ability to effectively communicate results of analyses and the key impacts to the business.

• Exceptional presentation skills.

• Evidence of innovative and creative solutions.

• Ability to learn quickly and apply new knowledge in a constantly changing business environment.

• Broad knowledge of our Company's Primary Care, Hospital Specialty and Vaccine portfolio and markets, including customer types, market pricing drivers, incentives, policies, and regulations.

• Foundational knowledge of U.S. medical & pharmacy benefits market, along with an understanding of policy and competitor trends.

• Managed Markets segment and market-based customer knowledge.

• In depth knowledge of US Healthcare, Environmental trends, and Policy.

• Managing Teams with direct and indirect authority.

Preferred Experience and Skills

• Understanding of the drivers, strategy, and business models of key US customers (payer, channel, provider), especially the financial considerations, reimbursement dollar flow and the data environment relating to the use of medicines. Well-versed in underlying trends in healthcare reimbursement, payment, and coverage in the US.

• Prior Experience in one or more of the following:

  • Brand and/or Payer Marketing

  • Payer Contracting in Pharmacy and Medical Benefit spaces

  • Financial Acumen

• Experience working on Agile Teams.

• MBA Desired.

Our Human Health Division maintains a “patient first, profits later” ideology. The organization is comprised of sales, marketing, market access, digital analytics and commercial professionals who are passionate about their role in bringing our medicines to our customers worldwide.

Who we are …

We are known as Merck & Co., Inc., Rahway, New Jersey, USA in the United States and Canada and MSD everywhere else. For more than a century, we have been inventing for life, bringing forward medicines and vaccines for many of the world's most challenging diseases. Today, our company continues to be at the forefront of research to deliver innovative health solutions and advance the prevention and treatment of diseases that threaten people and animals around the world.

What we look for …

Imagine getting up in the morning for a job as important as helping to save and improve lives around the world. Here, you have that opportunity. You can put your empathy, creativity, digital mastery, or scientific genius to work in collaboration with a diverse group of colleagues who pursue and bring hope to countless people who are battling some of the most challenging diseases of our time. Our team is constantly evolving, so if you are among the intellectually curious, join us—and start making your impact today.

NOTICE FOR INTERNAL APPLICANTS

In accordance with Managers' Policy - Job Posting and Employee Placement, all employees subject to this policy are required to have a minimum of twelve (12) months of service in current position prior to applying for open positions.

If you have been offered a separation benefits package, but have not yet reached your separation date and are offered a position within the salary and geographical parameters as set forth in the Summary Plan Description (SPD) of your separation package, then you are no longer eligible for your separation benefits package. To discuss in more detail, please contact your HRBP or Talent Acquisition Advisor.

We are proud to be a company that embraces the value of bringing diverse, talented, and committed people together. The fastest way to breakthrough innovation is when diverse ideas come together in an inclusive environment. We encourage our colleagues to respectfully challenge one another’s thinking and approach problems collectively. We are an equal opportunity employer, committed to fostering an inclusive and diverse workplace.

Residents of Colorado

Click here to request this role’s pay range.

Employees working in roles that the Company determines require routine collaboration with external stakeholders, such as customer-facing commercial, or research-based roles, will be expected to comply not only with Company policy but also with policies established by such external stakeholders (for example, a requirement to be vaccinated against COVID-19 in order to access a facility or meet with stakeholders). Please understand that, as permitted by applicable law, if you have not been vaccinated against COVID-19 and an essential function of your job is to call on external stakeholders who require vaccination to enter their premises or engage in face-to-face meetings, then your employment may pose an undue burden to business operations, in which case you may not be offered employment, or your employment could be terminated. Please also note that, where permitted by applicable law, the Company reserves the right to require COVID-19 vaccinations for positions, such as in Global Employee Health, where the Company determines in its discretion that the nature of the role presents an increased risk of disease transmission.

Current Employees apply HERE

Current Contingent Workers apply HERE

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.

For more information about personal rights under Equal Employment Opportunity, visit:

EEOC Know Your Rights

EEOC GINA Supplement​

Pay Transparency Nondiscrimination

We are proud to be a company that embraces the value of bringing diverse, talented, and committed people together. The fastest way to breakthrough innovation is when diverse ideas come together in an inclusive environment. We encourage our colleagues to respectfully challenge one another’s thinking and approach problems collectively. We are an equal opportunity employer, committed to fostering an inclusive and diverse workplace.

Learn more about your rights, including under California, Colorado and other US State Acts

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):

Requisition ID:R241640