Director Brand Strategy Analytics

MSD


Job Location:

Pune - India

Monthly Salary: Not Disclosed
Posted on: 4 hours ago
Vacancies: 1 Vacancy

Job Summary

Job Description

Job Description

This role sits within the Brand Strategy vertical of Digital Human Health (DHH) India Hub. As the patient-centric analytics engine Brand Strategy owns the end-to-end insight arcfrom patient journey to brand performanceacross pipeline and in-line assets in Oncology and Specialty Pharma & Infectious Disease (SPID). The team operates as an embedded partner to the commercial organization providing strategic thought partnership to marketing and cross-functional stakeholders. It shapes demand by translating business priorities into actionable analytics needs quarterbacks delivery across DHH capabilities and drives activation of products and insights to enable decision-making and business impact.

The Director will deliver decision-ready insights that inform pipeline strategy launch execution and commercial performance. Partnering across functions the role drives executive decision-making and commercial rigor throughout asset lifecycle stages.

Leading a 40 member team and cross-functional insights pods the Director integrates capabilities across Data Strategy & Solutions Market Research Forecasting Competitive Intelligence and Commercial AI - connecting the dots to deliver faster high-impact actionable insights.

The role is partners closely with BU engagement leads to proactively shape and inform portfolio level brand strategy while advancing capabilities through systematization automation and AI. The Director is accountable for positioning the India Hub to a strategic analytics partner embedding productivity scalability and value-driven outcomes across engagements. This role will be part of DHH SP&ID and Onco leadership teams.

Role Overview

The Director will be a strategic partner to commercial stakeholders across DHH Marketing Medical and Finance. The individual will engage influence and where needed - challenge commercial partners. The role demands consistently strong leadership the ability to work objectively and strong partnership skills. The Director will empower a growth mindset and a culture of continual learning develop the next generation of leaders within DHH and embed diversity equity and inclusion in every team practice.

The preferred candidate will have an entrepreneurial spirit a consultative and strategic mindset demonstrated experience in oncology and / or specialty pharma curious about technology (AI agentic systems GenAI applied to commercial analytics) and a track record of producing actionable insights from analytics. The Director should have a deep appreciation of the pharma secondary data ecosystem (US and exUS) and the ability to translate ambiguous business questions into advanced scalable analytical solutions.

Key Responsibilities

  • Strategic Alliances & Executive Partnership: Act as a trusted thought partner to senior stakeholders across Marketing Medical Market Access Sales Ops Finance and DHH leadershipbringing strong commercial framing and constructive solutions. Establish durable alliances across geographies and functions to align on priorities decision points and business outcomes in a matrixed environment. Translate complex analytics into executive-ready narratives that accelerate decisions unlock alignment and drive action.
  • Portfolio thinking and launch orchestration: Engage with disease-aligned teams and leaders across Onc and SPID BUs to understand strategic priorities across the commercial value chain - pipeline prioritization growth opportunities launch readiness in-line performance. Translate these priorities into a unified Brand Strategy book of work and enable interconnected problem-solving at the portfolio level. Bring a portfolio lens to 20 major launches and 80 Phase III readouts in the planning horizon.
  • Partnership at the executive level: Be a strategic partner for marketing leaders Onc and SPID stakeholders DHH LT. Establish and manage close relationships across DHH Marketing Sales Medical and Finance. Communicate complex analytics with presence and commercial framing.
  • Insight generation strategy and roadmap: Develop and own the commercial insight generation strategy and roadmap for Brand Strategy adopting the latest technological advances - AI agentic systems GenAI to strengthen efficiency productivity and quality of insight. Define what good looks like for patient journey brand performance synthesis launch analytics and drive standardisation across TAs.
  • Team leadership and talent development: Lead direct teams and cross-functional insights pods comprised of stakeholders from across DHH and the wider Human Health organisation. Develop talent mentor coach and create a team culture that focuses on things that matter empowers urgent action encourages innovation and runs on continuous learning and feedback.
  • Productivity & Operational Excellence: Drive productivity at scale by simplifying processes standardizing analytics solutions and frameworks and embedding automated workflows across the insight generation lifecycle. Act as a catalyst to activate reusable assets streamline business rules and methodologies minimize duplication and enhance consistency quality and efficiency across engagements.
  • Demand prioritisation and value tracking: Understand the full book of work underway and planned for each disease area or business unit. Work with marketing leadership to prioritise against DHH capacity. For prioritised work engage cross-functional teams to articulate the value and impact of each piece. Encourage the mindset to articulate the so what and now what and to track realised business value.
  • Stakeholder Collaboration & Communication: Drive proactive transparent engagement with cross-functional partners to co-create solutions align on organizational priorities and set clear expectations. Provide internal and business stakeholders with forward-looking visibility into key programs to inform milestones prioritization risk mitigation and aligned decision-making.
  • AI strategy and responsible use: Articulate how Brand Strategy will adopt agentic AI and GenAI for analytics insight generation and book-of-work execution. Maintain awareness of opportunities limitations and responsible use of AI in a regulated environment.
  • Data & Analytics Fluency: Strong fluency in healthcare/commercial data ecosystems (e.g. claims Rx EHR/EMR specialty pharmacy biomarker/epidemiology data) and the broader secondary data landscape (US/ex-US). Working knowledge of analytics delivery stacks. Familiarity with modern data platforms (e.g. Databricks/Snowflake/cloud) and AI-enabled analytics workflows.

Education Requirements

Masters (or equivalent) in Data Science Mathematics Computer Science Statistics Decision Science Marketing Engineering Management or an equivalent commercial discipline. Advanced degree (MBA MS PharmD PhD) is preferred.

Required Experience and Skills

  • 10 years of total experience with relevant experience in commercial insights advanced analytics or related roles within the pharmaceutical or biotechnology industry.
  • 5 years of people leadership experience with a proven track record of managing dynamic high-performing teams; including leading other leaders.
  • Executive storytelling and stakeholder influence: story-telling and executive presence with senior leaders; effective interpersonal communication and stakeholder management skills including experience collaborating in a matrixed organisation and aligning stakeholders on data-driven decisions.
  • Strong business acumen and consultative skills with proven ability to comprehend business processes and commercial strategies in detail and translate them into business standards and analytical questions.
  • Talent system ownership: proven ability to develop talent mentor and coach teams and build inclusive team culture.
  • AI / GenAI strategy framing: innovative thinking with affinity toward experimentation and appropriate risk-taking; curiosity about how agentic AI and automation can enhance commercial analytics and insight generation; awareness of opportunities limitations and responsible use of AI in a regulated environment.
  • Cross-functional and matrix leadership: experience working in multi-national organisations with geographically distributed teams and matrix reporting lines.
  • Patient and commercial data fluency: prior hands-on experience working with healthcare data - claims data (e.g. IQVIA APLD) HER/EMR biomarker data epidemiology datasets market research data and the broader pharma commercial data ecosystem (US and exUS).
  • Analytical depth across the value chain: ability to mine patient medical claims / EMR data with a strategic mindset and a proven record of producing actionable business insights that drive commercial results.
  • Self-motivated proactive mindset and ability to work independently.

Required Skills:

Automation Biopharmaceutical Industry Biopharmaceuticals Brand Strategy Business Analysis Commercial Analytics Data Analytics Data Science Decision-Making Strategies Demand Management Digital Healthcare Infectious Disease Innovation Marketing Leadership Operational Excellence Project Prioritization Requirements Management Sourcing and Procurement Stakeholder Relationship Management Strategic Planning

Preferred Skills:

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Regular

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Hybrid

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Job Posting End Date:

07/31/2026

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Required Experience:

Director

Job DescriptionJob DescriptionThis role sits within the Brand Strategy vertical of Digital Human Health (DHH) India Hub. As the patient-centric analytics engine Brand Strategy owns the end-to-end insight arcfrom patient journey to brand performanceacross pipeline and in-line assets in Oncology and S...

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Merck & Co., Inc., Kenilworth, New Jersey, USA is known as “Merck” in the United States, Canada & Puerto Rico. We are known as “MSD” in Europe, Middle East, Africa, Latin America & Asia Pacific. We are a global biopharmaceutical leader with a diverse portfolio of prescription medicine ... View more

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