Assoc. Dir , Product Manager, Disease Biology & PharmTox
Merck
August 22, 2026
Remote friendly (Boston, MA)
United States
Marketing
Primary Responsibilities
- Partner with R&D scientists and Business Technology Partners to own and communicate product vision, strategy, and outcome roadmap.
- Understand user needs via interviews, shadowing, and usage analytics.
- Map processes and information architecture to identify pain points and automation opportunities.
- Define problem statements, requirements, and success metrics; author Product Requirements Documents.
- Lead solution discovery and rapid prototyping; evaluate value, usability, feasibility, and business viability.
- Prioritize features and manage backlog/release planning using impact, effort, and risk frameworks.
- Manage scientific applications and lead squads; assess risk and engage vendors as needed.
- Evaluate internal/external tools; manage vendor relationships to influence roadmaps and integrate with internal systems/data lake.
- Partner with Product Tech/Engineering leads to ensure ecosystem integration.
- Apply industry standards/ontologies to develop FAIR applications; advance in silico models and AI/ML.
- Create/maintain documentation (SDLC deliverables, GxP/non-GxP guidelines, SOPs, training, user communications).
- Support regulatory audits/inspections with stakeholders and Quality.
- Coach teams on customer-centered mindset; remove roadblocks and escalate issues.
- Drive adoption using metrics/user feedback and continuous improvement.
- Promote capabilities to stakeholders; develop orthogonal product strategy; manage total cost of ownership.
- Monitor standards/emerging technologies; use data-driven insights to refine strategy.
Skill Sets / Qualifications
- 5+ years experience in scientific software development/pharma sciences/target discovery/scientific data management.
- Strong preclinical development domain knowledge.
- Proven experience leading multidisciplinary squads; translating needs into user stories/PRDs.
- Experience with scientific workflows (COTS/in-house/open source) and scaling.
- SDLC and Agile; comfortable in GxP-regulated environments.
- Strong communication bridging science, engineering, business; customer-centric.
- Product/UX tooling (e.g., Jira, Confluence, Mural, Figma, Balsamiq); documentation/visuals.
- Knowledge of data models, ontologies, information architecture.
- Ability to work independently across time zones.
- Organized with project/stakeholder management; balance strategy and execution.
Education Minimum Requirement
- M.A./M.S. with 3+ years, or B.A./B.S. with 5+ years in a relevant scientific/technical field.
Preferred Experience and Skills
- Experience in drug discovery/development (pre-clinical) as scientist/Informatics/IT analyst.
- Experience with AI-powered product tools; integrating AI tools into workflows.
- Ability to define/measure value for AI features.
- Mentoring experience; data analytics/mining (R/Python); relational databases/integration; PowerBI/data visualization.
Benefits / Compensation (if applicable)
- Eligible for annual bonus and long-term incentive (if applicable).
Application Instructions
- Apply via https://jobs.merck.com/us/en (or Workday Jobs Hub if internal). Application deadline listed on the posting.
- Partner with R&D scientists and Business Technology Partners to own and communicate product vision, strategy, and outcome roadmap.
- Understand user needs via interviews, shadowing, and usage analytics.
- Map processes and information architecture to identify pain points and automation opportunities.
- Define problem statements, requirements, and success metrics; author Product Requirements Documents.
- Lead solution discovery and rapid prototyping; evaluate value, usability, feasibility, and business viability.
- Prioritize features and manage backlog/release planning using impact, effort, and risk frameworks.
- Manage scientific applications and lead squads; assess risk and engage vendors as needed.
- Evaluate internal/external tools; manage vendor relationships to influence roadmaps and integrate with internal systems/data lake.
- Partner with Product Tech/Engineering leads to ensure ecosystem integration.
- Apply industry standards/ontologies to develop FAIR applications; advance in silico models and AI/ML.
- Create/maintain documentation (SDLC deliverables, GxP/non-GxP guidelines, SOPs, training, user communications).
- Support regulatory audits/inspections with stakeholders and Quality.
- Coach teams on customer-centered mindset; remove roadblocks and escalate issues.
- Drive adoption using metrics/user feedback and continuous improvement.
- Promote capabilities to stakeholders; develop orthogonal product strategy; manage total cost of ownership.
- Monitor standards/emerging technologies; use data-driven insights to refine strategy.
Skill Sets / Qualifications
- 5+ years experience in scientific software development/pharma sciences/target discovery/scientific data management.
- Strong preclinical development domain knowledge.
- Proven experience leading multidisciplinary squads; translating needs into user stories/PRDs.
- Experience with scientific workflows (COTS/in-house/open source) and scaling.
- SDLC and Agile; comfortable in GxP-regulated environments.
- Strong communication bridging science, engineering, business; customer-centric.
- Product/UX tooling (e.g., Jira, Confluence, Mural, Figma, Balsamiq); documentation/visuals.
- Knowledge of data models, ontologies, information architecture.
- Ability to work independently across time zones.
- Organized with project/stakeholder management; balance strategy and execution.
Education Minimum Requirement
- M.A./M.S. with 3+ years, or B.A./B.S. with 5+ years in a relevant scientific/technical field.
Preferred Experience and Skills
- Experience in drug discovery/development (pre-clinical) as scientist/Informatics/IT analyst.
- Experience with AI-powered product tools; integrating AI tools into workflows.
- Ability to define/measure value for AI features.
- Mentoring experience; data analytics/mining (R/Python); relational databases/integration; PowerBI/data visualization.
Benefits / Compensation (if applicable)
- Eligible for annual bonus and long-term incentive (if applicable).
Application Instructions
- Apply via https://jobs.merck.com/us/en (or Workday Jobs Hub if internal). Application deadline listed on the posting.