Associate Director, Translational PK/PD
Merck
August 14, 2026
Remote friendly (South San Francisco, CA)
United States
Clinical Research and Development
The Translational PK/PD Scientific Associate Director will:
- Serve as an expert PK/PD modeler in cross-functional teams to support model-informed decisions about drug discovery, modality selection, and dose prediction across therapeutic areas.
- Integrate in vitro and in vivo data to build PKPD, PBPK, QSP, or other mechanistic modeling platforms to support forward/reverse translation for established and novel therapeutic targets.
- Collaborate with PDMB and the Discovery/Translational organization to design experimental studies and modeling plans to identify/optimize drug candidates and guide translational strategy.
- Guide design of automated workflows implementing modeling platforms for human PK/PD and dose projections.
- Provide scientific and modeling guidance to junior colleagues; demonstrate strong leadership and communication.
Qualifications
- Education: Master’s (8+ years), PharmD (6+ years), or Ph.D. (4+ years) in pharmacokinetics/pharmacodynamics, mathematics, applied mathematics, systems/computational biology, chemical/biomedical engineering, statistics/biostatistics, or related field; industry/academia/regulatory/non-profit experience with increasing responsibility and independence.
- Required: Hands-on translational PKPD modeling experience using standard software (Matlab, OSP Suite, Monolix, R) for biologics/protein therapeutics/peptides; expertise in experimental design, mathematical problem solving, critical data analysis/interpretation, and statistics.
- Preferred: Experience in interdisciplinary teams; developing novel translational modeling strategies or automated workflows relying on PBPK/QSP.
Skills: Biologics, Pharmacokinetics/Pharmacodynamics, PKPD modeling, data modeling/analysis/science, statistical analysis, drug discovery process, MATLAB, proteins, peptides, interdisciplinary collaboration.
Application: Apply via https://jobs.merck.com/us/en (Workday Jobs Hub if current employee).
- Serve as an expert PK/PD modeler in cross-functional teams to support model-informed decisions about drug discovery, modality selection, and dose prediction across therapeutic areas.
- Integrate in vitro and in vivo data to build PKPD, PBPK, QSP, or other mechanistic modeling platforms to support forward/reverse translation for established and novel therapeutic targets.
- Collaborate with PDMB and the Discovery/Translational organization to design experimental studies and modeling plans to identify/optimize drug candidates and guide translational strategy.
- Guide design of automated workflows implementing modeling platforms for human PK/PD and dose projections.
- Provide scientific and modeling guidance to junior colleagues; demonstrate strong leadership and communication.
Qualifications
- Education: Master’s (8+ years), PharmD (6+ years), or Ph.D. (4+ years) in pharmacokinetics/pharmacodynamics, mathematics, applied mathematics, systems/computational biology, chemical/biomedical engineering, statistics/biostatistics, or related field; industry/academia/regulatory/non-profit experience with increasing responsibility and independence.
- Required: Hands-on translational PKPD modeling experience using standard software (Matlab, OSP Suite, Monolix, R) for biologics/protein therapeutics/peptides; expertise in experimental design, mathematical problem solving, critical data analysis/interpretation, and statistics.
- Preferred: Experience in interdisciplinary teams; developing novel translational modeling strategies or automated workflows relying on PBPK/QSP.
Skills: Biologics, Pharmacokinetics/Pharmacodynamics, PKPD modeling, data modeling/analysis/science, statistical analysis, drug discovery process, MATLAB, proteins, peptides, interdisciplinary collaboration.
Application: Apply via https://jobs.merck.com/us/en (Workday Jobs Hub if current employee).