Senior Principal Scientist, Clinical Research, Thoracic Malignancies
Merck
August 22, 2026
Remote friendly (Rahway, NJ)
United States
Clinical Research and Development
Senior Director (Sr. Principal Scientist) — planning and directing clinical research activities involving new or marketed Oncology medicines across all phases of clinical development.
Responsibilities:
- Evaluate pre-clinical and translational work to generate early clinical development plans and Investigational New Drug (IND) applications.
- Develop clinical development strategies for investigational or marketed Oncology drugs.
- Plan clinical trials (design, operational plans, settings) based on these strategies.
- Monitor and manage conduct of ongoing or new clinical trials.
- Analyze and summarize clinical findings to support decisions on safety/efficacy and for regulatory reporting, clinical study reports, and publication.
- Participate in internal and joint internal/external research project teams for new compounds and further study of marketed compounds.
- Supervise Clinical Scientists executing clinical studies.
- Collaborate with cross-functional experts in commercialization, regulatory affairs, statistics, and manufacturing to manage clinical development projects.
- Keep corporate personnel informed on study progress and expert scientific input.
- Maintain scientific knowledge via ongoing awareness of new findings/methodologies, identify strong investigators, establish communications with investigators, and attend scientific meetings.
- Author development documents, presentations, budgets, and position papers; facilitate global external collaborations; travel ~20%.
Qualifications:
- Education: M.D. or M.D./Ph.D.
- Required: Industry or senior faculty experience in academia; 3+ years clinical medicine; 3+ years industry drug development or biomedical research in academia; demonstrated scientific scholarship; strong clinical medicine and biomedical research background; strong interpersonal and team skills; outstanding written/verbal communication and presentation.
- Preferred: Board Certified or Eligible in Oncology; prior clinical research experience and prior publication.
Required skills: Cancer Research, Clinical Development, Clinical Trials, Cross-Functional Teamwork, Drug Development, Oncology Trials.
Application: Apply at https://jobs.merck.com/us/en (or Workday Jobs Hub for current employees). Application deadline listed on posting; job posting effective until 11:59:59PM the day before 09/10/2026 (Requisition ID: R413766).
Responsibilities:
- Evaluate pre-clinical and translational work to generate early clinical development plans and Investigational New Drug (IND) applications.
- Develop clinical development strategies for investigational or marketed Oncology drugs.
- Plan clinical trials (design, operational plans, settings) based on these strategies.
- Monitor and manage conduct of ongoing or new clinical trials.
- Analyze and summarize clinical findings to support decisions on safety/efficacy and for regulatory reporting, clinical study reports, and publication.
- Participate in internal and joint internal/external research project teams for new compounds and further study of marketed compounds.
- Supervise Clinical Scientists executing clinical studies.
- Collaborate with cross-functional experts in commercialization, regulatory affairs, statistics, and manufacturing to manage clinical development projects.
- Keep corporate personnel informed on study progress and expert scientific input.
- Maintain scientific knowledge via ongoing awareness of new findings/methodologies, identify strong investigators, establish communications with investigators, and attend scientific meetings.
- Author development documents, presentations, budgets, and position papers; facilitate global external collaborations; travel ~20%.
Qualifications:
- Education: M.D. or M.D./Ph.D.
- Required: Industry or senior faculty experience in academia; 3+ years clinical medicine; 3+ years industry drug development or biomedical research in academia; demonstrated scientific scholarship; strong clinical medicine and biomedical research background; strong interpersonal and team skills; outstanding written/verbal communication and presentation.
- Preferred: Board Certified or Eligible in Oncology; prior clinical research experience and prior publication.
Required skills: Cancer Research, Clinical Development, Clinical Trials, Cross-Functional Teamwork, Drug Development, Oncology Trials.
Application: Apply at https://jobs.merck.com/us/en (or Workday Jobs Hub for current employees). Application deadline listed on posting; job posting effective until 11:59:59PM the day before 09/10/2026 (Requisition ID: R413766).