Associate Director, Marketing -Thought Leader Marketing Liaison

Job Description

About the Role

Our US Immunology team is committed to transforming the lives of patients living with Inflammatory Bowl Disease (IBD). We aspire to achieve this through relentless commitment to patients, innovation, ensuring access to life-changing therapies, and collaborating with healthcare systems, governments, and payers to make treatments available to those who need them most. Our focus is on the patients, scientific rigor and flawless execution-bringing breakthrough therapies to patients who need them.

Thought Leader Marketing Liaison (TLML) (Associate Director) is a key member of the Immunology brand marketing organization reporting directly to the Director, Thought Leader Liaison Team Leader. This position is responsible for ensuring that advocacy development, platform and product positioning, speaker program preparation and management, and congress engagement are strategically aligned with brand objectives and executed in a compliant manner. This will help create a strong and sustained our company presence across local, regional, and national IBD communities. Additionally, this role is critical to ensure that key scientific leader insights directly inform brand and go-to-market strategies.

Openings: 5 positions available across 5 Regions (Northeast, Southeast, Great Lakes/Ohio Valley, Central, West)

Role Details & Regional Focus:

• Available Territories: Northeast | Southeast | Great Lakes/Ohio Valley | Central | West

• Position Type: Remote/Field Based (Requires 60%-70% regional and national travel)

• Candidates must reside within major metro areas in or near their assigned region near a major airport.

Primary Responsibilities

• Advocacy Development:

• Assist in identification and mapping of national and regional scientific leaders (SLs), clinical leaders, and emerging experts across the US IBD landscape.

• Develop and assess advocacy of key opinion leaders around the scientific messages, product positioning, and medical education content.

SL/KOL Engagement Execution:

• Execute engagements with SLs, including congress participation, site visits, and HQ-approved activities (e.g., advisory boards, customer strategy sessions).

• Gather actionable insights from SLs to inform marketing strategies and brand planning.

• Provide real-time insights from KOL’s on approved key business questions / topics.

• Execute engagement plans with key thought leaders throughout the US and support development of approved educational content based on KOL and faculty input.

• Congress Participation and Engagement:

  • Collaborate with marketing team to determine participation and level of support in key IBD conferences.

  • Secure key engagement meetings and congress execution between HQ employees and KOLs

• Speaker Bureau Development & Readiness:

  • Help identify and manage a US IBD Speaker Bureau, including faculty identification, onboarding, and training as appropriate to approved content.

  • Ensure speaker advocacy aligns to our scientific platform key messages and supports speaker readiness for educational speaker engagements including congress product theatres.

• Cross-Functional Collaboration:

  • Collaborate with field facing roles according to our company's Policy to ensure alignment on SL needs and account dynamics

• Compliance & Governance:

  • Ensure strict adherence to compliance regulations, internal policies, and industry standards in all engagement activities

Qualifications:

• Required:

  • Bachelor’s degree required; advanced degree (MBA, MS, PharmD, or equivalent) preferred.

  • Minimum 5-8 years in pharmaceutical sales, marketing, or field medical engagement or KOL management roles.

  • At least 2 years of IBD experience strongly preferred with existing Key KOL networks in IBD.

  • Demonstrated success in building and maintaining scientific relationships with KOLs, speakers, or professional societies in a highly regulated environment.

  • Excellent communication, interpersonal, and organizational skills.

  • Proven ability to synthesize insights into strategic recommendations.

  • Ability to influence and collaborate across a matrixed environment without direct authority.

  • Travel up to 60% (including weekends and evenings for congresses and advisory meetings).

  • Valid driver’s license.

  • Candidates must live in or near geographical area and should reside near a major US airport to fulfill travel requirements for this role.

Required Skills:

Preferred Skills:

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The salary range for this role is

This is the lowest to highest salary we in good faith believe we would pay for this role at the time of this posting. An employee’s position within the salary range will be based on several factors including, but not limited to relevant education, qualifications, certifications, experience, skills, geographic location, government requirements, and business or organizational needs.

The successful candidate will be eligible for annual bonus and long-term incentive, if applicable.

We offer a comprehensive package of benefits. Available benefits include medical, dental, vision healthcare and other insurance benefits (for employee and family), retirement benefits, including 401(k), paid holidays, vacation, and compassionate and sick days. More information about benefits is available at https://jobs.merck.com/us/en/compensation-and-benefits.

You can apply for this role through https://jobs.merck.com/us/en (or via the Workday Jobs Hub if you are a current employee). The application deadline for this position is stated on this posting.

San Francisco Residents Only: We will consider qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records for employment in compliance with the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance

Los Angeles Residents Only: We will consider for employment all qualified applicants, including those with criminal histories, in a manner consistent with the requirements of applicable state and local laws, including the City of Los Angeles’ Fair Chance Initiative for Hiring Ordinance

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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.

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