Director, Site Budgets

The Head, Site Budgets serves as the global capability leader for clinical trial site budgeting within Regional Operations. The role is accountable for the performance, quality, consistency, competitiveness, and strategic advancement of our company's site budget capability worldwide. Through leadership of the Trial Initiation Specialist (TIS) organization and partnership with Regional Operations, Clinical Operations, Compliance, Finance, and Site Budgets and Payments Operational Excellence, the position ensures that site budget expertise, negotiation practices, decision frameworks, and organizational capabilities evolve to meet changing portfolio, market, and business needs while enabling timely and compliant trial execution.

Primary Responsibilities:

• Own the global Site Budgets capability, defining its strategic direction and ensuring budget expertise, methodologies, negotiation practices, and organizational capabilities evolve to meet changing portfolio, market, and business needs.
• Lead the Trial Initiation Specialist (TIS) organization, with accountability for workforce capability, organizational performance, service delivery, budget quality, and stakeholder outcomes.
• Serve as the senior business authority for clinical trial site budgeting, providing leadership on budget strategy, competitiveness, negotiation approaches, Fair Market Value application, and emerging industry trends.
• Establish and maintain a globally consistent site budget operating model that incorporates regional and country perspectives while promoting clear decision rights, escalation pathways, and appropriate local ownership. 
• Builds strategic relationships across country, regional, global and external stakeholders to strengthen delivery.
• Promote risk-based decision-making and governance frameworks that empower country and regional teams while ensuring appropriate oversight of complex, novel, or higher-risk scenarios.
• Use operational data, market intelligence, and stakeholder insights to guide strategic priorities, workforce planning, performance improvement, and business decisions. 
• Partner with Site Budgets and Payments Operational Excellence to define business requirements, priorities, and future capability needs, ensuring enabling processes, systems, analytics, training, governance, and change solutions effectively support business outcomes. 
• Represent Regional Operations in governance forums and cross-functional partnerships as the accountable leader for the Site Budgets capability. 
• Ensure site budget strategies and decisions are aligned with applicable regulations, Fair Market Value principles, standard of care requirements, and compliant business practices. 
• Foster a culture of accountability, sound judgment, negotiation excellence, continuous improvement, innovation, collaboration, and empowered decision-making.

Required Education:

• A minimum of a bachelor's degree is required (scientific, business, or related discipline preferred); advanced degree a plus.

Required Experience and Skills:

• 10+ years of clinical research experience in the pharmaceutical/biotech industry, including experience leading operational teams and driving business outcomes in complex environments.

• Strong business acumen and understanding of clinical trial financial operations, including site budgets, investigator grants, payments, Fair Market Value principles, and related operational processes.

• Experience managing directly or indirectly teams of professional employees.
• Proven success leading teams, developing talent, and driving operational performance in a matrixed environment.
• Ability to leverage data and insights to support decision-making, continuous improvement, and achievement of business objectives.
• Demonstrated ability to communicate complex issues and influence decision-making at senior leadership levels.
• Strong collaboration, stakeholder management, and relationship-building skills, with the ability to develop effective partnerships across functions and geographies.
• Demonstrates initiative, innovative thinking, and a continuous improvement mindset, with the ability to challenge traditional approaches and identify opportunities to simplify, modernize, and transform how work is performed.

• Strong communication, presentation, and change leadership skills.

• Knowledge of and ability to apply Good Clinical Practice (GCP)/ International Council for Harmonisation (ICH) and applicable regulatory requirements
  Strong organizational, prioritization, and execution management skills.
• Sponsors responsible digital, data-driven and AI-enabled ways of working.

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Where required by law, the compensation range for this role is provided below.

The salary range for the primary location of this role is:

This range reflects the Company's reasonable expectation of the base salary applicable to this role at the time of 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.