Executive Director, Market Access

Our Global Market Access (GMAx) organization is dedicated to delivering breakthrough innovations that extend and improve the lives of individuals worldwide. Our focus is on innovation and launch execution excellence, translating scientific advancements into impactful medicines that help people globally. This role presents an exciting opportunity to advance patient access and has a significant impact on our growing vaccines & infectious diseases portfolio.  

The Executive Director, Global Market Access, Pneumococcal is a senior leader responsible for developing and implementing sustainable market access, pricing, and reimbursement strategy globally and integration into the broader enterprise portfolio, accounting for the evolving policy landscape for access and pricing. The leader will shape enterprise‑level strategy, and drives alignment with R&D, commercial (US & Ex-US), and global market access functions to enable timely, broad, and sustainable access for this newly acquired asset.  

Reporting to the Associate Vice President, Global Market Access Vaccines & Infectious Diseases, the Executive Director for the Pneumococcal Franchise serves on the Vaccines Infectious Diseases Access & Pricing leadership team and has significant influence on investment, launch strategy, and long‑term portfolio value. 

Key Responsibilities:

• Lead global payer value proposition development and integrated access & pricing strategies leading to Payer Value materials (ex. Dossiers). 

• Partner closely with the cross functional team including Marketing and Product Development Teams (PDTs), R&D, Finance, Health Economics and Outcomes Research, Medical Affairs, Policy, Communications, regional and country teams to shape long‑term access strategy and evidence plans in the US and ex-US. 

• Anticipate environmental and competitive pressures, lead development of innovative pricing and access solutions efforts including partnership with Sustainable Access Solutions (SAS) team and others on GMAx LT.  

• Oversee payer and HTA/ NITAG insights, market research, policy shaping, and 4th hurdle assessments to inform investment and launch decisions.  

• Owner of therapeutic level access & pricing strategy including tradeoffs, risk tolerance, escalation and overall governance and compliance responsibility. 

• Provide access assumptions for business development, portfolio strategy, and enterprise‑wide prioritization.  

• Build organizational capability and talent pipeline across the Vaccines Infectious Diseases team. 

Education & Experience Requirements:

• Bachelor’s degree required; MBA or advanced degree preferred 

• ≥10 years in market access, pricing/reimbursement, public health, health economics, sales/marketing, or market research 

Preferred Experience and Skills:

• Knowledge and experience in infectious disease, preferably in vaccines  

• Prior experience developing global business strategy 

• Knowledgeable about health economic tools and techniques 

• People management experience 

• Demonstrated excellence in strategic leadership, innovation, team building, cross-functional influence, and executive communication 

• Demonstrated innovative mindset and high level of comfort working in a white space environment that is necessary for innovation 

• Demonstrated ability to understand, develop and communicate scientific based strategies and messages 

• Comfort and confidence in working with different teams and backgrounds; routinely demonstrates inclusive behaviors; actively seeks out broad perspectives and experiences 

Travel: Yes, 25% of the time 
 
Work Location: Rahway, NJ or Upper Gwynedd, PA (Hybrid) 

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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.