Site Budgets & Payments Operational Excellence Regional Lead

Our company is a global health care leader with a diversified portfolio of prescription medicines, vaccines and consumer health products, as well as animal health products. Today, we are building a new kind of healthcare company – one that is ready to help create a healthier future for all of us. Our ability to excel depends on the integrity, knowledge, imagination, skill, and teamwork of people like you. To this end, we strive to create an environment of mutual respect, encouragement and teamwork. As part of our global team, you’ll have the opportunity to collaborate with talented and dedicated colleagues while developing and expanding your career.

The Site Budgets & Payments Operational Excellence Regional Lead supports implementation of the global Site Budgets & Payments Operational Excellence strategy and roadmap within the assigned region. The role serves as a regional connection point for the end-to-end processes and systems through which the Site Budgets and Site Payments capabilities operate, helping translate global direction into effective regional and country execution.

The role brings regional and country requirements, operational experience, risks, dependencies, and improvement opportunities into global process and system governance. It supports consistent, scalable, compliant, and sustainable ways of working across budgets, payment setup, payment execution, systems, and downstream processes while identifying regional or local needs that require evaluation or an approved variation.

The role partners closely with the Head of Site Budgets & Payments Operational Excellence, the B2P Process & Systems Lead, Site Budgets, Site Payment Operations, country and regional delivery teams, Digital/IT, Business Enablement, Finance, Tax, Compliance, vendors, and other functional owners to support integrated solution design, implementation, adoption, and continuous improvement.

• Support implementation of the global Site Budgets & Payments Operational Excellence strategy and roadmap within the assigned region, aligned with the Head of Site Budgets & Payments Operational Excellence and the B2P Process & Systems Lead.
• Serve as the primary regional connection point for Site Budgets & Payments process and system matters, bringing country requirements, user experience, risks, dependencies, and improvement opportunities into global governance and prioritization.
• Promote globally consistent end-to-end processes, documentation, controls, and ways of working while identifying regional or local variations that require evaluation, approval, or incorporation into the operating model.
• Coordinate regional triage of complex or recurring budget and payment process or system issues; ensure immediate operational containment remains with the relevant delivery or capability owner and escalate systemic issues for cross-functional root-cause analysis and permanent remediation.
• Partner with Site Budgets and Site Payment Operations to clarify business needs, rules, functional requirements, controls, and acceptance criteria, then support integrated solution design, testing, implementation, adoption, and validation.
• Gather, document, and translate regional business requirements and operational insights for enhancements across site budget and payment platforms, supporting applications, reporting tools, automation, and relevant upstream and downstream integrations.
• Participate in user acceptance testing, operational-readiness assessment, controlled pilots, release evaluation, and post-implementation monitoring; confirm that approved solutions work effectively in regional and country contexts.
• Use operational data, trend analysis, quality findings, stakeholder feedback, and user experience to identify recurring issues, capability gaps, and improvement priorities and to measure adoption and benefits.
• Lead or support regional enablement through training, communications, onboarding, knowledge management, office hours, job aids, and self-service resources; reinforce approved support and escalation pathways.
• Identify and help scale practical automation, analytics, and AI-enabled solutions, ensuring appropriate business, technology, compliance, and governance review before broader deployment.
• Represent the region in governance forums, working groups, vendor discussions, and cross-functional initiatives, and communicate decisions, risks, dependencies, and actions back to affected stakeholders.
• Foster accountability, collaboration, continuous improvement, organizational learning, and responsible digital and data-driven ways of working.

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

• A minimum of seven (7) years of clinical research experience in the pharmaceutical/biotech industry, including meaningful experience in site budgets, site payments, clinical financial operations, process improvement, implementation, or related operational-excellence work.
• Strong working knowledge of B2P processes, systems, controls, data flows, Fair Market Value principles, and regional or country operating requirements. 
• Demonstrated ability to gather and document requirements, analyze data and recurring issues, support testing and validation, coordinate cross-functional resolution, and translate global process or system changes into practical regional execution. 
• Strong collaboration, influencing, stakeholder management, communication, presentation, change leadership, and prioritization skills in a global matrixed environment. 
• Knowledge of GCP/ICH and applicable regulatory and compliance requirements. 
• Technical aptitude with Excel, analytics or BI tools, automation, and responsible AI-enabled ways of working.

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As an Equal Employment Opportunity Employer, we provide equal opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment and prohibit discrimination on the basis of race, color, age, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, protected veteran status, disability status, or other applicable legally protected characteristics.  As a federal contractor, we comply with all affirmative action requirements for protected veterans and individuals with disabilities.  For more information about personal rights under the U.S. Equal Opportunity Employment laws, visit:

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We are proud to be a company that embraces the value of bringing together, talented, and committed people with diverse experiences, perspectives, skills and backgrounds. The fastest way to breakthrough innovation is when people with diverse ideas, broad experiences, backgrounds, and skills come together in an inclusive environment. We encourage our colleagues to respectfully challenge one another’s thinking and approach problems collectively.

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The primary location for this posting is:

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.