Director – Customer Insights Lead

Job Description

The Customer Insights Lead is a strategic leader responsible for shaping and optimizing our Technology Solutions R&D portfolio and Market Activation efforts in alignment with customer needs and the organization’s business objectives.  This person will lead a customer-facing role, responsible for elevating our organization’s understanding of customers’ operations to generate a comprehensive and proprietary customer knowledge base that will be leveraged as a key source of competitive advantage for our Technology Solutions business.  He/she will build strong relationships with some of our largest and most influential customers, recruiting them to become our partners during the new product development process, as well as product champions once these new solutions reach launch stage.  The Customer Insights Lead will organize and lead four to five Customer Advisory Boards (CABs) across multiple livestock segments and will be tasked with synthesizing CAB insights to ensure that business decisions are grounded in a sophisticated understanding of market opportunities, customer pain points, and emerging industry trends.  Through CABs, he/she will leverage customer insights to guide our R&D pipeline strategy towards delivering innovative and differentiated solutions that maximize portfolio ROI.  Finally, the Customer Insights Lead will leverage this unique knowledge base to guide Market Activation initiatives and maximize our technology portfolio’s commercial performance.  As a key player in the organization, the Customer Insights Lead will be part of the Technology Design & Customer Interface (TDCI) Leadership Team and manage a significant budget dedicated to drive Technology Solutions towards ambitious revenue targets and commitments to our company's Animal Health (MAH).

Key Responsibilities

Customer Insights Champion: Champion a customer-centric culture and lead a global initiative to elevate our understanding of customer needs and market opportunities to inform strategic analysis and drive critical decision-making processes.

• Lead, design, and launch four or more CABs comprised by select, highly influential, key account customers, defining membership, objectives, and engagement strategies.

• Work closely with Regional Vice-Presidents and Country Managers to identify key customers and opinion leaders across key global markets with significant market potential.

• Lead the process of recruiting key customers to join CABs and to become close partners during the new product development process, ensuring our solutions are designed around customer needs.

• Facilitate annual CAB in-person meetings for each business segment as well as frequent virtual workshops and roundtable discussion to engage customers and ensure the capture of rich and diverse perspectives.

• Build strong relationships with CAB executive members throughout this process so they evolve organically into product champions that promote our solutions to expand penetration and maximize sales outcomes.

• Distill CAB discussions into strategic recommendations and share outcomes with MAH Executive Leadership Team, R&D, and commercial teams.

• Continuously evaluate and improve CAB effectiveness through feedback, performance metrics, and best practices.

• Create and maintain a dynamic customer needs repository, ensuring the organization remains aware and responsive to evolving market demands.

Portfolio Strategy Leadership: Develop comprehensive R&D portfolio management strategy for Technology Solutions, ensuring roadmaps across species and business segments align with customer needs and strategic priorities.

• Lead multi-disciplinary teams towards creating clearly articulated customer value propositions for our technology solutions and correlate these to revenue projections for our innovative products and R&D pipeline.

• Build comprehensive analytical models to quantify market potentials and revenue projections within an evidence-based framework and ensure that framework is leveraged consistently across R&D projects.

• Lead governance forums and facilitate transparent, data-driven decision-making for pipeline investments, resource allocation, and program prioritization.

• Connect TDCI strategies to the overall MAH strategic framework and work closely with the “Tech Adoption Strategic Pillar” Lead to make sure our metrics are aligned with business goals and 5YP targets as set by the MAH’s Executive Vice-President and Leadership Team.

Market Activation Excellence: Leverage customer knowledge base and expertise to lead cross-portfolio Market Activation initiatives and maximize portfolio sales performance.

• Coordinate New Product Launch activities across species and business segments ensuring strategy execution includes CAB executive members as Product Champions.

• Partner with TDCI Leads to develop go-to-market strategies that effectively communicate product’s customer value proposition to maximize financial outcomes.

• Establish clear connections between TDCI roadmap projects across species and business segments and 5YP targets to drive sales budgeting processes.

• Build strong rapport with Regional and Local Operations to effectively activate and execute joint commercial initiatives towards maximizing sales performance of our current portfolio.

Experience and Skills 

• Unapologetic Customer Champion: Proven leadership presence required to ensure customer needs become central to strategy and roadmap decisions at the highest governance levels.

• Influence & Impact: Skilled in translating customer voice into strategic action and driving organizational alignment.

• Collaboration: Effective working within cross-disciplinary teams and managing competing priorities; ability to lead without direct authority.

• Analytical Rigor: Strong ability to interpret complex data and derive actionable insights; proficiency in financial modelling and scenario planning.

• Communication: Adept at tailoring messages to diverse audiences, from technical teams to executive leadership.

• Relationship Building: Proven capability to cultivate trust and rapport with external customers and internal teams.

• Commercial Acumen: Experienced in developing go-to-market strategies focused on business and commercial solutions.

• Agility: Comfortable navigating ambiguity and adapting to rapidly changing environments.

• Cultural Intelligence: Capable of navigating diverse cultural norms and values to effectively lead global teams.

This is a remote position that can be based in multiple regions.

Education:

• Bachelor's degree in related area of study.

Required:

• 10+ years of experience large technology and/or biopharma corporate organizations.

• Positive attitude, excellent interpersonal skills, and proven ability to navigate highly matrixed organizations.

• Exceptional attention to detail and commercial instinct.

• Veterinary training and technical background in livestock are preferred.

• Proven leadership in driving organizational change and continuous improvement.

• Ability to travel 30 to 40% of the time.

• Given the global nature of the role, fluency in English is required; ability to speak additional languages is desired.

#MSJR

Current Employees apply HERE

Current Contingent Workers apply HERE

US and Puerto Rico Residents Only:

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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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U.S. Hybrid Work Model

Effective September 5, 2023, employees in office-based positions in the U.S. will be working a Hybrid work consisting of three total days on-site per week, Monday - Thursday, although the specific days may vary by site or organization, with Friday designated as a remote-working day, unless business critical tasks require an on-site presence.This Hybrid work model does not apply to, and daily in-person attendance is required for, field-based positions; facility-based, manufacturing-based, or research-based positions where the work to be performed is located at a Company site; positions covered by a collective-bargaining agreement (unless the agreement provides for hybrid work); or any other position for which the Company has determined the job requirements cannot be reasonably met working remotely. Please note, this Hybrid work model guidance also does not apply to roles that have been designated as “remote”.

The salary range for this role is

$187,000.00 - $294,400.00

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

Search Firm Representatives Please Read Carefully 
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. 

Employee Status:

Regular

Relocation:

No relocation

VISA Sponsorship:

Yes

Travel Requirements:

50%

Flexible Work Arrangements:

Remote

Shift:

Not Indicated

Valid Driving License:

No

Hazardous Material(s):

N/A

Required Skills:

Biopharmaceutical Industry, Biopharmaceutical Industry, Business Decisions, Commercial Excellence, Content Marketing, Cross-Cultural Awareness, Cultural Intelligence, Customer Insights, Customer Relationship Building, Customer Value Proposition Development, Digital Marketing, Global Team Collaboration, Go-to-Market Strategies, Livestock Management, Market Development, Marketing Communications Planning, Market Research, Organizational Alignment, People Leadership, Portfolio Management, Pricing Strategies, Professional Networking, Relationship Building, Results-Oriented, Strategic Thinking {+ 1 more}

 Preferred Skills:

Job Posting End Date:

10/6/2025

*A job posting is effective until 11:59:59PM on the day BEFORE the listed job posting end date. Please ensure you apply to a job posting no later than the day BEFORE the job posting end date.