Associate Director, Quantitative Pharmacology and Pharmacometrics, Cardiometabolic

The Quantitative Pharmacology and Pharmacometrics (QP2) Department within our Company’s Research Laboratories in Rahway, NJ, and West Point, PA is excited to welcome a curious, collaborative, and scientifically driven Associate Director to help support our growing cardiometabolic pipelines.

In this role, you will represent QP2 on cross-functional teams of experienced scientists working together to discover and advance novel therapeutic agents for cardiometabolic and ophthalmologic diseases. You will contribute to the discovery and development of small molecules, biologics, and non-traditional therapeutics, including peptides, novel biological constructs, and other emerging modalities. The successful candidate will be a skilled quantitative drug developer with a strong, integrated understanding of the strategic elements of drug discovery and development, a collaborative mindset, excellent communication skills, and the ability to work independently with minimal supervision.

Within QP2, you will have a unique opportunity to grow your career as a quantitative drug developer while contributing to an end-to-end pipeline in one of the world’s most research-intensive biopharmaceutical companies. We offer a collaborative, mission-driven environment where your scientific expertise can help shape meaningful decisions and advance innovative therapies for patients.

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  Develop and apply model-based strategies, including translational PK/PD approaches, mechanistic models, population PK/PD analyses, and clinical trial simulations, to inform quantitative decision-making within and across development programs and departments. These efforts will help optimize drug discovery and development decisions, including dose selection, clinical trial design, and go/no-go recommendations.

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  Represent QP2 on cardiometabolic discovery, early clinical development, and late clinical development teams, using quantitative approaches to support efficient, evidence-based advancement of programs across these growing portfolios.

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  Partner collaboratively with functional area colleagues, external vendors, and strategic partners to build aligned, quantitative, and model-informed approaches that support drug discovery, development, and regulatory decision-making.

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  Collaborate across disciplines on study design, protocol development, study execution, data interpretation, reporting, and communication of results.

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  Maintain a strong understanding of global regulatory expectations and contribute to the development, presentation, and defense of regulatory documents and submissions.

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  Work closely with pharmacometrics colleagues to provide scientific input on modeling strategies, analyses, interpretation, and reporting.

• Ph.D. or equivalent degree with at least 4 years of relevant experience; PharmD or equivalent degree with at least 6 years of relevant experience; or MS or equivalent degree with at least 8 years of relevant experience. Relevant experience should reflect increasing responsibility and independence in pharmaceutical drug development, a regulatory agency, or academia.

• Educational background in biopharmaceutics, pharmaceutical sciences, pharmacometrics, chemical or biomedical engineering, or a related quantitative discipline.

• Experience in pharmacometrics, conducting population PK and PK/PD analyses using standard pharmacometrics software, such as R, Matlab, Phoenix, NONMEM, Monolix, or similar tools.

• Strong written and verbal communication skills, with demonstrated ability to collaborate across disciplines, scope complex problems, and plan work effectively.

• Knowledge in modeling complex therapeutics/mechanistic modeling.

• Knowledge of cardiometabolic clinical drug development programs.

• Advanced skills in mathematical problem-solving, critical data analysis and interpretation, experimental design, and statistics.

• Scientific understanding of the biopharmaceutical and ADME properties of small molecules and/or biologics.

• A strong record of increasing responsibility, independence, and demonstrated impact in advancing drug development decisions through model-based approaches.

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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.