Strategic Partnerships Lead

Job Description

At our company, we are committed to advancing science and delivering meaningful health solutions that improve lives. The Strategic Partnerships Lead will play a senior role in identifying, shaping and leading high-impact partnerships with health system stakeholders, institutional players and strategic accounts. This is an opportunity to build models of collaboration that create value for patients, the health system and our company, while strengthening our external relevance and ability to deliver sustainable outcomes.

Role Purpose

The role will define and lead the strategic partnerships agenda, translating health system priorities and business needs into structured opportunities for collaboration. The Strategic Partnerships Lead will be accountable for building a clear area plan, establishing governance and prioritization, and ensuring that partnership initiatives are designed, executed and measured with rigor.

Key Responsibilities

• Define and lead the strategic partnerships plan, including priorities, governance, metrics and performance tracking.
• Identify, assess and shape partnership opportunities with institutional stakeholders, ULSs, and other relevant health system players.
• Design and negotiate innovative partnership models that create shared value, support health system priorities and strengthen business and reputational impact.
• Build robust business cases, using market understanding, data, analytics and digital tools to support decision-making, prioritization and follow-up.
• Lead cross-functional partnership initiatives from concept to execution, ensuring alignment across Commercial, Medical, Access, Policy, Legal, Compliance, Finance and other relevant teams.
• Manage strategic account plans, leveraging opportunities, anticipating risks and ensuring disciplined execution against agreed objectives.
• Establish trusted relationships with senior external stakeholders, bringing credibility, influence and a clear enterprise mindset.
• Test, learn and scale practical solutions, ensuring agility while maintaining strong ethical standards and full compliance with company policies.

Scope and Interfaces

This is a senior, highly cross-functional role requiring strong orchestration across internal and external stakeholders. Externally, the Strategic Partnerships Lead will engage with institutional decision-makers, ULSs, and other relevant health system partners to identify areas of mutual interest and build sustainable collaboration models. Internally, the role will work closely with Access, Policy, Medical, Commercial, Business Units, Legal, Compliance, Finance, Digital/Data and leadership teams to ensure that opportunities are strategically relevant, operationally feasible, compliant and measurable.

The role will require leadership without direct authority, the ability to align different perspectives, and the discipline to move initiatives from strategy to execution. It will also require active use of tools, dashboards, data and GenAI-enabled approaches to support prioritization, tracking, insight generation and continuous improvement.

Qualifications and Profile

• Senior experience in the pharmaceutical, healthcare or related sector, with a strong track record in partnerships, business development, strategic account management or institutional collaboration.
• Strong strategic thinking, with the ability to read context, identify opportunities, build business cases and translate complex dynamics into actionable plans.
• Credibility and influence with senior internal and external stakeholders, including strong negotiation, communication and relationship-building skills.
• Proven ability to lead cross-functional initiatives, manage complex projects and deliver through others without relying on formal authority.
• Solid business acumen, including understanding of market dynamics, health system priorities, value drivers, risks and financial implications.
• Entrepreneurial and pragmatic mindset, with the ability to test, learn, adapt and scale solutions in a disciplined way.
• Comfort with data, analytics, digital tools and GenAI-enabled ways of working to support decision-making, follow-up and performance tracking.
• Strong ownership, accountability and execution discipline, with the ability to manage priorities and deliver measurable results.
• Commitment to ethical rigor, diversity and inclusion, and full compliance with company policies and applicable legal/regulatory requirements.
• Degree in Business, Life Sciences, Health Sciences, Economics, Public Health or a related field; advanced degree or equivalent senior experience is valued.

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Preferred Skills:

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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. 

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