Merck KGaA Posted August 14, 2026

Associate Director, Clinical Trial Lead

Billerica, Massachusetts, United States FULL_TIME
Clinical Development Associate Director

Merck KGaA is the source of truth for this posting and owns the application process. We surface normalized context and market comparison you won't find on the original listing.

About this opportunity

Work Your Magic with us!  Start your next chapter and join EMD Serono.

Ready to explore, break barriers, and discover more? We know you’ve got big plans – so do we! Our colleagues across the globe love innovating with science and technology to enrich people’s lives with our solutions in Healthcare, Life Science, and Electronics. Together, we dream big and are passionate about caring for our rich mix of people, customers, patients, and planet. That's why we are always looking for curious minds that see themselves imagining the unimaginable with us.

United As One for Patients, our purpose in Healthcare is to help create, improve and prolong lives. We develop medicines, intelligent devices and innovative technologies in therapeutic areas such as Oncology, Neurology and Fertility. Our teams work together across 6 continents with passion and relentless curiosity in order to help patients at every stage of life. Joining our Healthcare team is becoming part of a diverse, inclusive and flexible working culture, presenting great opportunities for personal development and career advancement across the globe.

This role does not offer sponsorship for work authorization. External applicants must be eligible to work in the US.

Your Role:

As a core member of the Clinical Operations Team and leader of the Clinical Trial Team, aligns clinical trial team with organizational goals, Clinical Operations Team, and/or Global Program Strategy Team.

Leads the development of the clinical trial strategy while accountable for successful project execution and delivery of clinical operational budget, timelines and quality standards agreed upon by Governance Committees.

Acts as a senior advisor and mentor within the team and beyond and serves as best practice resource within own discipline or as technical functional teams or projectsManage multiple studies, projects, and work streams with high complexity, risk, impact and reach, typically Phase III and registrational/sourcing models.

Demonstrates skills in successfully leading large-sized global project teams in a matrix organization and directs, influences and motivates stakeholders from closely related areas and beyond, creating a positive working climate.

Filters, prioritizes, analyzes and validates complex and dynamic information from a diverse range of external and internal sources to respond to operational and organizational challenges in a holistic manner to mitigate risks.

Exhibits Subject Matter Expert level understanding of multiple functions and functional processes. Familiar with and considers overall company strategy.

Ensure all study management activities will be completed in accordance with SOPs/WI, local regulatory guidance including ICH-GCP; audit leadership- interviewee & responses.

Contribute to non-study -related initiatives in addition to study assignments.

Provide reports to senior management, including updates and timelines independently.

Demonstrates creativity and innovation to support projects from a strategic perspective, able to predict the result of action in advance and achieve goals.

Who You Are

Minimum Qualifications:

Bachelors degree with minimum 5 or more years in clinical research in a Pharmaceutical/Biotechnology Industry environment

Minimum 7 years of in-depth experience in clinical trial management

Demonstrated experience in managerial responsibility

Preferred Qualifications:

Advanced degree desirable (MPH, MS, MA, MBA, PharmD); PM cPMP) desirable.

Proven experience in all aspects of clinical study planning and startup (including budget and resource planning) and in executing study activities, from startup through final study report.

Experience in multiple Therapeutic Areas (oncology and immunology preferred)

Requires substantial to extensive professional experience in relevant disciplines and substantial project management experience. Required and experience in own discipline and beyond which may also require good market and competitor knowledge.

Strong leadership competencies and influencing skills.

Proven team dynamic knowledge and skills and ability to foster partnerships across projects and multidisciplinary teams.

Growing expertise in drug development, including some knowledge of interfaces and interdependencies of clinical development with other nonclinical & pharmaceutical development, regulatory, commercial/marketing)

Location: Billerica MA, Onsite (Min 3x week)

Travel:

Pay range for this position: $118,700 - $201,600

The offer range represents the anticipated low and high end of the base pay compensation for this position. The actual compensation offered will be determined by factors such as location, level of experience, education, skills, and other job-related factors. Position may be eligible for sales or performance-based bonuses. Benefits offered by the Company include health insurance, paid time off (PTO), retirement contributions, and other perquisites. For more information click  here .

What we offer: We are curious minds that come from a broad range of backgrounds, perspectives, and life experiences. We believe that this variety drives excellence and innovation, strengthening our ability to lead in science and technology. We are committed to creating access and opportunities for all to develop and grow at your own pace. Join us in building a culture of inclusion and belonging that impacts millions and empowers everyone to work their magic and champion human progress!

Apply now and become a part of a team that is dedicated to Sparking Discovery and Elevating Humanity!

Job details

Seniority
Associate Director
Function
Clinical Development
Therapeutic area
Not listed
Location
Billerica, Massachusetts, United States
Employment type
FULL_TIME

How this role compares

Computed from every other active Clinical Development role in our database, not just this employer's listings.

We currently track 327 comparable Associate Director Clinical Development roles across 52 biopharma companies.

327Comparable roles tracked
313Currently active
52Companies hiring similar roles
29Countries represented

Salary context

72 of 327 peers report a salary range (USD, annualized)

Peers share this role's job function and a matching or adjacent seniority level -- not necessarily the same therapeutic area or country.

This roleSubject $118,700/yr – $201,600/yr
Peer group range $90,199 – $315,000 (median $175,375)

Where these roles are based

Top locations among the 327 comparable roles

United States115
India90
Poland14
United Kingdom14
China12
Japan9

+ 23 more countries

Seniority mix

327 of 327 peers have a known seniority level

Manager153
Senior96
Associate Director78

Therapeutic area mix

27 of 327 peers have a known therapeutic area; the rest are genuinely unlabeled, not hidden

Oncology9
Immunology7
Cardiovascular / CVRM4
Neuroscience3
Dermatology & Aesthetics2
Ophthalmology2

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The closest matches from our peer group, ranked by how similar they are, not how well you'd qualify for them -- treat this as market context, not a guaranteed shortlist; a weak match is labeled as one below.

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Notify me about similar jobs

Get an email when we spot other openings like this one – same job function, comparable seniority, roles you'd actually want to see.

How we calculate "similar"

No black box, no LLM guesswork: a deterministic score built from four normalized attributes. Here's this role's own peer group at different match levels, so you can see the mechanism, not just the result.

Every comparison starts from the same 100-point budget: 25 for working in the same function, 40 for the same therapeutic area, 20 for the same or adjacent seniority, 15 for the same country. A dimension we can't confirm on both sides contributes nothing, never a guess, never a free pass.

60%
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Function Therapeutic area Seniority Country
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Function Therapeutic area Seniority Country
60%
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Unmatched or unknown dimensions score exactly the same: 0 points, never a partial guess. A role we know almost nothing about beyond its function bottoms out at 25%; it never inflates to 100% just because there's little to compare against. Seniority uses a defined ladder (Associate → Manager → Associate Director → Senior → Principal → Director → Senior Director → Executive/VP) so "Director" and "Senior Director" count as adjacent, but "Director" and "Executive/VP" do not.