Merck KGaA Posted August 14, 2026

Associate Director in Data Science, Digital Endpoints (all genders)

Eysins, Vaud, Switzerland FULL_TIME
Biostatistics & Data Science 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!

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.

Your role:

In this pivotal role, you will build and establish scientific excellence in the development of digital biomarkers and endpoints within the Advanced Data Science team in the Data Sciences organization. You will lead the identification, development, and deployment of novel digital endpoints and outcome measures across clinical trials and life cycle management programs. Collaborating closely with the Integrated Health & Medicines organization, you will spearhead the design and validation of machine learning-driven algorithms and data processing pipelines that extract clinically relevant insights from high-volume digital health data sources, such as wearables, sensors and apps, mobile devices, and patient-facing applications.

You will develop and implement advanced machine learning and data science methods to process multimodal time-series data generated by digital devices, ensuring scientific rigor, clinical validity, and regulatory readiness. As a subject matter expert, you will embed digital health technologies within evidence generation strategies, driving their acceptance in clinical trials and practice.

You will also contribute to key regulatory filings and publications, advocating for the adoption of digital endpoints within the global R&D community. Staying at the forefront of emerging trends, you will explore and integrate  emerging AI paradigms, including large language models (LLMs) and agentic AI systems, to support data interpretation, workflow automation, and digital health analytics. Your leadership will champion transformation efforts that unlock the full potential of Digital Health Technologies.

Who you are:

You hold a PhD in a quantitative discipline (e.g., data science, computer science, biomedical engineering, statistics, physics, or related field) with a focus on large-scale data analysis.

You have a minimum of 7 years of relevant experience in the pharmaceutical, digital endpoints, AI/ML or related industry.

You possess a proven track record in designing and validating digital endpoints or biomarkers for clinical applications.

You have hands-on experience processing and analyzing large-scale data streams from digital health technologies, including wearables, sensors, smartphones, or connected medical devices. You have experience in building machine learning pipelines for time-series and multimodal sensor data, including feature extraction, signal processing, and model development.

You have strong expertise in digital biomarker/endpoint development, including psychometric and statistical validation and regulatory aspects.

You have solid understanding of modern machine learning and AI methods (e.g., deep learning, representation learning, time-series modeling) as applied to digital health and behavioral data.

You have experience with scalable data processing and ML frameworks (e.g., Python data ecosystem, distributed data processing, or cloud/HPC environments).

You have familiarity with generative AI and large language models, and an interest in emerging paradigms such as agentic LLM systems or AI-assisted scientific workflows.

You possess excellent stakeholder management skills and can navigate matrixed organizations effectively.

You have strong communication and scientific writing skills, enabling you to translate complex technical content for diverse audiences .

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
Biostatistics & Data Science
Therapeutic area
Not listed
Location
Eysins, Vaud, Switzerland
Employment type
FULL_TIME

How this role compares

Computed from every other active Biostatistics & Data Science role in our database, not just this employer's listings.

We currently track 67 comparable Associate Director Biostatistics & Data Science roles across 20 biopharma companies.

67Comparable roles tracked
64Currently active
20Companies hiring similar roles
12Countries represented

Salary context

26 of 67 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 Not listed on this posting
Lowest disclosed · Sr. Computational Statistician (R2 – R3) · Lilly $46,842/yr – $117,289/yr
Highest disclosed · Biostatistics Associate Director (HYBRID) · Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc (US) $174,800/yr – $262,200/yr
Peer group range $82,066 – $218,500 (median $159,000)

Where these roles are based

Top locations among the 67 comparable roles

United States39
India7
Poland5
United Kingdom5
Canada2
Japan2

+ 6 more countries

Seniority mix

67 of 67 peers have a known seniority level

Senior29
Manager21
Associate Director17

Therapeutic area mix

11 of 67 peers have a known therapeutic area; the rest are genuinely unlabeled, not hidden

Oncology10
Rare Disease1

Similar opportunities

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.

45%similar
Novartis East Hanover, United States Associate Director
Same function Same seniority
45%similar
BMS Services Sp. z o.o. Warsaw, Poland Associate Director
Same function Same seniority
45%similar
Novartis London (The Westworks), United Kingdom Associate Director
Same function Same seniority
45%similar
RayzeBio, Inc Remote, United States Associate Director
Same function Same seniority
45%similar
Novo Nordisk Mississauga, Canada Associate Director
Same function Same seniority
45%similar
Novo Nordisk Ørestad, Denmark Associate Director
Same function Same seniority

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.

45%
Assoc Director, Statistical Programming
Novartis · East Hanover, United States · Associate Director
Function Therapeutic area Seniority Country
45%
Associate Director, Biostatistics
RayzeBio, Inc · Remote, United States · Associate Director
Function Therapeutic area Seniority Country
45%
Associate Director, Data Science & AI Solutions
Merck · Rahway, New Jersey, United States of America · Associate Director
Function Therapeutic area Seniority Country
45%
Statistical Programming Associate Director
AstraZeneca · Barcelona, Spain · Associate Director
Function Therapeutic area Seniority Country
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.