Merck Posted August 20, 2026

Associate Principal Scientist, Statistical Programming

Rahway, New Jersey, United States of America FULL_TIME
Biostatistics & Data Science Principal

Merck 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

Job Description

Responsibilities:

Provide high quality statistical programming analysis and reporting deliverables for global stakeholders, within our Research and Development division.

Gather and interpret user requirements for analysis and programming requests in close collaboration with stakeholders (statisticians/modelers) and clinical colleagues, retrieve the required data, transform the data into analysis/modeling datasets, and develop tables and figures according to statistical/modeling analysis plan.

Partner with stakeholders to solve problems and reduce the amount of programming tasks being completed by stakeholders to facilitate an increase in efficiency and compliance for statistical/modeling analyses.

Write programs to analyze data with statistical methods which are not currently available through commercial software packages. Act as key collaborator with statisticians, modelers, and colleagues in other related function areas.

Educational Requirement:

Master’s degree or equivalent in Computer Science, Statistics, Applied Mathematics, Life Sciences, Engineering or related field plus 7 years of SAS/R programming experience in a clinical trial environment.

OR a Bachelor’s degree or equivalent in Computer Science, Statistics, Applied Mathematics, Life Sciences, Engineering or related field plus 9 years of SAS/R programming experience in a clinical trial environment.

Position Specific Required Skills and Experience:

Requires 7 years of experience with all of the following:

Experience in SAS and clinical trial programming including data steps, procedures, SAS/MACRO, and SAS/GRAPH;

Experience in CDISC SDTM and ADaM standards;

Experience in preparing eSubmission packages including ADRG, XPT files, and Pinnacle 21 validation; and completing statistical programming deliverables through the use of global programming staff.

Requires 5 years of experience with all of the following:

Manipulating very large databases including complex data preprocessing, filtering, and manipulation;

Oncology franchise studies; applying oncology concepts; experience programming with oncology therapeutic area clinical endpoint data (efficacy and safety) and pharmacokinetic data (raw concentration data and derived PK parameters);

Experence leading study programming deliverables for multiple studies.

Requires 1 year of experience with at least one software other than SAS (e.g., R).

The salary range for this role is

$145,475.00 - $224,100.00

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 Compensation and Benefits Webpage.

Required Skills:

 Preferred Skills:

Current Employees apply HERE

Current Contingent Workers apply HERE

US and Puerto Rico Residents Only:

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:

EEOC Know Your Rights

EEOC GINA Supplement​

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.

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:

No

Travel Requirements:

No Travel Required

Flexible Work Arrangements:

Not Applicable

Shift:

Not Indicated

Valid Driving License:

No

Hazardous Material(s):

n/a

Job Posting End Date:

11/2/2026 *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.

Requisition ID:R412943

Job details

Seniority
Principal
Function
Biostatistics & Data Science
Therapeutic area
Not listed
Location
Rahway, New Jersey, United States of America
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 97 comparable Principal Biostatistics & Data Science roles across 18 biopharma companies.

97Comparable roles tracked
87Currently active
18Companies hiring similar roles
12Countries represented

Salary context

52 of 97 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 · Scientific Director, Clinical and Real World Evidence · AbbVie $211,000/yr – $400,500/yr
Peer group range $82,066 – $305,750 (median $165,625)

Where these roles are based

Top locations among the 97 comparable roles

United States64
India7
United Kingdom6
Japan5
Germany5
China2

+ 6 more countries

Seniority mix

97 of 97 peers have a known seniority level

Senior45
Principal37
Director15

Therapeutic area mix

14 of 97 peers have a known therapeutic area; the rest are genuinely unlabeled, not hidden

Oncology13
Immunology1

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.

60%similar
Lilly Indianapolis, Indiana, United States of America Principal
Same function Same seniority Same country
60%similar
Merck Rahway, New Jersey, United States of America Principal
Same function Same seniority Same country
60%similar
Merck Rahway, New Jersey, United States of America Principal
Same function Same seniority Same country
60%similar
Merck North Wales, Pennsylvania, United States of America Principal
Same function Same seniority Same country
60%similar
Roche Santa Clara, California, United States of America Principal
Same function Same seniority Same country
60%similar
AbbVie North Chicago, IL Principal
Same function Same seniority Same country

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%
Principal Computational Statistician
Lilly · Indianapolis, Indiana, United States of America · Principal
Function Therapeutic area Seniority Country
60%
Associate Principal Scientist, Statistical Programming
Merck · Rahway, New Jersey, United States of America · Principal
Function Therapeutic area Seniority Country
60%
Principal Data Scientist, Data and AI Convergence
AbbVie · North Chicago, IL · Principal
Function Therapeutic area Seniority Country
60%
Sr. Principal Biostatistician
Biogen · Remote, United States · Principal
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.