Merck KGaA Posted August 15, 2026

Design & Build Lead (all genders)

Darmstadt, Hessen, Germany FULL_TIME
Information Technology

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.

Your Role:

As the ERP Design & Build Lead for our Life Science business, you will lead the design, governance, and continuous evolution of the global SAP S/4HANA process and system template as part of our global ERP transformation program. Working closely with Business Process and IT Solution Owners, Deployment Leads, and key members of our external implementation partners, you will drive the translation of business requirements into scalable, standardized, and compliant ERP solutions while maintaining the integrity of the global template across multiple deployments. You will provide leadership throughout the design and build lifecycle, from requirements and solution design through build completion, deployment readiness, and cutover support. Your leadership will ensure a high-quality, implementation-ready solution that enables successful global rollouts while preserving standardization and a clean-core architecture

Key Responsibilities

Lead the end-to-end ERP Design & Build function within the global SAP S/4HANA transformation program.

Own the governance, quality, and continuous evolution of the global ERP process and system template.

Drive solution design activities, ensuring business requirements are translated into scalable, standardized, and compliant SAP solutions.

Govern design decisions and ensure adherence to enterprise architecture principles, clean-core strategy, validation requirements, and global standards.

Provide leadership and governance for the execution of design and build activities across functional workstreams and implementation partners, ensuring completeness, quality, and readiness for deployment.

Ensure design consistency and template integrity across multiple concurrent deployment programs while balancing global standardization with justified local requirements.

Partner closely with Deployment Leads to enable template confirmation, solution adoption, deployment readiness, cutover planning, and issue resolution.

Provide governance across Application Integration, Data Migration, Testing, Validation, Security, and Platform teams to ensure an integrated, deployment-ready solution.

Ensure ERP solutions are designed, built, and delivered in compliance with validation requirements and quality standards, partnering closely with Validation organizations to support deployment into regulated environments.

Drive planning and governance for design, build, testing readiness, defect resolution, and cutover preparation across all functional domains.

Identify technical and functional risks early and proactively manage dependencies that could impact deployment timelines or solution quality.

Provide leadership and direction to internal teams, external implementation partners, and SAP, while driving accountability, delivery excellence, and effective collaboration.

Leverage SAP S/4HANA innovations and emerging technologies to continuously improve the global ERP template and accelerate future deployments.

Who You Are:

Bachelor's or Master's degree in Information Technology, Computer Science, Engineering, Business, or a related field, or equivalent professional experience.

10+ years of experience leading SAP S/4HANA design, build, and large-scale transformation programs, including significant experience with SAP S/4HANA.

Extensive experience designing and governing global ERP templates within multinational organizations.

Strong understanding of SAP S/4HANA architecture and business processes across Manufacturing, Supply Chain, Procurement, Logistics, Finance, and Quality Management.

Proven leadership experience managing global design and build teams across multiple functional workstreams and implementation partners.

Strong knowledge of solution template governance, enterprise architecture, clean-core principles, and SAP implementation methodologies.

Demonstrated experience leading ERP solution delivery in GxP-regulated Life Science, Pharmaceutical, Medical Device, or similarly regulated industries is highly desirable.

Deep understanding of deployment readiness, testing, cutover governance, and transition from build to deployment.

Excellent stakeholder management skills, with the ability to influence senior business and IT leaders across global organizations.

Outstanding communication and presentation skills, capable of translating complex technical concepts into business value.

Strong analytical and strategic thinking skills, with the ability to balance standardization, business value, risk, and delivery timelines.

Demonstrated ability to lead cross-functional teams without direct authority in a matrix organization.

Experience leading multiple concurrent initiatives within a global transformation program.

Fluent in English (mandatory). German or another European language is considered an advantage.

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

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
Not listed
Function
Information Technology
Therapeutic area
Not listed
Location
Darmstadt, Hessen, Germany
Employment type
FULL_TIME

How this role compares

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

We currently track 1211 comparable Information Technology roles across 60 biopharma companies.

1211Comparable roles tracked
1154Currently active
60Companies hiring similar roles
32Countries represented

Salary context

152 of 1211 peers report a salary range (USD, annualized)

Peers share this role's job function. This posting doesn't list a seniority level, so peers aren't narrowed by seniority either -- the range below may span more levels than usual.

This roleSubject Not listed on this posting
Lowest disclosed · Senior Data Security Engineer (Insider Risk Management – Engineering) · AbbVie $0/hr – $0/hr (≈ $0–$0/yr)
Highest disclosed · Senior Director, Targets and Mechanisms Solutions · Pfizer $230,900/yr – $384,800/yr
Peer group range $0 – $307,850 (median $165,900)

Where these roles are based

Top locations among the 1211 comparable roles

India563
United States255
Spain116
Poland74
Portugal34
China22

+ 26 more countries

Seniority mix

665 of 1211 peers have a known seniority level

Senior308
Manager153
Principal56
Associate52
Associate Director44
Director35
Senior Director12
Intern/Fellow/Postdoc4
Executive/VP1

Therapeutic area mix

2 of 1211 peers have a known therapeutic area; the rest are genuinely unlabeled, not hidden

Oncology1
Vaccines & Infectious 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.

40%similar
Pfizer Manuf. Deutschland GmbH Freiburg, Germany
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40%similar
Pfizer Manuf. Deutschland GmbH Freiburg, Germany
Same function Same country
40%similar
Pfizer Pharma GmbH Berlin, Germany Senior
Same function Same country
40%similar
GlaxoSmithKline Services GmbH & Co. KG Munich, Germany Senior
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40%similar
Lilly BAD HOMBURG, Hesse, Germany
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40%similar
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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.

40%
Automation Engineer (m/w/d)
Pfizer Manuf. Deutschland GmbH · Freiburg, Germany · Seniority not listed
Function Therapeutic area Seniority Country
40%
Senior Data Architect (m/f/d)
GlaxoSmithKline Services GmbH & Co. KG · Munich, Germany · Senior
Function Therapeutic area Seniority Country
40%
Consultant – Laboratory Design & Architecture (m/f/d), temporary for 2 years
Roche · Mannheim, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany · Seniority not listed
Function Therapeutic area Seniority Country
40%
Senior AI Software Engineer (m/f/d) for regulated Computational Pathology products
AstraZeneca · Munich, Germany · Senior
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.