Merck KGaA Posted August 15, 2026

Senior Medical Director, Global Clinical Development Oncology

Billerica, Massachusetts, United States FULL_TIME
Clinical Development Oncology 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 Senior Medical Director in Global Clinical Development Oncology, you will provide strategic, clinical, and scientific leadership for development programs in oncology.  Your focus will be experience with drug development for solid tumors and ideally with experience in targeted therapies and antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs).

Key Accountabilities:

Lead and shape clinical development strategy across the development continuum, from Phase 1 through Phase III, including registration-enabling activities, regulatory submissions, dossier contributions, and Health Authority interactions.

Provide senior medical leadership on study design, execution, data interpretation, and key development decisions to support the advancement of oncology programs.

Guide indication strategy, patient selection, dose optimization, and overall development pathways

Integrate clinical, translational, and biomarker data into program decision-making

Oversee review and interpretation of safety and efficacy data to support development decisions

Drive and review key clinical and regulatory documents, including development plans, protocols, investigator brochures, clinical study reports, briefing books, submission documents, and dossiers

Lead or shape registration-enabling activities and regulatory submission strategy

Lead or represent Clinical Development in interactions with Health Authorities and internal governance bodies, as appropriate.

Serve as a senior leader within cross-functional and global teams, partnering closely with Program Leadership and Management, Translational Medicine, Clinical Operations, Biostatistics, Regulatory Affairs, Clinical Pharmacology, Safety, and Medical Writing.

Influence strategic direction, represent Clinical Development in key forums, and help ensure high-quality and timely delivery of development objectives in an office-based global environment.

Partner effectively with cross-functional stakeholders across including Program Leadership and Management, Clinical Operations, Safety, Regulatory Affairs, Biostatistics, Clinical Pharmacology, Translational Medicine, and Medical Writing

Provide strategic leadership within global matrix teams to ensure alignment, execution, and delivery against timelines

Provide leadership and oversight to team members within Clinical development, as needed

Contribute to business process improvement and organizational development initiatives, as appropriate.

Who You Are

Minimum Requirements:

MD with expertise in clinical drug development

Strong expertise in Oncology

Minimum 5 years of industry experience in clinical R&D within pharma/biotech

Experience leading or supporting clinical studies across Phase 1 through Phase III

Experience contributing to clinical development strategy, registration-enabling activities, and regulatory submissions

Familiarity with clinical dossiers, regulatory documentation, and interactions with Health Authorities

Demonstrated ability to interpret and apply clinical, translational, and biomarker data to development decisions

Experience leading cross-functional, matrixed, and international teams

Familiarity with ICH-GCP, FDA and/or EMA expectations, and clinical trial regulations

Excellent written and verbal communication skills in English

Ability to work effectively in an office-based environment and across global time zones

 

Preferred Requirements:

Experience in targeted therapies, ADCs, immuno-oncology, and/or hematology/hematologic oncology

Experience across early and late clinical development

Experience with registration strategy and major regulatory submissions

Experience engaging with Health Authorities and internal governance forums

Experience with precision medicine, and/or biomarker-driven development

Experience mentoring, guiding, or managing medical team members

Strong strategic thinking, project leadership, and decision-making skills.

Key Competencies

Strong clinical and scientific judgment in oncology

Strategic thinking and development leadership

Ability to translate complex clinical and scientific data into development strategy

Effective leadership in cross-functional and global matrix teams; team player mentality

Clear and persuasive communication

Ownership, accountability, and execution focus

Comfort working in a fast-paced, global organization

 

Location: Billerica, MA, USA; Onsite (Hybrid)

Travel:

Pay range for this position: $217,100.00 - $325,700.00

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
Director
Function
Clinical Development
Therapeutic area
Oncology
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 195 comparable Director Clinical Development roles across 33 biopharma companies.

195Comparable roles tracked
189Currently active
33Companies hiring similar roles
16Countries represented

Salary context

93 of 195 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 $217,100/yr – $325,700/yr
Lowest disclosed · Clinical Research Director (P4-P5) · Lilly $101,379/yr – $181,067/yr
Peer group range $141,223 – $392,100 (median $264,000)

Where these roles are based

Top locations among the 195 comparable roles

United States140
United Kingdom11
Spain9
Switzerland6
India5
China5

+ 10 more countries

Seniority mix

195 of 195 peers have a known seniority level

Director145
Senior Director27
Principal23

Therapeutic area mix

77 of 195 peers have a known therapeutic area; the rest are genuinely unlabeled, not hidden

Oncology31
Immunology18
Neuroscience9
Respiratory6
Cardiovascular / CVRM6
Dermatology & Aesthetics2
Rare Disease2
Ophthalmology2
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.

100%similar
AstraZeneca Gaithersburg, Maryland, United States of America Director
Same function Same therapeutic area Same seniority Same country
100%similar
AbbVie Director
Same function Same therapeutic area Same seniority Same country

Open in 4 locations

North Chicago, United StatesWaltham, United StatesSouth San Francisco, United StatesFlorham Park, United States
100%similar
Celgene - Summit (Corp) Brisbane, United States Director
Same function Same therapeutic area Same seniority Same country
100%similar
Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Inc (USA) Tarrytown, United States Director
Same function Same therapeutic area Same seniority Same country
100%similar
Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Inc (USA) Tarrytown, United States Director
Same function Same therapeutic area Same seniority Same country
100%similar
Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Inc (USA) Tarrytown, United States Director
Same function Same therapeutic area 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.

100%
Global Development Medical Director, Hematology Oncology
AstraZeneca · Gaithersburg, Maryland, United States of America · Director
Function Therapeutic area Seniority Country
100%
Senior Scientific Director, Oncology Clinical Development (Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma)
AbbVie · South San Francisco, CA · Director
Function Therapeutic area Seniority Country
100%
Medical Director, Clinical Development, Solid Tumor Oncology (GYN Oncology)
Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Inc (USA) · Tarrytown, United States · Director
Function Therapeutic area Seniority Country
100%
Medical Director, Clinical Development, Oncology (Lung, Breast, Colorectal, Gastric Cancers)
Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Inc (USA) · Tarrytown, United States · 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.