Merck KGaA Posted October 24, 2026

Associate Director, Clinical Trial Lead (all genders) 1

Eysins, Vaud, Switzerland Full time
Clinical Development Associate Director
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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.

This role requires to be on-site in our office in Eysins CH for 3 days per week.

Your role:

In this pivotal role, you will own the end-to-end clinical operational strategy and delivery of Phase I -IV studies, including registrational trials, within a hybrid-sourcing or in-house model. You will lead large-sized global clinical trial teams in a matrix organization, directing, influencing, and motivating stakeholders across closely related and broader functional areas to create a high-performing, positive working climate. You will develop and drive the clinical trial strategy while maintaining full accountability for successful project execution, including the delivery of clinical operational budgets, timelines, and quality standards as agreed upon by Governance Committees. As a core member of the Clinical Operations Team and leader of the Clinical Trial Team, you will align trial activities with organizational goals, the Clinical Operations Team, and the Global Program Strategy Team.

You will filter, prioritize, analyze, and validate complex and dynamic information from a diverse range of internal and external sources to address operational and organizational challenges in a holistic manner, proactively mitigating risks. You will serve as a mentor within and beyond the team, acting as a best-practice resource across your discipline and technical functional teams. You will ensure all study management activities are completed in full compliance with SOPs, Working Instructions, and local regulatory guidance, including ICH-GCP, and will lead audit activities and provide interview responses as required. You will contribute to non-study-related initiatives alongside study assignments, provide independent reports and updates to senior management, and demonstrate a high level of creativity and innovation to support projects from a strategic perspective, predicting outcomes and driving toward goal achievement.

Who you are:

At least 8 years in clinical research in a CRO or Pharmaceutical/Biotechnology Industry environment with at least 7 years of in-depth knowledge and experience in clinical trial management including managerial responsibility.

Expert experience in multiple Therapeutic Areas.

Requires strong professional experience in relevant disciplines and substantial project management experience, with strong market and competitor knowledge.

Expert experience in all aspects of clinical study planning and startup (including budget and resource planning), and in executing the complete range of clinical study activities from start up through final study report.

Strong leadership competencies and influencing skills.

Effective oral and written communication skills.

Proven ability to foster partnerships across projects and multidisciplinary teams.

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

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
Eysins, Vaud, Switzerland
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 539 comparable Associate Director Clinical Development roles across 71 biopharma companies.

539Comparable roles tracked
493Currently active
71Companies hiring similar roles
45Countries represented

Salary context

172 of 539 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 Site Activation Coordinator · IQVIA $35,800/yr – $102,000/yr
Highest disclosed · Sr Statistical Advisor · Gilead Sciences, Inc. $261,375/yr – $338,250/yr
Peer group range $68,900 – $299,813 (median $176,800)

Where these roles are based

Top locations among the 539 comparable roles

United States231
India68
United Kingdom35
Spain22
China17
Poland16

+ 39 more countries

Seniority mix

539 of 539 peers have a known seniority level

Manager272
Senior143
Associate Director124

Therapeutic area mix

49 of 539 peers have a known therapeutic area; the rest are genuinely unlabeled, not hidden

Oncology27
Immunology8
Neuroscience5
Ophthalmology3
Respiratory2
Dermatology & Aesthetics2
Cardiovascular / CVRM1
Gastroenterology1

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
Merck KGaA Eysins, Vaud, Switzerland Associate Director
Same function Same seniority Same country
60%similar
Merck KGaA Eysins, Vaud, Switzerland Associate Director
Same function Same seniority Same country
45%similar
AstraZeneca Da'an Dist., Taipei City, Taiwan Associate Director
Same function Same seniority
45%similar
AbbVie Associate Director
Same function Same seniority

Open in 2 locations

North Chicago, United StatesMarlow, United Kingdom
45%similar
AbbVie Irvine, CA Associate Director
Same function Same seniority
45%similar
AbbVie North Chicago, IL 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.

Or follow a whole field: get every new Clinical Development job in Switzerland, and choose locations and companies.

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
45%
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AbbVie · North Chicago, IL · Associate Director
Function Therapeutic area Seniority Country
45%
Associate Director, Clinical Pharmacology/Senior Clinical Pharmacologist
AbbVie · North Chicago, IL · Associate Director
Function Therapeutic area Seniority Country
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Amgen Inc. · Taipei City, Taiwan · 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.