Merck Posted November 3, 2026

Associate Director, Regulatory Affairs - Advertising and Promotion

North Wales, Pennsylvania, United States of America FULL_TIME
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About this opportunity

Job Description

Role Overview:

The Associate Director is responsible for the review and approval of all US promotional materials and serving as the promotional regulatory expert with legal, medical and commercial colleagues to ensure that promotional practices are consistent with regulatory guidelines, our Company's policies, and support business objectives.

Serve as the liaison and manage correspondence with FDA’s promotional review divisions OPDP/APLB, including complex regulatory questions and submissions for advisory comment.

Propose creative, effective, and compliant regulatory strategies and solutions to challenging promotional concepts that meet business objectives and minimize regulatory risk.

Provide regulatory consultation in the development and implementation of US marketing strategy and promotional programs.

Support the US commercial teams, including relevant stakeholders, by participating in strategy discussions and extended team meetings and providing regulatory guidance and perspective on marketing strategies and promotion objectives and tactics. Provide promotional regulatory input on concepts and draft materials to help ensure promotional materials are aligned with U.S. promotional regulations, corporate standards and policies and business objectives.

Actively participate in labeling and global regulatory team meetings to ensure support for anticipated promotional messages and claims (aligned with marketing strategy) in clinical trial design and product labeling as it relates to the use of study results in U.S. promotion.

Maintain current awareness and understanding of FDA advisory correspondence, evolving FDA regulations and guidance documents, FDA enforcement letters and policy issues affecting the pharmaceutical/biologics industry and clearly articulate regulatory rationale.

Ability to take on more complex projects and provide promotional regulatory training and coaching to team members.

Contribute to the development of departmental strategic initiatives to drive effective, compliant promotional regulatory review.

Please note this is a hybrid position. Candidates must be able to meet the role's hybrid requirement of working onsite three days per week in either Upper Gwynedd, PA or Rahway, NJ

Qualifications, Skills & Experience:

Minimum Requirement:

B.A. or B.S. degree with an emphasis in science, health care or related fields.

Preferred:

Master’s, PhD or PharmD degree with an emphasis in science, health care or related fields

Minimum of five years of pharmaceutical/biologics industry or related experience with an emphasis in regulatory or scientific disciplines

Minimum of two years of direct experience as the primary regulatory reviewer of advertising and promotional materials

Demonstrated knowledge of FDA regulations relating to advertising and promotion for prescription products

Proactive with strong cross-functional collaboration skills

Demonstrated history of successful interactions with the promotional review divisions of FDA (OPDP/APLB) or experience developing/leading the regulatory strategy for a product filing/launch

Understanding of the product development and labeling process

Excellent verbal and written communication skills

Attention to detail and ability to manage multiple priorities simultaneously.

Strong interpersonal skills with ability to demonstrate strategic and analytical thinking

Demonstrated ability to negotiate and influence others effectively

#GRACS

#EligibleforERP

Required Skills:

Clinical Trials, Cross-Functional Teamwork, Data Analysis, Detail-Oriented, Electronic Common Technical Document (eCTD), FDA Regulations, Negotiation, Pharmaceutical Industry, Promotional Review, Regulatory Compliance, Regulatory Strategies, Regulatory Submissions, Stakeholder Management, Strategic Thinking, US Regulatory Affairs

Preferred Skills:

Current Employees apply HERE

Current Contingent Workers apply HERE

US and Puerto Rico Residents Only:

Our company is committed to inclusion, ensuring that candidates can engage in a hiring process that exhibits their true capabilities. Please click here if you need an accommodation during the application or hiring process.

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.

Learn more about your rights, including under California, Colorado and other US State Acts

The primary location for this posting is:

USA - Pennsylvania - North Wales (Upper Gwynedd)

Where required by law, the compensation range for this role is provided below.

The salary range for the primary location of this role is:

$129,000.00 - $203,100.00

This range reflects the Company's reasonable expectation of the base salary applicable to this role at the time of 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 https://jobs.merck.com/us/en/compensation-and-benefits .

Additional location(s): Please note the salary range above applies to the Primary Location of the position. Where a role has other listed locations, different compensation guidelines may apply. You may find the salary ranges for additional locations below. If the salary range is not listed for the location you are applying to, our Talent Acquisition team will provide further information to you relevant to your location.

Additional location(s) Compensation Information:

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:

10%

Flexible Work Arrangements:

Hybrid

Shift:

Not Indicated

Valid Driving License:

No

Hazardous Material(s):

n/a

Job Posting End Date:

11/21/2026 *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:R424596

Job details

Seniority
Associate Director
Function
Regulatory Affairs
Therapeutic area
Not listed
Location
North Wales, Pennsylvania, United States of America
Employment type
FULL_TIME

How this role compares

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

We currently track 270 comparable Associate Director Regulatory Affairs roles across 80 biopharma companies.

270Comparable roles tracked
257Currently active
80Companies hiring similar roles
35Countries represented

Salary context

75 of 270 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
Peer group range $123,250 – $236,300 (median $180,500)

Where these roles are based

Top locations among the 270 comparable roles

United States110
India26
United Kingdom24
Japan20
Ireland11
Poland9

+ 29 more countries

Seniority mix

270 of 270 peers have a known seniority level

Manager166
Senior53
Associate Director51

Therapeutic area mix

26 of 270 peers have a known therapeutic area; the rest are genuinely unlabeled, not hidden

Immunology13
Oncology6
Ophthalmology4
Respiratory1
Rare Disease1
Dermatology & Aesthetics1

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
Celgene - Summit (Corp) Princeton, United States Associate Director
Same function Same seniority Same country
60%similar
Merck KGaA Billerica, Massachusetts, United States Associate Director
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60%similar
ModernaTX, Inc. Cambridge, United States Associate Director
Same function Same seniority Same country
60%similar
ModernaTX, Inc. Cambridge, United States Associate Director
Same function Same seniority Same country
60%similar
Sarepta Therapeutics, Inc. United States, United States Associate Director
Same function Same seniority Same country
60%similar
Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc (US) Boston, United States Associate Director
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.

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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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Celgene - Summit (Corp) · Princeton, United States · Associate Director
Function Therapeutic area Seniority Country
60%
Associate Director, Global Regulatory Advertising and Promotion
ModernaTX, Inc. · Cambridge, United States · Associate Director
Function Therapeutic area Seniority Country
60%
Regulatory Ad Promo Associate Director
Neurocrine Biosciences Inc. · US CA San Diego, United States · Associate Director
Function Therapeutic area Seniority Country
60%
Associate Director, Regulatory Affairs Advertising & Promotion - Oncology
AbbVie · Florham Park, NJ · 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.