Merck KGaA Posted September 29, 2026

Associate Director, Search and Evaluation Cardiometabolic & Endocrinology (Seaport MA)

Boston, Massachusetts, United States FULL_TIME
BD&L & Strategic Planning Cardiovascular / CVRM 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 Location:  Boston, Massachusetts

Shift:

Department:  HC-BA-H4 Business Development CM&E, Fertility & Regional

Recruiter:  Rena Ann Peterson

This information is for internals only. Please do not share outside of the organization.

Your Role:

Drive access to key external innovations from biotech/biopharma companies globally for Cardiometabolic, Fertility & Endocrinology (CM +F&E), enabling critical advancement of the company pipeline; search and evaluate external opportunities and support scientific and technical assessment process for potential partners, acquisitions, or licensing deals ;

Take responsibility for Initial Assessments (IAs) as the initial step in a Due Diligence process with key functional experts and present high quality decision making documents to the Investment Board (IB) and lead respective multi-functional teams

Partner with internal stakeholders to identify search priorities and support defining the CM + F&E partnering strategy

Develop and keep overview of External Innovation landscape within investment priorities in alignment with the CM+F&E Therapeutic Areas;

Drive proactive search to identify assets of interest and potential partners and guide partner selection

Select and prioritize opportunities for further evaluation in close collaboration with Business Development counterparts

Maintain overview of search and evaluation activities in CM+F&E and maintain a longlist of potential opportunities

Oversee and guide filtering of potential opportunities (e.g., unsolicited, VC portfolios, conferences); execute CDA and provide aligned feedback to stakeholders

Benchmarking of potential partners based on aligned criteria to elucidate differentiation

Build and maintain external network (e.g., biotech/pharma/VC) and represent/position us externally towards potential partners

Collaborate with BD colleagues  for partnering discussions to assess viability / feasibility of partnership.

Consult on assessment of risks and mitigations and ensure seamless transition of IA projects to DD Lead

Drive identification of big rocks and consolidation of IB decision-making document to make a go/no-go decision

Provide decision making documentation to IB and DRB level senior management to proceed into Due Diligence activities to assess Big Rocks or full data packages of external opportunities

Strategic Impact

Generating strategic value by identifying high value opportunities to develop and expand our innovative pipeline of opportunities in CM+F&E as key strategic therapeutic areas

Scope of People Responsibility:

Develop and mentor talents (e.g. GoGlobal Trainees and Short-Term Assignees)

Lead multi-functional assessment teams to generate IAs, DD scopes

Who You Are

Minimum Qualifications:

University degree ( PhD) in pharmaceutical science or an equivalent qualification with high expertise, strong network, and substantial R&D experience in respective investment priority field

Preferred Qualifications:

5+ years experience with 2+ years in BD&L / EI

Thorough understanding of the pharmaceutical drug discovery/development process

Scientific profile with substantial R&D experience

Strong leadership acumen to lead cross functional teams to develop search scopes, External Innovation strategy and IAs

Strong presentation skills enabling senior management decision making

Location:   Seaport MA

Pay Range for this position: $130,600 - $195,900

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 .

The Company is an Equal Employment Opportunity employer. No employee or applicant for employment will be discriminated against on the basis of race, color, religion, age, sex, sexual orientation, national origin, ancestry, disability, military or veteran status, genetic information, gender identity, transgender status, marital status, or any other classification protected by applicable federal, state, or local law.  This policy of Equal Employment Opportunity applies to all policies and programs relating to recruitment and hiring, promotion, compensation, benefits, discipline, termination, and all other terms and conditions of employment. Any applicant or employee who believes they have been discriminated against by the Company or anyone acting on behalf of the Company must report any concerns to their Human Resources Business Partner, Legal, or Compliance immediately. The Company will not retaliate against any individual because they made a good faith report of discrimination.

Job details

Seniority
Associate Director
Function
BD&L & Strategic Planning
Therapeutic area
Cardiovascular / CVRM
Location
Boston, Massachusetts, United States
Employment type
FULL_TIME

How this role compares

Computed from every other active BD&L & Strategic Planning role in our database, not just this employer's listings.

We currently track 50 comparable Associate Director BD&L & Strategic Planning roles across 20 biopharma companies.

50Comparable roles tracked
47Currently active
20Companies hiring similar roles
12Countries represented

Salary context

20 of 50 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 $130,600/yr – $195,900/yr
Lowest disclosed · Business Development Manager, Facial Aesthetics · AbbVie $80,000/yr – $140,000/yr
Highest disclosed · External Innovation, Associate Director · Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc (US) $170,400/yr – $255,600/yr
Peer group range $110,000 – $213,000 (median $177,570)

Where these roles are based

Top locations among the 50 comparable roles

United States23
China10
Germany6
India2
Mexico2
Philippines1

+ 6 more countries

Seniority mix

50 of 50 peers have a known seniority level

Manager33
Associate Director16
Senior1

Therapeutic area mix

6 of 50 peers have a known therapeutic area; the rest are genuinely unlabeled, not hidden

Dermatology & Aesthetics5
Oncology1

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
Novartis East Hanover, United States Associate Director
Same function Same seniority Same country
60%similar
AbbVie Mettawa, IL 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
60%similar
AbbVie North Chicago, IL Associate Director
Same function Same seniority Same country
60%similar
AstraZeneca Gaithersburg, Maryland, United States of America Associate Director
Same function Same seniority Same country
60%similar
Merck KGaA Chandler, Arizona, 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.

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%
Associate Director, Strategy Associate
Novartis · East Hanover, United States · Associate Director
Function Therapeutic area Seniority Country
60%
Associate Director, Strategy Associate
Novartis · East Hanover, United States · Associate Director
Function Therapeutic area Seniority Country
60%
Associate Director, Business Development & Acquisitions
AbbVie · North Chicago, IL · Associate Director
Function Therapeutic area Seniority Country
60%
Associate Director, Strategic Marketing, DS&S
Merck KGaA · Chandler, Arizona, United States · 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.