Merck KGaA Posted September 22, 2026

Associate Director, Start-up Lead, SiteID & Activation

Billerica, Massachusetts, United States Full time
Clinical Research Associate Director
Notify me about similar jobs

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:

We are seeking an experienced clinical research professional to serve as the Associate Director, Start-up Lead, SiteID & Activation to lead start-up and site activation strategies across our global clinical trial portfolio.

Key Responsibilities:

Oversee country and site feasibility assessments

Drive regulatory submissions and site activations from protocol through implementation,

Collaborate with internal teams and external service providers to accelerate study timelines and optimize recruitment outcomes

Champion process improvements

Manage performance metrics

Drive operational excellence to bring medicines to patients faster

Ensure compliance with ICH-GCP standards and applicable regulations

Who You Are:

Minimum Qualifications:

Medical or Life Sciences degree or equivalent qualification

10+ years in clinical research in a CRO or Pharmaceutical / Biotechnology Industry environment

5 years of project management and experience in study start-up activities

Thorough knowledge of ICH-GCP and applicable laws and regulations for key countries

Preferred Qualifications:

PM certification (CPM, PMP)

Strong communication skills -verbal, written and listening

Fail fast and data driven mentality as well as agile methodology

Strong data insights and analytical skills to identify trends and drive quality / process improvements.

Ability to balance competing priorities of various stakeholders and strive for achieving mutually beneficial and compliant solutions.  Experience in multiple Therapeutic Areas, especially in oncology

Pay Range for this position: $128,700 - $193,000

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 .

Direct link to benefits site if the hyperlink no longer works: https://careers.emdgroup.com/us/en/benefits ].

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 Research
Therapeutic area
Not listed
Location
Billerica, Massachusetts, United States
Employment type
Full time

How this role compares

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

We currently track 107 comparable Associate Director Clinical Research roles across 20 biopharma companies.

107Comparable roles tracked
97Currently active
20Companies hiring similar roles
29Countries represented

Salary context

20 of 107 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 $128,700/yr – $193,000/yr
Lowest disclosed · Site Contract Manager · Johnson & Johnson $76,000/yr – $121,900/yr
Peer group range $98,950 – $203,000 (median $143,300)

Where these roles are based

Top locations among the 107 comparable roles

United States28
China20
United Kingdom9
Brazil5
Argentina3
South Korea3

+ 23 more countries

Seniority mix

107 of 107 peers have a known seniority level

Senior59
Manager46
Associate Director2

Therapeutic area mix

7 of 107 peers have a known therapeutic area; the rest are genuinely unlabeled, not hidden

Oncology6
Rare 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.

50%similar
AbbVie Madrid, MD Manager
Same function Adjacent seniority Same country
50%similar
Biogen Remote, United States Manager
Same function Adjacent seniority Same country
50%similar
Neurocrine Biosciences Inc. US CA San Diego, United States Manager
Same function Adjacent seniority Same country
50%similar
Chimerix, Inc. Philadelphia, United States Manager
Same function Adjacent seniority Same country
50%similar
Incyte United States Manager
Same function Adjacent seniority Same country
50%similar
cAMPfield Therapeutics Boston, MA Manager
Same function Adjacent 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.

Or follow a whole field: get every new Clinical Research job in the United States, 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.

50%
Senior Clinical Trial Manager
AbbVie · Madrid, MD · Manager
Function Therapeutic area Adjacent seniority Country
50%
Clinical Trials Manager
Neurocrine Biosciences Inc. · US CA San Diego, United States · Manager
Function Therapeutic area Adjacent seniority Country
50%
Clinical Trial Manager
cAMPfield Therapeutics · Boston, MA · Manager
Function Therapeutic area Adjacent seniority Country
50%
Senior Project Manager Clinical Research
Abbott · Alameda, California, United States · Manager
Function Therapeutic area Adjacent 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.