Merck Posted November 10, 2026

Associate Principal Scientist (Associate Director) - Outcomes Research

Rahway, New Jersey, United States of America FULL_TIME
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About this opportunity

Job Description

Role Summary:

The Associate Principal Scientist/Associate Director, Value & Implementation (V&I) Outcomes Research, position resides in the V&I organization, which includes Global Medical and Scientific Affairs as well as Outcomes Research.

Under the guidance of a senior leader, this position has primary responsibility for planning/managing real-world and economic evidence activities for inline and pipeline products to meet the value evidence needs of clinicians, payers, policymakers, health technology assessment (HTA)/reimbursement agencies, and health systems globally.

Types of studies executed include prospective and retrospective observational studies to characterize disease burden and epidemiology, treatment patterns, health-care resource utilization and costs, physician and patient satisfaction surveys, clinical and patient reported outcomes assessments, systematic reviews and meta-analyses, and economic modelling.

Key responsibilities also include development of American Managed Care Pharmacy (AMCP) dossiers for U.S. payers, and Global Value Dossiers for use by local subsidiaries in their HTA submissions. The incumbent is expected to work cross-functionally with clinical development, medical affairs, biostatistics, market access, commercial and country affiliates. The incumbent may supervise external vendors or partners to execute these activities. The incumbent may have direct interactions with HTA agencies, reimbursement decision makers, or national immunization technical advisory groups.

Responsibilities and Primary Activities:

Helps achieve / sustain reimbursement and market access for the program and indications under their responsibility.

Critically assesses drivers and barriers to reimbursement and market access and provides input into clinical, regulatory, payer/access, marketing and evidence-generation strategy and programs.

In collaboration with internal teams and external partners, designs studies; authors study protocols; and develops measurement questionnaires, case report forms, data analysis plans, final study reports, scientific presentations, and publications.

Responsible for study-related contracting, budgets, and vendor/partner management and ensures study conduct is aligned with company Policies and SOPs and world-wide regulations and standards, including Good Pharmacoepidemiology Practice (GPP) for applicable work.

Develops American Managed Care Pharmacy (AMCP) dossiers for U.S. payers and Global Value Dossiers.

Develops supplementary clinical data package in close partnership with markets and HTA statistics group for submission to HTA agencies.

Supports country affiliates to understand local evidence generation needs, adapts health-economic evaluations, and customizes outcomes research documents, such as protocols and reimbursement dossiers, according to local requirements.

Works closely with cross-functional teams to effectively communicate outcomes research and health economic modelling data internally and to external customers.

Maintains awareness of new scientific and methodological developments within therapeutic area.

Builds relationships with scientific experts worldwide.

Presents outcomes research data at national and international congresses and publishes articles in scientific journals.

 

Required Qualifications, Skills and Experience

Minimum:

Master’s degree in relevant discipline (health services research, outcomes research, epidemiology, public health, health economics, pharmacoeconomics, pharmacy administration).

One to three years experience post master’s degree or one or more years experience post doctoral degree.

Preferred:

Doctoral degree (PhD, MD, DrPH, ScD, PharmD) in relevant discipline (health services research, outcomes research, epidemiology, public health, health economics, pharmacoeconomics, pharmacy administration).

Required Skills:

Economic Modeling, Epidemiology, Health Economic Modeling, Health Economics, Health Technology Assessment (HTA), Observational Studies, Outcomes Research, Public Health, Stakeholder Relationship Management, Strategic Planning

Preferred Skills:

Health Services Research, Immunizations, Infectious Disease, Pharmacoeconomics, Scientific Publishing

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:

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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 - New Jersey - Rahway

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

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

$156,900.00 - $247,000.00

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:

Domestic

VISA Sponsorship:

Yes

Travel Requirements:

10%

Flexible Work Arrangements:

Hybrid

Shift:

Not Indicated

Valid Driving License:

No

Hazardous Material(s):

n/a

Job Posting End Date:

11/30/2026 *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:R425488

Job details

Seniority
Associate Director
Function
Drug Discovery & Preclinical Research
Therapeutic area
Not listed
Location
Rahway, New Jersey, United States of America
Employment type
FULL_TIME

How this role compares

Computed from every other active Drug Discovery & Preclinical Research role in our database, not just this employer's listings.

We currently track 270 comparable Associate Director Drug Discovery & Preclinical Research roles across 48 biopharma companies.

270Comparable roles tracked
255Currently active
48Companies hiring similar roles
22Countries represented

Salary context

114 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
Lowest disclosed · Senior Primate Behavior Specialist · Labcorp $70,000/yr – $80,000/yr
Highest disclosed · Toxicology Senior Research Fellow · Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc (US) $232,000/yr – $348,000/yr
Peer group range $75,000 – $290,000 (median $144,600)

Where these roles are based

Top locations among the 270 comparable roles

United States198
India11
United Kingdom8
Canada7
China6
Switzerland5

+ 16 more countries

Seniority mix

270 of 270 peers have a known seniority level

Senior214
Associate Director30
Manager26

Therapeutic area mix

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

Immunology10
Oncology8
Neuroscience7
Cardiovascular / CVRM1

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.

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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.

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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.