Merck Posted August 30, 2026

Clinical Director, Clinical Research, Hematology

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

Job Description

The Clinical Director (Principal Scientist) has primary responsibility for planning and directing clinical research activities involving new or marketed medicines in the Oncology therapeutic area, specifically in our Hematology Section.   Our company's Oncology medicines span all phases of clinical development (pre-clinical to post-licensure).  The Clinical Director may manage the entire cycle of clinical development for their assigned studies including study design, initiation, execution, monitoring, analysis, regulatory reporting, and publication.

 

Role Responsibilities:

Specifically, the Clinical Director may be responsible for:

Planning clinical trials (designing, collaborating on operational plans, etc.) based on the clinical development strategy.

Medical oversight and overall conduct of ongoing or new clinical trials for investigational or marketed drugs.

Analyzing and summarizing clinical findings from studies to support decisions regarding safety and efficacy as well as new drug applications, clinical study reports, or publication.

Participating in internal and joint internal/external research project teams relevant to the development of new compounds, and the further study of marketed compounds.

Supporting business development assessments of external opportunities.

The Clinical Director may:

Actively engage with other functional areas in support of study execution.

Work closely with a cross-functional group of experts in commercialization, regulatory affairs, statistics, and manufacturing to manage clinical development projects.

Assist the team in ensuring that other colleagues are informed of the progress of studies of our company and competitors' drugs.

Provide expert opinion, internally and externally, on relevant scientific questions within their responsibility.

The Clinical Director is responsible for maintaining a strong scientific fund of knowledge by:

Maintaining awareness of scientific developments within his/her area of expertise, in terms of new scientific findings, research methodologies.

Identifying scientifically and operationally strong investigators who can assist in the development of our company's investigational and marketed drugs.

Establishing communications with prominent clinical investigators in his/her particular field of interest, particularly those who will be willing and able to assist in the evaluation of our company's drugs.

Attending appropriate scientific meetings to maintain his or her competency and to maintain awareness of research activities in his/her area of responsibility.

To accomplish these goals, the Clinical Director may:

Author detailed development documents, presentations, budgets, and position papers for internal and external audiences.

Facilitate collaborations with external researchers around the world.

Travel on company business about twenty (20) percent of the time to manage future or ongoing clinical research projects.

Education:

M.D or M.D./Ph.D.

Required Experience and Skills:

Must have experience in industry or senior faculty in academia.

Minimum of 3 years of clinical medicine experience.

Minimum of 1 year of industry experience in drug development or biomedical research experience in academia.

Demonstrated record of scientific scholarship and achievement.

Proven track record in clinical medicine and background in biomedical research.

Strong interpersonal skills, as well as the ability to function in a team environment.

Strong verbal and written communication and presentation skills.

Preferred Experience and Skills:

Board Certified or Eligible in Oncology, Hematology or related discipline.

Prior specific experience in clinical research and prior publication.

Required Skills:

Academic Presentations, Adaptability, Allergy and Immunology, Biomedical Research, Clinical Investigations, Clinical Judgment, Clinical Research, Clinical Trial Planning, Clinical Trial Support, Cross-Functional Teamwork, Ethical Standards, Intellectual Curiosity, New Technology Integration, Regulatory Requirements, Scientific Consulting

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 salary range for this role is

$255,800.00 - $402,700.00

This is the lowest to highest salary we in good faith believe we would pay for this role at the time of this 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 .

You can apply for this role through https://jobs.merck.com/us/en (or via the Workday Jobs Hub if you are a current employee). The application deadline for this position is stated on this posting.

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:

VISA Sponsorship:

Travel Requirements:

Flexible Work Arrangements:

Remote

Shift:

Valid Driving License:

Hazardous Material(s):

Job Posting End Date:

10/9/2026 *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:R398109

Job details

Seniority
Director
Function
Clinical Development
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 Clinical Development role in our database, not just this employer's listings.

We currently track 259 comparable Director Clinical Development roles across 50 biopharma companies.

259Comparable roles tracked
248Currently active
50Companies hiring similar roles
17Countries represented

Salary context

130 of 259 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 $255,800/yr – $402,700/yr
Peer group range $0 – $392,100 (median $274,150)

Where these roles are based

Top locations among the 259 comparable roles

United States205
United Kingdom17
India8
Spain7
Switzerland5
Ireland3

+ 11 more countries

Seniority mix

259 of 259 peers have a known seniority level

Director196
Senior Director38
Principal25

Therapeutic area mix

86 of 259 peers have a known therapeutic area; the rest are genuinely unlabeled, not hidden

Oncology47
Immunology11
Neuroscience9
Cardiovascular / CVRM6
Respiratory4
Ophthalmology4
Dermatology & Aesthetics3
Rare Disease1
Vaccines & Infectious Disease1

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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
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Open in 2 locations

Waltham, United StatesSouth San Francisco, United States

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%
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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.