Merck KGaA Posted September 5, 2026

Executive Medical Director, Global Clinical Lead

Boston, Massachusetts, United States FULL_TIME
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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 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.

Your Role

You will provide senior medical and strategic leadership across global immunology clinical development programs, ensuring scientific rigor, patient-centricity, and alignment with asset strategy, portfolio priorities, and regulatory expectations. You will lead global clinical development planning, including target product profiles, indication strategy, evidence generation plans, and lifecycle considerations.

You will serve as a senior medical decision-maker within global program teams, providing strategic recommendations on development options, benefit-risk considerations, data interpretation, and key program risks. You will drive protocol development, oversee clinical execution, and ensure decisions are clearly documented with rationale, risks, and mitigations.

You will collaborate closely across Clinical Development, Regulatory, Safety, Biostatistics, Translational Medicine, Medical Affairs, Market Access, and other key functions to ensure integrated delivery of global development plans. You will support and lead, as appropriate, regulatory interactions and communicate clinical results through study reports, regulatory documents, publications, governance forums, and external scientific forums.

You will engage investigators, key opinion leaders, advisory boards, and patient communities compliantly to inform clinical strategy and enhance scientific credibility. You will provide matrix leadership to cross-functional teams and mentor clinical development colleagues as needed, fostering accountability, collaboration, and high-quality execution. This role will be based for a minimum of 3 days a week onsite.

Who You Are

Medical Degree, such as MD, DO, or international equivalent, required; board certification preferred

10+ years of experience in immunology, rheumatology, or related autoimmune/inflammatory diseases, with hands-on patient care experience

5+ years of medical leadership experience within pharma/biotech clinical development

Prior experience as a Global Clinical Lead, Clinical Program Lead, or equivalent for complex clinical development programs

Demonstrated experience developing clinical development plans and leading global Phase 2/3 or registrational studies

Strong understanding of benefit-risk assessment, indication strategy, evidence generation, and lifecycle planning

Proven ability to lead global clinical trials and cross-functional teams in a complex matrix environment

Experience supporting or leading health authority interactions, including FDA, EMA, or other major regulatory agencies

Strong GCP/ICH knowledge and understanding of global regulatory requirements

Ability to influence senior stakeholders, communicate strategic recommendations clearly, and represent clinical strategy in governance forums

Excellent cross-functional leadership, communication, and decision-making skills

Track record of delivering milestones under tight timelines while maintaining quality and scientific integrity

Willingness to travel domestically and internationally as needed

Pay Range for this position: $229,800 - $402,800

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 .

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
Executive/VP
Function
Medical Affairs
Therapeutic area
Not listed
Location
Boston, Massachusetts, United States
Employment type
FULL_TIME

How this role compares

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

We currently track 497 comparable Executive/VP Medical Affairs roles across 107 biopharma companies.

497Comparable roles tracked
467Currently active
107Companies hiring similar roles
43Countries represented

Salary context

73 of 497 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 $229,800/yr – $402,800/yr
Only peer reporting · · $43/yr – $43/yr
Peer group range $43 – $454,000 (median $284,350)

Where these roles are based

Top locations among the 497 comparable roles

United States182
China63
Japan41
United Kingdom25
Canada22
India16

+ 37 more countries

Seniority mix

55 of 497 peers have a known seniority level

Executive/VP29
Senior Director26

Therapeutic area mix

164 of 497 peers have a known therapeutic area; the rest are genuinely unlabeled, not hidden

Oncology71
Neuroscience33
Rare Disease16
Immunology13
Cardiovascular / CVRM13
Dermatology & Aesthetics7
Vaccines & Infectious Disease5
Respiratory3
Gastroenterology2
Ophthalmology1

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
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60%similar
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60%similar
Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc (US) Boston, United States Executive/VP
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Lilly Indianapolis, Indiana, United States of America Executive/VP
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Ipsen Biopharmaceuticals Inc. Cambridge (US), United States Executive/VP
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60%similar
Ipsen Biopharmaceuticals Inc. Cambridge (US), United States Executive/VP
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%
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Function Therapeutic area Seniority Country
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Function Therapeutic area Seniority Country
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Senior Scientific Director / Executive Medical Director, Medical Affairs – Hematology
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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.