Merck KGaA Posted October 26, 2026

Head of Data Standards & CRF Design

Bangalore, Karnataka, India FULL_TIME
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!

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:

In your role as Director, Clinical Data Standards and CRF Design, you will lead a global team accountable for clinical data standards, CRF design, metadata governance, and submission-ready data deliverables. You will own the operational implementation of standards across CRF, SDTM, and non-CRF domains, drive governance and version control in the metadata repository, and ensure high-quality study design, eDC CRF Design, and regulatory submission readiness fpr SDTM packages in outsourced studies. You will partner across Clinical Development, Data Management, Biostatistics, Safety, Regulatory, IT, CROs, technology vendors, and industry forums to advance standards, inspection readiness, and digital innovation.This is a highly collaborative global role where your leadership directly impacts how fast we bring life-changing solutions to patients. You will find excellent opportunities to grow your career as you lead change and champion clinical data innovation across the organization.

Who you are:

You hold an advanced degree in Life Sciences, Data Science, Information Systems, Computer Science, or an equivalent scientific or technical discipline.

You bring 10 or more years of progressive experience in clinical data standards within a pharmaceutical, biotech, or CRO environment, including demonstrated progression into senior leadership roles.

You have at least 5 years of experience leading and developing global, multidisciplinary teams responsible for data standards definition, implementation, and cross-functional integration.

You possess deep expertise in CDISC standards and submission-related deliverables, including CDASH, SDTM, Define.xml, annotated CRF (aCRF), SDRG, and inspection-ready metadata governance.

You have proven experience in CRF design, eDC study build standards, metadata repository lifecycle management, external data standards, and regulatory submission readiness.

You demonstrate a strong track record in governance, quality oversight, risk management, vendor and CRO partnership, and cross-functional decision-making in a regulated clinical development environment.

Experience with emerging standards and technologies such as Dataset-JSON, SDTM v3.0, CDISC Open Rules, ICH M11, HL7 FHIR-to-CDISC interoperability, or AI-enabled metadata and protocol-to-CRF automation is a plus.

Strong executive communication, stakeholder influence, change leadership, and the ability to represent the function in external standards or industry forums are advantageous.

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
Not listed
Function
Biostatistics & Data Science
Therapeutic area
Not listed
Location
Bangalore, Karnataka, India
Employment type
FULL_TIME

How this role compares

Computed from every other active Biostatistics & Data Science role in our database, not just this employer's listings.

We currently track 337 comparable Biostatistics & Data Science roles across 43 biopharma companies.

337Comparable roles tracked
306Currently active
43Companies hiring similar roles
27Countries represented

Salary context

148 of 337 peers report a salary range (USD, annualized)

Peers share this role's job function. This posting doesn't list a seniority level, so peers aren't narrowed by seniority either -- the range below may span more levels than usual.

This roleSubject Not listed on this posting
Lowest disclosed · Co-Op, Clinical Biomarker Biostatistics · ModernaTX, Inc. $20/hr – $60/hr (≈ $41,600–$124,800/yr)
Highest disclosed · Executive Director, Biostatistics · Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc (US) $271,600/yr – $407,400/yr
Peer group range $83,200 – $339,500 (median $180,500)

Where these roles are based

Top locations among the 337 comparable roles

United States209
United Kingdom20
India17
China13
Germany10
France9

+ 21 more countries

Seniority mix

260 of 337 peers have a known seniority level

Senior74
Principal42
Associate Director41
Manager32
Intern/Fellow/Postdoc28
Director28
Senior Director6
Associate6
Executive/VP3

Therapeutic area mix

51 of 337 peers have a known therapeutic area; the rest are genuinely unlabeled, not hidden

Oncology17
Immunology12
Rare Disease6
Neuroscience5
Dermatology & Aesthetics4
Respiratory4
Cardiovascular / CVRM2
Vaccines & Infectious 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.

40%similar
Novartis Hyderabad (Office), India Principal
Same function Same country
40%similar
Merck KGaA Hyderabad, Andra Pradesh, India Associate Director
Same function Same country
40%similar
Merck KGaA Hyderabad, Andra Pradesh, India Principal
Same function Same country
40%similar
Johnson & Johnson Bangalore, India Principal
Same function Same country
40%similar
AstraZeneca Bangalore, India Associate Director
Same function Same country
40%similar
Merck KGaA Bangalore, Karnataka, India Senior
Same function 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 Biostatistics & Data Science job in India, 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.

40%
Principal Clinical Data Scientist
Novartis · Hyderabad (Office), India · Principal
Function Therapeutic area Seniority Country
40%
Principal Data Scientist
Johnson & Johnson · Bangalore, India · Principal
Function Therapeutic area Seniority Country
40%
Senior Data Standards Expert (all genders)
Merck KGaA · Bangalore, Karnataka, India · Senior
Function Therapeutic area Seniority Country
40%
Statistical Analyst
Abbott · Gurgaon, State Not Indicated, India · Seniority not listed
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.