Merck Posted October 9, 2026

Senior Director, Medical Affairs - Oncology

North Wales, Pennsylvania, United States of America FULL_TIME
Medical Affairs Oncology Senior Director
Notify me about similar jobs

Merck 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

Job Description

Primary Activities:

Leadership and Management:

Recruiting, on-boarding, training and management of a team of field-based medical professionals.

Responsible for all aspects of the performance management process, including assessment of Oncology RMSD performance to objectives and competencies.  Assessment is accomplished by routine field observation/coaching visits, peer colleague/ program development feedback and field/customer metric analysis.  Personal development plans are developed and monitored for each Oncology RMSD.

Responsible for the communication of Oncology disease state support plans to team and the execution of the agreed plan.

Provides input on resource development and coordinates the utilization of resources to assist with the development of the team and individual team members.

Responsible for ensuring that all team members comply with the intent and application of our company policies and regulations and driver safety in the field environment.

Planning and Project Management:

Supports the Executive Director Medical Affairs via project management required to ensure development and execution of the Oncology disease support plans.

As needed, provides project support to the national US Medical Affairs organization

Budget Management:

Effectively manages regional team budget.

Review and approve routine expense reports, as applicable and appropriate.

Required Experience and Skills:

 

MD, PharmD, or PhD with demonstrated ability to effectively lead and coach scientific / medical colleagues at all skill and knowledge levels

Excellent interpersonal communication and presentation skills, strong personal integrity, teamwork abilities (including the ability to lead a therapeutic team across a geographical area), business acumen, and focus on scientific education and dialogue.

Must possess a thorough understanding of FDA, OIG, HIPAA and other ethical guidelines, laws, and regulations relevant to the pharmaceutical industry and its customers to ensure compliance with all external and internal guidelines and standard operating procedures.

Must be able to organize, prioritize, and work effectively in a constantly changing environment and to motivate a team to do the same.

Previous oncology experience.

Three or more years experience in a field based medical role with proven competency in customer engagement and education.

Preferred Experience and Skills:

Previous management experience of professional employees, especially field-based medical personnel.

Previous experience within Gynecologic Malignancies therapeutic area.

Strong working knowledge of the Microsoft Office Suite (Word, PowerPoint, Excel, Access), and ability to interface effectively with a variety of technical platforms for the collection, review, and dissemination of medical information.

Scientific/medical research experience, including demonstrated record of scientific/medical publication.

Working knowledge of key academic centers within the geographic area.

Required Skills:

Competency Management, Decision Making, Field Management, Gynecologic Oncology, Healthcare Education, Hematology and Oncology, Leadership Communication, Leadership Development Programs, Medical Marketing Strategy, People Leadership, Project Leadership, Resource Allocation, Resource Planning, Strategic Leadership, Team Development

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

$210,400.00 - $331,100.00

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:

No relocation

VISA Sponsorship:

No

Travel Requirements:

25%

Flexible Work Arrangements:

Remote

Shift:

1st - Day

Valid Driving License:

No

Hazardous Material(s):

N/A

Job Posting End Date:

10/30/2026 *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:R421188

Job details

Seniority
Senior Director
Function
Medical Affairs
Therapeutic area
Oncology
Location
North Wales, Pennsylvania, United States of America
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 303 comparable Senior Director Medical Affairs roles across 57 biopharma companies.

303Comparable roles tracked
293Currently active
57Companies hiring similar roles
26Countries represented

Salary context

157 of 303 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 $210,400/yr – $331,100/yr
Lowest disclosed · Associate Medical Director · AbbVie $141,500/yr – $268,500/yr
Peer group range $205,000 – $454,000 (median $271,138)

Where these roles are based

Top locations among the 303 comparable roles

United States234
United Kingdom20
China7
Germany5
Canada4
France3

+ 20 more countries

Seniority mix

303 of 303 peers have a known seniority level

Director241
Senior Director31
Executive/VP31

Therapeutic area mix

143 of 303 peers have a known therapeutic area; the rest are genuinely unlabeled, not hidden

Oncology59
Neuroscience19
Immunology16
Respiratory15
Dermatology & Aesthetics10
Cardiovascular / CVRM8
Rare Disease6
Vaccines & Infectious Disease5
Gastroenterology4
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.

100%similar
E.R. Squibb & Sons,L.L.C. Princeton Pike, United States Senior Director
Same function Same therapeutic area Same seniority Same country
100%similar
E.R. Squibb & Sons,L.L.C. Princeton, United States Senior Director
Same function Same therapeutic area Same seniority Same country
90%similar
AbbVie Director
Same function Same therapeutic area Adjacent seniority Same country

Open in 3 locations

Mettawa, United StatesFlorham Park, United StatesSan Francisco, United States
90%similar
AbbVie Director
Same function Same therapeutic area Adjacent seniority Same country

Open in 3 locations

Mettawa, United StatesSan Francisco, United StatesFlorham Park, United States
90%similar
AbbVie Florham Park, NJ Director
Same function Same therapeutic area 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.

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.

100%
Senior Director, Cell Therapy WW Medical Affairs, Multiple Myeloma
E.R. Squibb & Sons,L.L.C. · Princeton Pike, United States · Senior Director
Function Therapeutic area Seniority Country
90%
Scientific Director / Senior Medical Director, Multiple Myeloma (International Medical Affairs)
AbbVie · Florham Park, NJ · Director
Function Therapeutic area Adjacent seniority Country
90%
Scientific Director / Senior Medical Director, Medical Affairs - Global Oncology Pipeline (Prostate Cancer)
AbbVie · San Francisco, CA · Director
Function Therapeutic area Adjacent seniority Country
90%
Medical Director- Early Development Oncology
AbbVie · Florham Park, NJ · Director
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.