Merck Posted November 11, 2026

Senior Scientist, Statistical Programming - SDTM (Hybrid)

Upper Gwynedd, Pennsylvania, United States of America FULL_TIME
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About this opportunity

Job Description

In BARDS (Biostatistics and Research Decision Sciences), a distinguished department within our renowned Research and Development division, quantitative scientists, in partnership with other subject matter experts, apply state-of-the art scientific methodologies and tools to enable the discovery, development, regulatory approval, manufacturing, and marketing of medical drugs and vaccines for the benefit of patients and global human health.

Responsibilities :

The Senior Statistical Programmer, Submission Data Standards Quality Management (SDSQM), provides oversight and quality management of submission data standard deliverables for world-wide regulatory application submissions of drug and vaccine clinical development projects. Accountability predominantly includes submission data standards planning activities, coaching and consulting with project teams, outreach to external vendors and partners, and keeping current with industry submission data standards including SDTM, ADaM, clinical site data for CDER inspection planning, etc.

The incumbent will be responsible for continuous improvement of our electronic submission process and providing tools and templates to support delivery focusing on traceability, quality assurance, data conformance and data fitness. The position is a key collaborator with statistical programming, statistics, regulatory and other project stakeholders.

Primary Activities :

PreNDA and PreBLA meeting preparation, study data standards plan, preparing questions for FDA e-data mailboxes (CBER/CDER), attendance at meetings with regulatory agencies (FDA, EMA, PMDA).

Guiding project teams preparing submission deliverables including use of Pinnacle 21 Enterprise.

Up-versioning activities to specific versions of SDTM.

Participation in industry teams and conferences on best practices.

Membership on departmental strategic initiative project teams.

Education and Minimum Requirement :

BA/BS in Computer Science, Statistics, Applied Mathematics, Life Sciences, Engineering or related field plus 5 years SAS programming experience in a clinical trial environment.

MS in Computer Science, Statistics, Applied Mathematics, Life Sciences, Engineering or related field plus 3 years SAS programming experience in a clinical trial environment.

Department Required Skills and Experience:

Effective interpersonal skills and ability to negotiate and collaborate effectively.

Effective written, oral, and presentation skills.

Effective knowledge and experience in developing analysis and reporting deliverables for R&D projects (data, analyses, tables, graphics, listings).

A project leader; completes tasks independently at a project level; ability to collaborate with key stakeholder.

Position Specific Required Skills and Experience:

US and/or worldwide drug or vaccine regulatory application submission experience including the development of electronic submission deliverables.

Experience with submission standards CDISC (SDTM, ADaM), Define.XML, cSDRG, ADRG.

Demonstrated success in the assurance of deliverable quality and process compliance.

Excels in technical writing, able to convert complex ideas and information into simple readable form.

Solid project management skills.

Familiarity with clinical data management concepts.

Strategic thinking - ability to turn strategy into tactical activities.

Ability to anticipate stakeholder requirements.

Preferred Skills and Experience:

Hands-on experience with R and Python for data analysis and statistical modeling.

Strong working knowledge of reporting processes (SOPs) and software development life-cycle (SDLC).

Experience assuring consistency across protocols and projects.

Ability and interest to work across cultures and geographies.

Ability to complete statistical programming deliverables through the use of global outsource partner programming staff.

Experience developing and managing a project plan using Microsoft Project or similar package.

Active in professional societies.

Experience in process improvement.

eligibleforERP

SPjobs

BARDS2020

VETJOBS

EBRG

Required Skills:

Clinical Data Interchange Standards Consortium (CDISC) Standards, Data Management, Data Modeling, Numerical Analysis, Stakeholder Relationship Management, Study Data Tabulation Model (SDTM), Waterfall Model

Preferred Skills:

Python (Programming Language), R Programming

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 primary location for this posting is:

USA - Pennsylvania - Upper Gwynedd

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

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

$117,000.00 - $184,200.00

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:

No

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:R426901

Job details

Seniority
Senior
Function
Biostatistics & Data Science
Therapeutic area
Not listed
Location
Upper Gwynedd, Pennsylvania, United States of America
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 156 comparable Senior Biostatistics & Data Science roles across 31 biopharma companies.

156Comparable roles tracked
143Currently active
31Companies hiring similar roles
19Countries represented

Salary context

65 of 156 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 Statistical Programmer · Johnson & Johnson $106,000/yr – $170,200/yr
Highest disclosed · Biostatistics Associate Director (HYBRID) · Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc (US) $174,800/yr – $262,200/yr
Peer group range $138,100 – $218,500 (median $190,000)

Where these roles are based

Top locations among the 156 comparable roles

United States92
India13
United Kingdom10
China5
Spain5
Canada4

+ 13 more countries

Seniority mix

156 of 156 peers have a known seniority level

Senior73
Principal42
Associate Director41

Therapeutic area mix

14 of 156 peers have a known therapeutic area; the rest are genuinely unlabeled, not hidden

Immunology8
Oncology4
Rare Disease1
Cardiovascular / CVRM1

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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.

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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 Statistical Programmer job in the United States, 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.

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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.