Merck Posted September 4, 2026

Senior Specialist, Quantitative Pharmacology and Pharmacometrics - Cardiometabolic and Ophthalmic Diseases

West Point, Pennsylvania, United States of America FULL_TIME
Drug Discovery & Preclinical Research Cardiovascular / CVRM Senior
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Merck has closed or removed this posting -- see current similar openings below.

View the original listing (may no longer be live).

About this opportunity

Job Description

The Quantitative Pharmacology and Pharmacometrics (QP2) Department of our Company's Research Laboratories in West Point, PA / Rahway, NJ is seeking a curious and collaborative Senior Scientist to support our rapidly expanding cardiometabolic and ophthalmology pipelines.

As a senior specialist you will be part of a cross-functional teams of experienced scientists to discover and develop novel therapeutic agents of various modalities for cardiometabolic and ophthalmic diseases.  The senior specialist is a skilled quantitative scientist, with a good understanding of the strategic elements of drug discovery and development. The senior specialist should demonstrate collaborative work spirit and good communication skills.

Within QP2, you have a unique opportunity to accelerate your professional career as a quantitative drug developer taking advantage of our end-to-end pipeline support in one of the world’s most research-intensive biopharmaceutical companies.

Responsibilities:

Contribute to the development of model-based strategies (translational PK/PD strategies, mechanistic model, POPPK/PD, clinical trial simulations, etc) for quantitative analyses, within and across development programs and/or departments, to inform and optimize drug discovery and all phases of drug development including, but not limited to dose selection, clinical trial design, and go/no-go decisions.

Represent QP2 on cardiometabolic and ophthalmology discovery, early clinical development and late clinical development teams, leveraging quantitative approaches to drive streamlined development of programs within our growing portfolio.

Collaborate with other functional areas, as well as with external vendors and partners, on activities related to study design, protocol development, study execution, reporting and interpretation of data.

Required:

A Ph.D. or equivalent degree OR a PharmD or equivalent degree with at least 2 years of experience OR an MS or equivalent degree with at least 4 years of experience, where “experience” means having a record of increasing responsibility and independence in a similar role in pharmaceutical drug development, regulatory agency, or academia.

Educational background in biopharmaceutics, pharmaceutical sciences, pharmacometrics, chemical/biomedical engineering, or a related field.

Experience in performing population PK, PK/PD analyses using standard pharmacometrics software (e.g. NONMEM, Monolix, Phoenix, etc.).

Good written and verbal communication, interdisciplinary collaboration, and problem scoping and planning.

Preferred:

Knowledge in cardiometabolic and/or ophthalmology clinical drug development programs

Skills in experimental design, mathematical problem solving, critical data analysis/interpretation, and statistics.

Scientific understanding of biopharmaceutical and ADME properties of small molecules and/or biologics

#QP2

#EligibleforERP

Required Skills:

Biopharmaceuticals, Communication, Data Modeling, Data Visualization, Modeling Software, Pharmaceutical Sciences, Pharmacometrics, PKPD Modeling, Project Scoping, Quantitative Analysis

Preferred Skills:

ADME, Biologics, Cardiometabolic, Small Molecule Drugs

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

$129,000.00 - $203,100.00

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:

Domestic

VISA Sponsorship:

Yes

Travel Requirements:

10%

Flexible Work Arrangements:

Hybrid

Shift:

Not Indicated

Valid Driving License:

No

Hazardous Material(s):

N/A

Job Posting End Date:

09/12/2026 *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:R415118

Job details

Seniority
Senior
Function
Drug Discovery & Preclinical Research
Therapeutic area
Cardiovascular / CVRM
Location
West Point, Pennsylvania, United States of America
Employment type
FULL_TIME

How this role compares

Computed from every other active Drug Discovery & Preclinical Research role in our database, not just this employer's listings.

We currently track 194 comparable Senior Drug Discovery & Preclinical Research roles across 35 biopharma companies.

194Comparable roles tracked
191Currently active
35Companies hiring similar roles
12Countries represented

Salary context

66 of 194 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 $129,000/yr – $203,100/yr
Peer group range $91,450 – $231,700 (median $165,300)

Where these roles are based

Top locations among the 194 comparable roles

United States152
India11
United Kingdom5
China's Mainland4
Canada4
China3

+ 6 more countries

Seniority mix

194 of 194 peers have a known seniority level

Senior104
Principal74
Associate Director16

Therapeutic area mix

19 of 194 peers have a known therapeutic area; the rest are genuinely unlabeled, not hidden

Oncology8
Cardiovascular / CVRM3
Neuroscience3
Immunology2
Vaccines & Infectious Disease1
Gastroenterology1
Respiratory1

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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.