Merck KGaA Posted October 21, 2026

Vice President, New Product Planning & Launch Excellence

Boston, Massachusetts, United States 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!  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.

This role does not offer sponsorship for work authorization. External applicants must be eligible to work in the US.

Your Role:   

The Senior Director, US New Product Planning & Launch Excellence will shape the commercial foundation for future pipeline launches and strengthen the organization’s launch excellence capabilities. This high-impact role requires a strategic, commercially minded leader with experience in both US Commercial and global teams.

The role will define the strategies, capabilities, operating models, resourcing approaches, and organizational priorities needed to successfully introduce new assets into a growing US market.

Represent the US Commercial perspective on global asset teams and shape asset and pipeline strategy.

Translate strategy into actionable, scenario-based US launch plans, covering market development, positioning, access, evidence, engagement, patient support, capabilities, resourcing, field force, and investment.

Partner across global and US functions to identify launch risks, gaps, dependencies, and misalignment, and develop practical solutions.

Establish launch governance, plans, and decision processes; support executive forums with clear recommendations, trade-offs, and risk assessments.

Build the talent, processes, capabilities, and infrastructure needed for launch, including specialty and institution-based commercialization models.

Lead cross-functional initiatives and guide assets from early planning through launch readiness and in-market execution.

 

Who You Are

Minimum Qualifications:

Bachelor’s degree in business, science, or a related field required; MBA or advanced degree preferred.

At least 10 years of relevant experience in the pharmaceutical or biotechnology industry, with a focus on commercial strategy, new product planning, marketing, launch strategy, or related disciplines.

Preferred Qualifications:

Demonstrated US Commercial and product launch experience.

Experience with specialty medicines, rare disease, or oncology preferred.

Strong knowledge of the US pharmaceutical market, commercialization processes, and product lifecycle.

Proven ability to build or scale commercial infrastructure.

Experience developing and refining resourcing plans, operating models, and capability roadmaps.

Demonstrated success influencing senior stakeholders in a highly matrixed organization.

Strong cross-functional collaboration skills and the ability to build alignment across diverse teams.

Excellent written, verbal, presentation, and storyboarding skills, with the ability to translate complex information into clear, concise, high-impact messages.

Results-oriented, proactive, and able to address challenges with confidence, energy, and urgency.

Willingness to travel up to 20% for key meetings and congresses.

Pay Range for this position: $233,300 - $404,400​

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
BD&L & Strategic Planning
Therapeutic area
Not listed
Location
Boston, Massachusetts, United States
Employment type
Full time

How this role compares

Computed from every other active BD&L & Strategic Planning role in our database, not just this employer's listings.

We currently track 36 comparable Executive/VP BD&L & Strategic Planning roles across 22 biopharma companies.

36Comparable roles tracked
35Currently active
22Companies hiring similar roles
8Countries represented

Salary context

18 of 36 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 $233,300/yr – $404,400/yr
Lowest disclosed · Sr. Director - Strategic Alliances (SMDD) · Lilly $151,500/yr – $222,200/yr
Peer group range $186,850 – $380,750 (median $287,400)

Where these roles are based

Top locations among the 36 comparable roles

United States26
China4
Netherlands1
Denmark1
Italy1
Switzerland1

+ 2 more countries

Seniority mix

36 of 36 peers have a known seniority level

Senior Director30
Executive/VP6

Therapeutic area mix

8 of 36 peers have a known therapeutic area; the rest are genuinely unlabeled, not hidden

Immunology4
Oncology2
Dermatology & Aesthetics1
Neuroscience1

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
Gilead Sciences, Inc. Foster City, United States Executive/VP
Same function Same seniority Same country
60%similar
Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Inc (USA) Tarrytown, United States Executive/VP
Same function Same seniority Same country
60%similar
Exelixis Inc Alameda, United States Executive/VP
Same function Same seniority Same country
60%similar
Gilead Sciences, Inc. Foster City, United States Executive/VP
Same function Same seniority Same country
60%similar
Neurocrine Biosciences Inc. US CA San Diego, United States Executive/VP
Same function Same seniority Same country
50%similar
Lilly Indianapolis, Indiana, United States of America Senior Director
Same function 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.

Or follow a whole field: get every new BD&L & Strategic Planning 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.

60%
Exec Director, PDM Product Strategy Leader
Gilead Sciences, Inc. · Foster City, United States · Executive/VP
Function Therapeutic area Seniority Country
60%
Exec Director, Corporate Strategy & Projects
Gilead Sciences, Inc. · Foster City, United States · Executive/VP
Function Therapeutic area Seniority Country
50%
Sr. Director, Alliance Management
Biogen · Cambridge, United States · Senior Director
Function Therapeutic area Adjacent seniority Country
50%
Senior Director, Strategy and Corporate Development
CSL Behring L.L.C. · King of Prussia, United States · Senior 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.