[Remote] Associate Director, Marketing - Patient Adherence

Note: The job is a remote job and is open to candidates in USA. Merck is a leading pharmaceutical company dedicated to improving health outcomes worldwide. They are seeking an Associate Director, Marketing - Patient Adherence to lead the strategy and execution of integrated patient adherence programs, focusing on enhancing patient engagement and outcomes through innovative marketing strategies. This role involves cross-functional collaboration and data-driven decision-making to optimize patient support and adherence.

Responsibilities

• Own the end-to-end adherence strategy: refine the program north star, target behaviors, segment needs, value proposition, and the integrated set of interventions that address adherence barriers across the journey
• Translate patient insights, behavioral barriers, and operational learnings into prioritized program enhancements that improve the patient experience and retention outcomes
• Lead development of omnichannel adherence interventions (e.g., CRM journeys, email/SMS where appropriate, web experiences, education content, toolkits) aligned to brand strategy and patient needs
• Ensure adherence communications are built for confidence-building, expectation-setting at initiation, and sustained reinforcement—tailored by segment and lifecycle stage
• Partner with Global/Comms and internal brand teams to ensure message consistency, education alignment, and channel synergy
• Partner with Digital, Data & Analytics and IT to define adherence KPIs, data requirements, and dashboards, enabling performance tracking, insight generation, and ongoing optimization
• Build a closed-loop measurement approach: connect interventions to outcomes (engagement → behavioral proxies → persistence metrics where available), and drive test/learn/scale cycles
• Synthesize complex data sets (patient experience signals, operational metrics, channel performance) to uncover drivers, risks, and opportunities to improve adherence outcomes
• Enable collaboration across Marketing, Patient Experience, Market Access, Field Access, Medical Affairs, Regulatory, Legal/Compliance, Pharmacovigilance, Privacy, distribution/specialty pharmacy, and hub/patient services to optimize the post-Rx experience
• Ensure program design integrates seamlessly into the real-world ecosystem (hub workflows, specialty pharmacy touchpoints, field education needs, consent capture considerations, etc.)
• Lead integrated planning: program roadmap, timelines, resourcing, risk logs, and decision points; drive disciplined execution with clear milestones and accountability
• Oversee agencies and vendors (AORs, digital partners, operational partners): contracts/SOWs, SLAs, performance management, and budget stewardship
• Ensure adherence program strategy and execution are compliant with applicable requirements (e.g., FDA promotional regulations, privacy/HIPAA considerations, OIG guidance, state laws, AE/product complaint reporting), and partner with Legal/Compliance for approvals and monitoring
• Embed governance and guardrails into the program’s operating rhythm to enable speed without compromising compliance

Skills

• BA/BS
• 5+ years of relevant experience in U.S. pharma/biopharma across consumer marketing, patient support, patient experience, access/coverage, distribution/SP ecosystem, and/or digital engagement
• Demonstrated success building and executing integrated marketing/program strategies with measurable outcomes
• Strong cross-functional leadership—ability to influence senior stakeholders and align complex enterprise teams
• Strong business and financial acumen (budget ownership, vendor management, value-case thinking)
• Strong written/verbal communication and executive-ready storytelling with data
• MBA, MPH (or advanced degree in a related field)
• Experience designing, scaling, or optimizing patient adherence/retention programs and/or high-touch patient support models (hub services, specialty pharmacy-distributed therapies)
• Rare disease and/or specialty therapy commercialization experience; PAH familiarity a plus
• Strong understanding of U.S. commercial and regulatory environment affecting patient programs (privacy, PV, compliance guardrails)
• Hands-on experience with analytics and CX tooling (journey mapping, service design, call analytics, CRM/case management, BI tools such as Tableau/Power BI)
• Experience operating in agile or agile-like delivery models

Benefits

• Annual bonus and long-term incentive, if applicable
• Medical, dental, vision healthcare and other insurance benefits (for employee and family)
• Retirement benefits, including 401(k)
• Paid holidays
• Vacation
• Compassionate and sick days
• Flexible Work Arrangements: Remote

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