Associate Director, Regional Marketing: NPP

Job Description

• Turn early pipeline potential into commercial opportunity, shaping which assets and markets matter most and preparing future SP&ID products for successful launches across Asia Pacific.
• Connect global ambition with local market realities, ensuring AP customer needs, access dynamics and commercial opportunities influence product strategy, investment decisions and launch planning.
• Bring together Commercial, Medical, Access, Finance, Policy and market teams to create clarity, align priorities and move future products from strategic planning towards launch.

Role Overview

The Regional Commercial Manager New Product Planning is the regional commercial owner and ambassador for New Product Planning across the Specialty, Pharma & Infectious Disease (SP&ID) Business Unit for Asia Pacific. The role will be responsible for opportunity assessment, market prioritization, early commercial planning, and cross-functional coordination to support successful development and launch preparation for future SP&ID products.

As the regional commercial lead for New Product Planning, the Regional Commercial Manager is a trusted partner to New Product Leads along the Global-Regional Local axis, market brand teams, global marketing colleagues, and regional cross-functional teams—bringing clarity, discipline, and momentum to strategy, execution, and launch readiness. The incumbent will help ensure Asia Pacific needs and opportunities are reflected in broader product, forecasting, Stage Gate, and Enterprise Go-to-Market (EGTM) strategies.

The regional Commercial Manager will translate market insights, competitive intelligence, access realities, customer needs, and financial assumptions into clear actionable launch plans, and high-quality business decisions within the context of New Product Planning across Asia Pacific.

Location: Selected candidate can work from home country within Asia Pacific region (remote working).

What will you do

New Product Planning

• Develop and support regional strategies for the introduction of new SP&ID products in Asia Pacific.
• Conduct opportunity assessments, market prioritization, and commercial evaluations for pipeline assets.
• Analyze market trends, customer needs, competitive landscape, and access considerations to shape strategic recommendations and go-to-market direction.
• Partner with global, regional, and local cross-functional teams to align regional plans with overall product development and launch strategies.
• Support key forecasting, Stage Gate, and Enterprise Go-to-Market (EGTM) deliverables for priority pipeline assets across the region and key markets.
  

Pipeline Strategy & Ownership

• Own and articulate the regional strategy for our pipeline assets, aligned to global direction and adapted for AP market realities.
• Serve as the regional ambassador and subject‑matter expert in New Product Planning, providing clear strategic direction to markets and feed into the SP&ID strategy for the region.
• Ensure commercial, medical, access, and operational perspectives are integrated into launch plans.
  

Regional–Global–Local Orchestration

• Act as the primary connector between global, regional, and local teams including New Product Leads (NPL) for New Product Planning and our pipeline assets.
• Communicate key business opportunities, risks, milestones, and decision points to leadership and relevant stakeholders.
• Ensure markets understand not just what to do, but why—making strategy and forecasting practical and actionable.
• Build trust as a commercial thought partner, not a service/activity provider.
  

Cross‑Functional Leadership & Execution

• Mobilise and align cross‑functional teams (marketing, sales, access, medical, finance, policy, etc.).
• Drive executional excellence across early launch preparation, forecasting, strategic planning aligned with New Products in Oncology so that we speak with One Voice.
• Navigate competing priorities while maintaining focus, alignment, and momentum.
  

People Leadership and Capability Building

• Guide, coach, and support local NPLs, marketers or project teams responsible for assigned brand and indication priorities together with the Oncology NPP counterpart.
• Create clarity on priorities, deliverables, timelines, decision points, and ways of working to ensure strong brand discipline and accountability.
• Support marketing capability building across early launch planning, forecasting, opportunity assessment, and cross-functional leadership.
• Contribute to a collaborative, accountable, and inclusive team culture that enables high performance across regional and country teams.
  

What should you have:

Required

• 5-10 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry.
• Marketing and / or commercial experience, including launch planning and readiness, coupled with strong understanding of or experience in market access, policy, medical affairs, and value evidence generation.
• Strong strategic thinking, prioritization, and problem-solving skills.
• Ability to analyze complex market data and synthesize insights into commercial recommendations.
• Strong collaborative mindset with ability to influence without authority.
• Strong curiosity and ability to apply AI in analysis, communication and execution

Preferred

• Asia Pacific market experience.
• Strong storytelling and executive communication capability.
• Comfort operating with stakeholders at regional and global levels.

What Success Looks Like

• Clear, well‑understood regional pipeline strategy approved by senior leadership and adopted by markets
• Strong early launch readiness and consistent execution across AP
• High trust and demand from markets, global teams, and regional leadership
• High-quality opportunity assessments, robust fact-based projections and strategic recommendations for our SP&ID pipeline assets.

Who We Are
We are known as Merck & Co., Inc., Rahway, New Jersey, USA in the United States and Canada and MSD everywhere else. For more than a century, we have brought forward medicines and vaccines for many of the world's most challenging diseases.

What We Look For
We are looking for a leader who combines strategic thinking, operational discipline, and clear, compelling communication. If you bring intellectual rigor, comfort with ambiguity, and the ability to convert ideas into measurable outcomes across a complex matrix, we invite you to help shape how Asia Pacific turns strategy into sustained performance and patient impact.

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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.

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Our company is a global health care leader with a diversified portfolio of prescription medicines, vaccines and animal health products. The difference between potential and achievement lies in the spark that fuels innovation and inventiveness; this is the space where we have codified our legacy for over a century. Our success is backed by ethical integrity, forward momentum, and an inspiring mission to achieve new milestones in global healthcare.

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