Job Description

Director – Global Market Access – Sustainable Access Solutions

Private Market Access – Self-Pay Partnerships Lead

About the role

We are committed to ensuring no patient is left behind. As Universal Health Coverage faces mounting pressures—including MFN implications and growing reimbursement delays—the need for innovative private market financing solutions has never been more urgent.

This Director-level role serves as the strategic partnerships leader for Private Market Access through external platforms, including pharmacy chains, private clinics, medical navigators, and direct-to-patient channels. Combining strategic foresight with hands-on partnership development, this position ensures patients can navigate, access, and afford their treatments through optimally designed private market financing solutions.

Roles and Responsibilities

The role’s primary responsibilities include:

Drive External Partnerships & Develop Financing Solutions

• Pioneer partnerships with third-party platforms—including pharmacy chains, private clinics, and direct-to-consumer channels—to design, implement, and scale mutually beneficial private market financing solutions with a focus on out-of-pocket affordability.
• Identify, evaluate, and cultivate collaborations with private payers, fintechs, distributors, and other stakeholders within the private healthcare ecosystem for facilitating concrete options of private market funding.

Build & Enhance Patient Financial Navigation

• Design or evolve patient financing navigation tools that clearly guide patients through the optimal combination of financing options needed to access treatment in full.
• Ensure navigation solutions are tailored at global, regional, and local levels for prioritized assets.

Assess & Develop Direct-to-Patient (DTP) Channels (ex-US)

• Evaluate the opportunity to develop/leverage DTP channels for pipeline assets outside the United States.
• Prototype a scalable model together with a strategic account and in a targeted region for a select number of assets where opportunity is validated.
• Scale successful models across additional assets and geographies.

Position qualifications

Education

• Bachelor's degree required
• Master's degree (MBA, MPH, or equivalent) strongly preferred

Skills

• Visionary partnership leader with a proven track record of identifying, negotiating, and scaling high-impact external alliances
• Executive presence and influence — trusted advisor to senior business leaders with the ability to represent the organization externally at the highest levels
• Strategic thinker who connects big-picture vision to operational detail and execution
• Strong commercial acumen with a track record of crafting compelling strategies, business cases, and value propositions
• Exceptional relationship-building and collaboration skills — able to drive outcomes across matrixed organizations without formal authority
• Clear, persuasive communicator comfortable moving between executive-level strategy and tactical detail
• Entrepreneurial mindset with resilience, challenges the status quo and fosters a culture of innovation
• Proven experience partnering with consulting firms and converting analyses into actionable outcomes

Experience

• 10+ years in Pharmaceutical, Healthcare, MedTech, or related industries, required
• 2+ years in strategic partnerships, business development, or alliance management, required
• 2+ years in market-facing roles (commercial, market access, or equivalent), required
• 2+ years in above-market/global/regional roles, required
• Director level experience, strongly preferred to be able to navigate complex ecosystem with senior partners
• Experience leading cross-functional teams and managing senior stakeholder relationships at a global level
• Management consulting experience is a plus

Required Skills:

Business Acumen, Communication, Entrepreneurship, Market Access, Market Access Strategies, Negotiation, Partnership Development, Stakeholder Management, Strategic Thinking

Preferred Skills:

Current Employees apply HERE

Current Contingent Workers apply HERE

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:

No relocation

VISA Sponsorship:

No

Travel Requirements:

25%

Flexible Work Arrangements:

Hybrid

Shift:

Not Indicated

Valid Driving License:

No

Hazardous Material(s):

N/A

Job Posting End Date:

10/1/2026

*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.