MSD

Senior Manager, Strategic Forecasting

MSD  •  Hyderabad, IN (Hybrid)  •  16 hours ago
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Job Description

Senior Manager Forecasting

The Opportunity

  • Based in Hyderabad, join a global healthcare biopharma company and be part of a 130- year legacy of success backed by ethical integrity, forward momentum, and an inspiring mission to achieve new milestones in global healthcare.

  • Be part of an organization driven by digital technology and data-backed approaches that support a diversified portfolio of prescription medicines, vaccines, and animal health products.

  • Drive innovation and execution excellence. Be a part of a team with passion for using data, analytics, and insights to drive decision-making, and which creates custom software, allowing us to tackle some of the world's greatest health threats.

Our Technology Centers focus on creating a space where teams can come together to deliver business solutions that save and improve lives. An integral part of our company’s IT operating model, Tech Centers are globally distributed locations where each IT division has employees to enable our digital transformation journey and drive business outcomes. These locations, in addition to the other sites, are essential to supporting our business and strategy.

A focused group of leaders in each Tech Center helps to ensure we can manage and improve each location, from investing in growth, success, and well-being of our people, to making sure colleagues from each IT division feel a sense of belonging to managing critical emergencies. And together, we must leverage the strength of our team to collaborate globally to optimize connections and share best practices across the Tech Centers.


As Senior Manager – Forecasting, you will play a dual role as a Forecasting Subject Matter Expert and people manager, leading forecasting delivery, methodology excellence, stakeholder engagement, and team capability development for Human Health International markets.

This role will be accountable for managing forecasting engagements across country, regional, and global stakeholders, ensuring forecasts are methodologically sound, business-relevant, and clearly communicated to support commercial, brand, launch, portfolio, and investment decisions. The Senior Manager will work closely with Strategic Forecasting leadership, Business Insights & Analytics, Marketing, Finance, Market Access, Data Science / AI, and regional / market teams to translate business questions into robust forecasting approaches and actionable recommendations.

The role requires strong forecasting expertise, commercial analytics understanding, pharma data knowledge, stakeholder management, people leadership, problem-solving skills, digital fluency, and the ability to operate in ambiguous and evolving business contexts. The Senior Manager will also help advance forecasting capabilities by improving methodologies, strengthening forecast error measurement, embedding automation and GenAI-enabled efficiencies, and building team capability in therapy area understanding, advanced analytics, reporting, dashboards, patient-based forecasting, epidemiology-based forecasting, and portfolio-level forecasting.

Key Responsibilities:

  • Lead end-to-end forecasting delivery for assigned brands, therapy areas, markets, or portfolios, including project planning, stakeholder alignment, data collection, assumption validation, model development, sensitivity analysis, output review, and forecast communication.
  • Serve as a Forecasting Subject Matter Expert and go-to person for assigned forecasting areas, demonstrating strong critical thinking, evidence-based problem solving, methodological rigor, and the ability to challenge assumptions constructively.
  • Manage and develop a team of forecasting professionals by providing day-to-day guidance, coaching, performance feedback, capability building, prioritization support, and quality oversight.
  • Deliver reliable forecasting solutions using strategic, analytical, statistical, patient-based, and epidemiology-based forecasting techniques, ensuring outputs are transparent, robust, business-relevant, and aligned with stakeholder decision needs.
  • Collaborate with country, regional, and global stakeholders across commercial, marketing, finance, analytics, market access, and other cross-functional teams to collect and validate inputs, align assumptions, run sensitivities, and support business decisions.
  • Identify and elevate key forecasting levers, risks, opportunities, uncertainties, patient dynamics, epidemiology assumptions, and business insights to inform brand strategy, launch planning, portfolio choices, resource allocation, and senior management discussions.
  • Independently design, improve, and operationalize forecasting approaches, methodologies, frameworks, and analytical solutions for complex or unstructured business questions, while experimenting with new techniques to uncover deeper insights and actionable recommendations.
  • Build forecasting capability within the team by transferring knowledge, standardizing best practices, improving forecast error measurement, strengthening therapy area and pharma data understanding, and advancing use of tools such as Excel, PowerPoint, ThoughtSpot, Power BI, and relevant forecasting / analytics platforms.
  • Drive continuous improvement of forecasting operations by enhancing efficiency, consistency, documentation, automation, quality checks, stakeholder experience, and value-add across forecasting deliverables.
  • Embed digital, automation, and GenAI-enabled ways of working into forecasting workflows, including forecast documentation, scenario generation, insight summarization, assumption review, quality checks, productivity improvement, and responsible use of AI-enabled analytics tools.


Required Experience, Skills and Qualifications:

  • 6+ years of experience in forecasting, commercial analytics, business insights, finance analytics, advanced analytics, consulting, or related analytical roles, with relevant experience in pharma forecasting strongly preferred.
  • Bachelor’s degree in engineering, statistics, mathematics, economics, management, business analytics, life sciences, data science, or a related discipline; advanced degree such as MBA, MS, MPH, or equivalent preferred.
  • Strong expertise in strategic forecasting, statistical forecasting, patient-based forecasting, epidemiology-based forecasting, forecast modeling, assumption development, sensitivity analysis, scenario planning, and interpretation of forecast outputs for business decision-making.
  • Proven experience managing forecasting projects across multiple stakeholders, markets, therapy areas, brands, or business contexts, with strong project planning, prioritization, and execution discipline.
  • Demonstrated ability to lead, develop, mentor, coach, and guide team members, including performance feedback, capability building, quality review, and development planning.
  • Strong understanding of pharma commercial data sources and datasets, including sales data, prescription / Rx data, patient-level data, claims data, market share data, epidemiology data, prevalence / incidence data, diagnosis and treatment rates, line-of-therapy assumptions, patient flow inputs, market research inputs, syndicated data, and third-party sources such as IQVIA or similar providers.
  • Strong commercial understanding of pharma business drivers, including market dynamics, brand performance, launch planning, patient flow, epidemiology assumptions, access dynamics, competitive landscape, customer behavior, and portfolio decision-making.
  • Strong proficiency with analytical and business communication tools such as Excel, PowerPoint, ThoughtSpot, Power BI, and similar reporting, visualization, or analytics platforms, with the ability to convert complex forecast outputs into clear business narratives.
  • Strong problem-solving, stakeholder engagement, and communication skills, with the ability to work through ambiguity, structure complex business questions, challenge assumptions, and present synthesized insights in a simple and business-relevant manner.
  • Digital and GenAI fluency, including the ability to identify opportunities for automation, forecast documentation, scenario generation, insight summarization, data storytelling, assumption validation, quality checks, productivity improvement, and responsible AI-enabled forecasting workflows.

#HYDIT2025

Required Skills:

Brand Strategy, Business Analysis, Business Decisions, Commercial Analytics, Digital Analytics, Finance Analytics, Knowledge Transfer, Life Science, Marketing, Numerical Analysis, Patient Flow, Resource Allocation, Scenario Planning, Stakeholder Engagement, Stakeholder Relationship Management, Strategic Forecasting, Strategic Planning, Waterfall Model

Preferred Skills:

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Employee Status:

Regular

Relocation:

VISA Sponsorship:

Travel Requirements:

Flexible Work Arrangements:

Hybrid

Shift:

Valid Driving License:

Hazardous Material(s):

Job Posting End Date:

06/4/2026

*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.

MSD

About MSD

At MSD, known as Merck & Co., Inc., Rahway, NJ, USA in the United States and Canada, we are unified around our purpose: We use the power of leading-edge science to save and improve lives around the world. For more than 130 years, we have brought hope to humanity through the development of important medicines and vaccines. We aspire to be the premier research-intensive biopharmaceutical company in the world – and today, we are at the forefront of research to deliver innovative health solutions that advance the prevention and treatment of diseases in people and animals. We foster a diverse and inclusive global workforce and operate responsibly every day to enable a safe, sustainable and healthy future for all people and communities. For more information, visit www.msd.com and connect with us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube.

Industry
Chemicals & Materials
Company Size
10,000+ employees
Headquarters
Rahway, New Jersey
Year Founded
Unknown
Website
msd.com
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